Resident Evil:Apocalypse DVD Review:

Before I rip to shreds the turgid mess that is Resident Evil:Apocalypse I'll state right here that I have played a few of the Resi games and found them to be utterly compelling examples of how to create tension and suspense in a compelling constructed world and scenarios. I also have a soft spot for the first movie which, while it not being particularly original, was a lot of fun.

So then why is Apocalypse such a turgid mess? There's a ton of reasons. There's little or no characterisation, every single character is either a cliche or even worse doesn't get any lines to indicate any kind of a character whatsoever. The dialogue generally consisting of macho posturing, and when this is coming from the female leads its really inexcusable. Nemesis is nothing more than a guy in a rubber suit and is nothing like the intimidating unstoppable threat he is in the games. The scene where Alice and Nemesis battle is just laughably bad.

The trailer for this movie was utterly fantastic, being a spoof of all the various make up ads we see on a daily basis and really did bode well for this movie

The plot is pretty rancid as well, but seeing as this was written by Paul Anderson, who at the same time hacked to pieces the Aliens and Predator franchises, what could we really have expected? Many scenes are lifted straight from the games or ripped from other better movies. The scene where the dogs chase Jill Valentine and Angie through the kitchens being a complete rip off of the raptor scenes from Jurassic Park. In fact the plot for this movie doesn't even seem to care about this movie at all, instead being more interested in setting things up for the inevitable third part. Sure he bangs on about the power of the corporation in this, but it's something we've seen and heard a million times before.

And hack is pretty much the only way to describe Alexander Witt's direction, until this movie he was second unit director on many other projects, but really that is where he should stay as he has no sense of really adding anything amazing or artistic to the project. Sure every scene is beautifully shot, but without any real sense of style. Surely a movie based on a game that is all about survival horror, should be pant wettingly scary? On one of the deleted scenes there is a small glimpse of tension, and all you can think is why oh why was it deleted? And why weren't more elements like these incorporated? In the extra's they bang on about incorporating scenes and elements from the games, so why on earth did they forget the most essential element of the games, the atmosphere?

The CG is rather bad as well, the licker's being the main problem. How they could have worse CG than the first movie or even the games is a bit of a shame.

Having said that the CG and Nemesis are more animated than poor Oded Fehr and Sienna Guillory who are given so little to do and with such poor dialogue they'd

The movie is presented in 2.40: 1 Anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1. And is as good a presentation as they come. No complaints here.

While coming on only 1 disc we are given a ton of extra features including three commentaries. The first one being with the Director Alexander Witt, Producer Jeremy Bolt and Executive Producer Robert Kulzer. The second is with Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr and Sienna Guillory. And the third one is with Paul Anderson and Jeremy Bolt.

There are three featurettes. Game Babes that has interviews with the 'babes' from the film that came from the games and is pretty much promo puff. Symphony of Evil that shows how the running down the buidling scene was constructed, and other special effects. Nothing we haven't seen before in other DVD's. Corporate Malfeasance that discusses the Umbrella corporation.

A blooper reel of silly moments from the filming that frankly isn't that funny.

Twenty deleted or extended scenes including a slightly different ending. Only the different ending and one more tense scene are worth bothering with at all.

The main extra feature is Game Over: Resident Evil Reanimated that is split up into six sections. Game Plan, Running Jumping & Fighting, Zombie Choreography, Building Raccoon City, Big Guns & Smoke & Mirrors. Some of this is your standard nonsense that has been lifted from the promo reels that get released to try and get you into the theatre to see the movie and are rather sickly to watch. How the people involved can witter on in such a nascent fashion really is beyond me at times.

The disc also has a photo gallery and the winning posters from the online poster competition.

Overall.
For a piece of mindless friday night entertainment when you are round your mates having a beer and having a laugh then you'll probably enjoy this for the mindless nonsense it is. But that's pretty much it. There's no second viewing here at all, or anything meaningful at all going on.

Gary Gray

Investigating the incident in The Hive, the Umbrella Corporation unwittingly releases the T-Virus into Raccoon City. As the virus starts to take hold,
the Corporation seals the city in an attempt to contain the outbreak and cover up the incident. Locked in the city, surviving Special Forces soldiers
and members of the elite S.T.A.R.S. team now have to fight for their lives against the undead hordes and a new enemy released by Umbrella to destroy any evidence of the virus, the Nemesis. Their only hope is the lone survivor of the Hive disaster, Alice (Jovovich).

The first Resident Evil movie was a missed opportunity that didn't really live up to the source material. Can the sequel reanimate the series?
As a movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a far better product than the lack lustre original. Fans will probably be relieved to hear that original
director Paul W.S. Anderson is not behind the camera for the follow up but he did produce and write the script. Debutante Alexander Witt, who was a second unit director of photography on films like Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and The Bourne Identity, revs up the action quota ten fold to deliver a popcorn movie that is surprisingly entertaining.

Apocalypse captures all the elements of the games that made them such a hit in the console market. The destroyed, disaster ridden streets of Raccoon
City are invested with the undead who are fanatically searching for anyone living to feed their (insatiable) hunger. The unstoppable Nemesis patrols the city, killing the remaining threats with his missile launcher and mini-gun and the Lickers hunt in packs. Fighting these rampaging hordes are
the heroes of the game Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera, who are joined by the only survivor from the first movie, Alice. This is what we expected and
hoped for from a Resident Evil movie.

