Resident Evil: Apocalypse
starring Milla Janovich, Shenna Bullory, Odeo Feha and Thomas Hretschmann
written by Paul W.S. Anderson
directed by Alexandria Witt
Called “Biohazard 2” in Japan, this movie is a load of crappy-crap-crap. It tells exactly the same story as its precursor, Resident Evil (“Biohazard”),and not a very original or well-filmed story at that. I was interested to see, however, that it was filmed in Toronto. That bit of knowledge strokes my vanity.
This is a zombie movie. A mammoth, beyond-control weapons corporation (the Umbrella Corporation) develops a virus (the T-virus) that reanimates dead cells. In other words, it brings the dead back to life. The virus gets out of control and a city (Toronto, or “Raccoon City”) has to be nuked to stop the contagion. Alice (Milla Janovich) is a survivor of the first outbreak and is the corporation’s best hope of escaping the closed off city with the antivirus antidote. It is a kind of obstacle course with death stalking the hero at every turn, like Kurt Russell in Escape from New York, or Arnold Schwarzeneggar in Running Man. Like the TV show, The X Files, all the action takes place at night. I guess the director thinks that darkness is more sinister. Or, maybe he hopes the darkness will mask at least some of the hideousness of this movie. The music and many of the camera angles remind me ofBatman and Batman Returns. The non-stop gunfire, rocket fire, and karate-fist-fighting, etc. remind me of the re-make of Rollerball. It is a cartoonish movie of hyper-action and hyper-symbolic villains and heroes. But I hate movies made from comic books and cartoons, and I hate cartoonish movies, too. It is an awful movie intended, I suppose, to appeal to a much younger audience than me, to college kids raised on extreme sports, violent video games, and lousy rave music.
There are a couple of good lines that I like. Surrounded by hungry, flesh-eating zombies, a television newswoman says,
“I’ve never shot a gun before.”
“There’s nothing to it. Try to hit ‘em in the head.”
Yeah! Now that’s what I’m talking about! I appreciate that kind of definitive violence. No toying with your opponent. No telling the hero the entire plan before you kill them. One of this mannerly one-at-a-time man-to-man sword combat like what you always see in Japanese samurai dramas.