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Directed by – Alexander Witt

Written by – Paul W.S. Anderson

Starring – Milla Jovovich (Alice), Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine), Oded Fehr (Carlos Olivera), Thomas Kretschmann (Major Cain), Sandrine Holt (Terri Moralas), Jared Harris (Dr. Charles Ashford), Sophie Vavasseur (Angela Ashford), Mike Epps (L.J.)

Length – 94 minutes

Cert – 15 / R

There are movies out there considered so bad that confessing to liking them just a little bit could result in you losing friends, family members, or even your job. So we quietly leave our secrets bottled up. Now however is the time to reveal all and defend our guilty pleasures.

When it comes to the Resident Evil films, any one of them in the franchise would be deserving of being a guilty pleasure. Being a huge fan of the games, I do actually own the whole trilogy, but the general consensus (critical and fan reviews) appears to put Apocalypse as the black mutated sheep of the bunch. The odd thing about this is that Apocalypse happens to be the only film in the franchise where the storyline adheres to that of the games, taking place during the timeline of the second and third Resident Evil games.

Picking up almost immediately after the first film (which left off with a fantastic closing shot), Alice (Jovovich) is awakened at an empty hospital in Raccoon City. Stepping outside, the streets are a deserted wreck. Realizing the worst, she grabs supplies and weapons. After the Umbrella Corporation reopens their underground facility, The Hive, the result is an outbreak of the T-Virus. With the majority of civilians turning into zombies, the city is placed under quarantine. Alice joins a small group of survivors, including S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine (Guillory), Umbrella soldier Carlos Olivera (Fehr), budding reporter Terri (Holt) and the profane L.J. (Epps). Escaping the city means locating Angela Ashford (Vavasseur), the daughter of Umbrella scientist Dr. Charles Ashford (Harris). Once found, he’ll send a helicopter to evacuate them. However, their task is made more difficult after Umbrella dispatches their latest bio-weapon, the huge one-eyed, machine gun wielding and rocket firing Nemesis.

After directing the first film, Paul W.S. Anderson abandoned the duty for the sequel, since he was busy ruining Aliens vs. Predator, but stayed on as writer and producer. In came Alexander Witt. Often working as a second unit director on action blockbusters, Apocalypse was the first and only film he directed, where he shows an interest in destroying as much glass as possible. A lot of the action numbingly dull, though an encounter in a church with three Licker creatures has its mix of thrills and suspense. Alice’s shootout with the Nemesis conveys the frantic pace when meeting him in the game, but is also, faithfully, too short. Her eventual third act fight with the Nemesis is shockingly bad. Shot mostly in close up with some dangerously choppy editing, this was likely done to try and hide how there’s no way anyone can realistically fight in that Nemesis costume.

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