Whoa...Resident Evil Apocalypse DIDN'T suck.

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2004)

OK, I had VERY low expectations going into this movie. And in so doing, I usually end up hating the movie. Even AvP, the second time I saw it I knew it would be crap this time around, and I ended up hating it still even when I lowered the bar for it...well..I loved and hated it. That's a different story.
OK, Resident Evil, the first movie...my gripes: The zombies had metal teeth it seemed Glossed over the entire game for the most part Had cheap heavy metal music in the action scenes Too many action scenes as opposed to horror/suspense Cliché "we're not leaving you behind" dialogue
I'm sure I could think of others.
Anyways, Resident Evil : Apocalypse comes along. Different director, same writer (who did such classic crap as the first Resident Evil, as well as AvP and that Kurt Russel flick Soldier). So I initially think...great, how much will this one suck.
Then I see the preview. It had seemed as though my thoughts were backed up. We have a very sexy Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory)...perhaps the sexiest female lead in the movies this year..at least in that character. Then we have Nemesis. Also see a lone Jill walking down a deserted hall. I'm thinking OK, they may have some horror elements this time around. Then comes Nemesis with a machine gun, elite commandos, and helicopters. All hope was lost.
Then...I stepped into the theater.
For once, the trailer did not do the film any justice...at all!(Granted Nemesis still toted a machine gun around but, it didn't matter when you saw him. Why? Don't question me..it just didn't!)
The unexpected happened: THEY FOUND A BALANCE BETWEEN ACTION AND SUSPENSE IN THE RE MOVIES!
Yes there was elite commandos kicking zombie ass, and all the S.T.A.R.S members knew some pretty nice hand to hand combat, but the action wasn't bad! It didn't have cheesy heavy metal guitar riffs, or one man armies, aside from Milla Jovovich's Alice character, but hey, she has a reason.
This movie was good! It wasn't very scary but, it wasn't very tame either. It had it's downfalls, such as two extremely cheesy parts, one is the entrance of Alice once she has clothes on(well...more than that paper thin hospital gown looking like it was made of..well..paper), the other a line spoken by an Umbrella soldier, "We're expendable and we've just been expended". Is Expended even a word?
The make up effects on Nemesis were the best I've seen since Lord Of The Rings, mind you they don't rival it, but that would take a lot.
It did fall prey to having the generic token black guy in there, which the audience seemed to just eat right up(no pun intended). He was tolerable though. In fact, although I couldn't help but think he was added for comic relief his character did make me kind of smirk the odd time.
The movie went by at a nice pace too, not too fast, not too slow. The zombies still attacked in packs but, in Resident Evil 2 and 3 it seemed to be the norm, so it was better. This time as well, there were no metallic looking teeth.
Also, they did a great job tying the two films together, picking up before Resident Evil ended and after the events in the first one. Very reminiscent of Resident Evil 3 taking place during and after Resident Evil 2. Deliberate? Perhaps. Nice homage? Definitely.
The ending left room for a sequel and I must say, if they improved on it this much from the first one, I am rather looking forward to seeing what they do to the third one permitting they make it.
Until then, I suppose I'll just have to keep hunting down S.T.A.R.S members and eating my braaaiiinss....