Nerds That Geek Movie Review – ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’

Written by Scott Edwards

One of the things that I hate about sequels is that they never really stand up to the original. There have been some that are better than the original, but those are few and far between. But one thing that Resident Evil: Apocalypse did that made me very happy was it actually picked up right where the first one left off and that you never see. It is not only for that reason why I enjoyed watching this movie, but it was a big part of it, since I love watching society break down during an epidemic, at least in the movies.

Jill Valentine has been called into work on her day off and knowing what is happening on the streets, she has a plan of her own, to leave town. Getting to the police station and killing the zombies that are trying to bite the officers, she offers her two cents and then leaves for the evacuation center. But seeing everyone in the crowd, and the madness that is surrounding her, she is forced back on duty to help her friends. But it doesn't take long for the infection to reach the barrier now surrounding Raccoon City and Major Cain is told to shut down the evacuation and makes it known that he will shoot anyone that does not comply with his orders.

With the Umbrella Corporation running the show, all of the essential personnel that live above ground in Raccoon City are evacuated, but one man is giving the teams problems. Doctor Ashford will not leave the city without his daughter and even though he is a priority, the men cannot make him get on the helicopters. As everything is getting more and more out of hand in the streets of Raccoon City, Major Cain takes the alternative route and activates two of the test programs that were being prepared for this situation, Project Alice and Project Nemesis. As the two programs are completely different, Cain wants to see how they are able to react and destroy the zombie threat before the city is completely overrun by the T-Virus that Umbrella has unleashed on the city. 

After waking up in the hospital, Alice is quick to exit and find any sort of weapon she can get her hands on to abolish the threat that she has faced firsthand. Finding a small group of survivors hiding out in a church, Alice is able to get them to follow her to find a way to safety. As Jill, Peyton and Terri listen to what happened to Alice, they are suddenly afraid that she might cause more harm than good, but seeing how she fights and that she knows how to kill the monsters that are on the streets, it would be a wise decision to stay with her for the time being. While trying to find a place to lay low, the group gets a call from Dr. Ashford, offering them safe removal from the city before time runs out and it is sanitized by the Umbrella Corporation, if they find his little girl. Needing to find his daughter, Alice and her followers make their way to the Raccoon City Junior School to investigate and hopefully get a free pass out of the city.

---

Seeing a woman in trouble, Carlos Olivera forces his team to land in the city and pick up the fight where everyone else has left off. Even though they cannot save everyone, they are on the streets to dispose of as much of the zombie threat that they can before extraction. With their coms down, they are not able to call in for an extraction point, much less ask for more help. Seeing a helicopter making its way into the city, the men try to flag it down, but are not seen by the pilot. With a payload being dropped, the men go to investigate, but find out what ever was in the boxes was not for them. Carlos comes to terms with being expendable and is ready to hang it up, but when he gets a call from Dr. Ashford as well to find his daughter, there may be an end to this madness after all. 

Joining forces, the remaining survivors from both groups work together to find Angie Ashford, but when they do, Alice makes a great discovery, the girl is infected. But she is not the only one as the group finds out that Alice has been infected as well and the T-Virus is keeping both of the women alive. With the promise of getting out of the city alive, Dr. Ashford is able to give them directions to find the last helicopter leaving the city, but the group will have to fight with all they are worth to get on it, not because of the soldiers protecting it, but because the copter is meant for Nemesis. Seeing the large beast face to face, Alice and Nemesis are forced to fight to the death or everyone else in her group will be killed. But Alice has a different idea, especially after she finds out Matt is the mind inside of the overgrown killing machine that is ready to destroy her. The Red Queen did say that a tiny bit of humanity could possibly still reside in the infected and Alice has to find a way to unlock it to ensure that her new friends survive.

Not a bad follow up to the original Resident Evil and while it is not as good as the first, only a few changes would have had people enjoying it that much more. I was disappointed that the T-Virus had mutated back to its original stage of being airborne and nobody called it out. The entire city is infected from just breathing, but that was never hit on, I know this would have ended the movie quickly if they did since nobody would be able to leave the city, but come on, there could have been more anti-virus somewhere. I could not stand Major Cain and I think that was the point of his character, so I think it was played extremely well. Being the worst of the worst, he showed what kind of people Umbrella needs to ensure that things get done, but he also had some personal love for the job and that was a bit disturbing.

​The addition of another hero, Jill Valentine, was unexpected and I liked it. Having two women that are stronger than an entire army, there is nothing wrong with that, especially in a zombie movie. I really like how Alice has become a program for Umbrella and that she has bonded with the T-Virus, it means she cannot be infected, and it also means that she will have some uncontrollable power in the next movie. I hope that Extinction has some more action and that it is following the rules that Apocalypse did, it would make for a dimmer outlook for survival. Stay Scared.

---