I went to Raccoon City and all I got was this lousy mutation!
Having recently seen Resident Evil (2002), I had both cautious hope and reasonable concerns about the close sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), and I think they were justified. The story follows the lead character from Resident Evil, Alice, as she emerges from evil corporation Umbrella’s research facility after having broken loose from the lab. She discovers a city in chaos as the citizens fall victim to the virus that renders them zombies. Of those in the control of the city, one of them has a daughter who has disappeared during the evacuation of VIPs, and so she soon has a clandestine mission to make her way to the school containing the child and bring her to City Hall.
Joining forces with a news reporter, the remains of a special forces group, and a small-time hood, they shoot their way to the school, losing group members here and there, and always in the background is a monstrous figure, built like a human tank but without the charisma of The Hulk. At the school, they find the survivors of a police group, also there to rescue the girl.
And now comes the big reveal – Alice, the little girl, and the last surviving cop are infected. However, in Alice’s case, it’s not killing her – the virus has integrated into her genome, making her stronger and faster. And the little girl is in the same boat, except the increase in strength means she doesn’t need to use crutches.
In fact, her father invented the virus for her, and the corporation stole it.
The rush to City Hall to meet the helicopter turns into a trap, as the leader of the experiment shows up to test Alice against the monstrous figure – who it turns out is a dead-end mutation of the virus, and a friend of hers, and through that knowledge they engage and defeat the guards, escaping in the helicopter just as Umbrella, Inc nukes the city. The lead experimenter is left to the tender mercies of the zombies.
And after the subsequent helicopter crash, Alice ends up in the clutches of Umbrella, Inc.
This doesn’t quite have the pounding pace of its predecessor, and the characters, as a whole, are less cohesive. In particular, the small-time hood seems to just wander about with little to do but look pretty. Nor is there much connection to the characters – the empathy we need to develop to really care for them is fragmentary at best, and often non-existent.
But it doesn’t feel like a video game, although maybe that’s my unfamiliarity with Resident Evil showing. Although to some extent it’s a matter of shooting as many zombies as possible, there is plot development, twists and turns, and an unexpected finale that left me speculating about the next movie in the series.
But will that be an even worse entry in the series? That’s what worries me.
