Based on the ever-popular babes-vs-zombies video game Resident Evil, Apocalypse picks up exactly where the first Resident Evil movie (released in 2002) left off. We see Alice (Milla Jovovich), a former employee of the insidious Umbrella Corporation, discovering that she's been infected with the deadly T-virus and left for dead in The Hive, an underground research facility. She was to be used as a human lab rat, but the zombies killed all the scientists so Alice is free -- free to roam the streets of Raccoon City, where everyone has been infected and turned into hungry undead things. Confused? If you haven't seen the first film, you sure as heck will be. The filmmakers try to bridge the gap with lots of voiceovers, but the fact remains that Apocalypse is not a very good standalone film. Enjoying and understanding it is definitely predicated on having seen Resident Evil. (However, it does play a lot better on DVD — it’s a fun “at home” movie, but not so fun in the cold, crowded movie theater. While I didn’t like it much better the second time around, I did like it better.)

Alice is still a pretty cool character, but she doesn't have the depth she had in the first film and if you don't already know her, you won't care what happens to her. Jojovich is, as always, completely watchable, however. Her cohorts this time around are competent actors, but they are given precious little to do. Sienna Guillory plays Jill Valentine (the actual heroine of the video game), a demoted member of the Umbrella Corporation's Special Tactics and Rescue Services (S.T.A.R.S.); Sandrine Holt is Terri Morales, a news reporter who gets caught in the  wrong place at the wrong time; Oded Fehr plays Carlos Oliviera, gun-toting captain of the UBCS; and Mike Epps is L.J., a S.T.A.R.S sergeant. Their task is to find Angie (Sophie Vavasseur), a little girl who holds the key to their escape from the ravaged Raccoon City. Barring the way between the crew and Angie are several flesh-eating zombies; unscrupulous military types; undead dogs; and worst of all, a mutated man (Matthew G. Taylor) turned into an indestructible biological killing machine code-named Nemesis.

Although the original film's writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson did pen the Apocalypse screenplay, first-time director Alexander Witt does not carry his visual style forth, nor does he have the ear for music and score that Anderson did. I'm not saying that a sequel should be exactly the same as its predecessor, but if so few of the fun, kick-ass elements from Resident Evil are not carried forth, then why bother? The movie did do reasonably well in the theaters, and it will probably be a brisk DVD renter, but it is a shame that only minimal effort was made in bringing the sequel out.

The new DVD has two discs. On Disc One is the movie, in your choice of widescreen or full screen. The second disc has all the goodies. Additional release material includes a featurette called GAME OVER which has the following smaller bits and pieces within it:

Game Plan (pre-production)

Running, Jumping and Fighting (all about the stunts)

Zombie Choreography (it’s not exactly Twyla Thorpe…)

Building Raccoon City (the sets and design elements)

Smoke and Mirrors (all about the CGI effects – I found it interesting that the computer artists referenced lions, baboons and other aggressive animals for the Lickers’ movements and that they literally scanned steaks and other raw, bloody meat for “texture”)

OTHER FEATURETTES:

Game Babes

Symphony of Evil

Corporate Malfeasance

Music to unfinished scenes, story boards and completed footage

Deleted scenes & Outtakes

Poster gallery

Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson [1]