All these elements are backed up by a script that is far more cohesive than the original. We now have a plot that actually drives the movie to an
anticipated action packed finale. Subplots and flashbacks answer a lot of the questions raised by the original film and in this one, leading to a more
complete and well-structured story. This isn't awarding winning material but for a popcorn movie, it raises the film above average.

The cast does a good job with the limited amount of dialogue and the excessive action responsibility. Milla Jovovich has grown into the role of Alice, the woman who is mysteriously connected to the Umbrella Corporation and a survivor of the Hive incident. She excels in the action sequences,
especially the hand-to-hand combat and actually does some acting in the role. Sienna Guillory is exactly how you would picture Jill Valentine.
Besides from been incredibly sexy, she also handles a gun extremely well, disposing of the undead with pinpoint accuracy. Oded Fehr doesn't really have much to do as Carlos Olivera however. Out of all of the main characters he is probably the least developed. The supporting cast also does a decent job as well.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a big improvement on the original because the filmmakers have incorporated many of the game elements that were so sadly missing from the first one. This isn't a movie that is going to stay with you for a long time but it is good piece of popcorn entertainment and for people you are fans of the games the sight of The Nemesis on the rampage is worth the ticket price alone.

Star Rating = * * *

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 2.40:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is extremely good. For a movie that movie that
takes place mostly at night, the picture is extremely clear throughout. The sound quality is also very good, filling your speakers every time the
explosive action starts.

BONUS FEATURES

Filmmaker Commentary with Alexander Witt, producer Jeremy Bolt and executive producer Robert Kulzer This informative and chatty track covers the more technical aspect of the
film's production. The trio talk about having the sequel have more elements of the game series, unlike the first film that was envisaged as a prequel to what happened in the games. They reveal secrets about casting, special effects, action set pieces and transferring the main characters from the game into the movie.

Cast Commentary with Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr and Sienna Guillory This chatty and fun commentary comes from the performers that played Alice, Carlos Olivera and Jill Valentine in the movie. The three of them talk about their characters, highlighting the strong female element and their
representation of the game's heroes. They also reveal what it was like working with Alexander Witt and how the franchise has moved on since the
first film.

Writer and producer commentary with writer/producer Paul W.S. Anderson and
producer Jeremy Bolt The pair talks about the creative process behind the sequel to Resident Evil
in this informative and chatty commentary track. Anderson explains his influences behind the film and the fact that he wanted to hark back to the
70s conspiracy films as well as the Zombie flick. They also reveal how they wanted to make Umbrella the main villain and how to make the film noticeably different than the first. The increased budget and comparing it to other genre defining sequels is also covered, with Anderson talking about James Cameron an awful lot.

Game: Resident Evil Reanimated (49.42 mins)
Director Alexander Witt, executive producer Robert Kulzer, producer Don Carmody, production designer Paul Austerberry, stunt coordinator Steve
Lucescu, visual effects supervisor Alison O'Brien, and stars Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Sienna Guillory, Raz Adoti, Sofie Vavasseur, Mike Epps and Matt Taylor take you behind the scenes of 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse'. Split into six parts entitled 'Game Plan', 'Running, Jumping, Fighting', 'Zombie Choreography', 'Building Racoon City', 'Big Guns' and 'Smoke and Mirrors', the MTV style featurettes include interviews with the cast and crew and behind the scenes footage from the production of the movie. Revealing information about the story, casting and characters, fight design, the
Toronto shoot, CG effects and the mergence of console game characters and movie plot.

Game Babes (11.05 mins)
Director Alexander Witt, Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr, Raz Adoti, Zack Ward and Matt Taylor talk about the emergence of powerful female action stars in films. Featuring footage of Milla and Sienna in training, we see how much work they had to go through to prepare for Resident Evil.

Symphony of Evil (7.43 mins)
A montage of visual effects shots at various stages of completion includes shots of the lickers, dogs, helicopters, zombies and costume test of the
main characters.

Corporate Malfeasance (2.54 mins)
Director Alexander Witt, producers Jeremy Bolt and Don Carmody and stars Milla Jovovich and Oded Fehr take about the power of the corporations and
what Umbrella represents in modern society.

Deleted Scenes (11.57 mins)
Entitled 'Weather Report', 'Extended stairway chase', 'Extended gate scene', 'Terry's big break', 'The Lord's judgement', 'Pray for help', 'What the hell
was that', 'Alpha team to base', 'Stay Alive', 'Save your ammo', 'Graveyard melee', 'Umbrella laboratory', 'What are your starring at?', 'Just say
no...', 'You be on the weather', 'I was a ghetto superstar', 'Point, pull, repeat Pt.1', 'Point, pull, repeat Pt.2', 'Dogs in the kitchen' and 'Closure', these deleted or extended scenes are not accompanied by a commentary track so we don't know why they were removed.

Outtakes (2.53 mins)
Watch Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Sienna Guillory and Raz Adoti muck up their lines and have fun on set.

Trailers (2.52 mins)
Your chance to watch the teaser and theatrical trailers for Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Poster Gallery
A collection of winning submissions created by finalists of the online poster design contest

OVERALL

This is an excellent example of how a single disc DVD should be put together. With three commentary tracks, a wealth of featurette, deleted
scenes and much more, this is exceptional value and should have fans of the movie jumping for joy. Other DVD producer should take note, as this is the way to produce a packed single disc DVD package.

DVD Star Rating = * * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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