Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

When we last left our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) she was in the Raccoon City hospital under the treatment of the Umbrella Corporation recovering from injuries sustained from fighting off hundreds of flesh eating zombies. When she wakes up, she finds herself alone, the hospital abandoned and we see a newspaper that says "The Dead Walk". It seems the Umbrella Corporation decided to reopen The Hive, a research facility and home to some really hungry zombies...bad idea. Hilarity ensues as the T-Virus escapes into Raccoon City and starts to infect the whole population. Meanwhile Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a members of the S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Service), tries to get her team out of the city but doesn't make it before Umbrella closes the gates and traps everyone left in. Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and his commando team also get stuck inside. Their only hope to get out is to find the daughter of an Umbrella scientist. To increase the chances of getting his daughter back the scientist send both Jill and Carlos's team in where their paths are bound to cross. Umbrella decides that it is time to test its secret weapon, Project Nemesis and unleashes it on the unsuspecting S.T.A.R.S. Project Nemesis seems invincible but there might be one thing that can stop it...Project Alice.

Trivia: Was originally entitled Resident Evil: Nemesis after the third game in the "Resident Evil" (aka "Biohazard") videogame series, of the same name, which had a similar plot. The title was later changed to Resident Evil: Apocalypse after the release (and subsequent box-office failure) of Star Trek: Nemesis. During the church scene, when Alice fires at the motorcycle to kill one of the Lickers, the slow motion bullets have the Umbrella logo on the rear of the shells. Aside from archive footage from the first film featuring shots of Eric Mabius, the only person to return after the previous film is Milla Jovovich. Sienna Guillory based her movements of Jill by watching the way Jill moved in the game "Biohazard 3: Last Escape". The first sequence showing Alice waking up in the hospital through to her cocking a shotgun outside, consists entirely of footage shot for the first film. The dogs were not computer-generated. Make-up was applied to them. Although the word "zombie" is never used in the film, it is featured in the ending credits. German comedian Tom Gerhardt who portrayed the infected father in the gate closing sequence, is credited as "zombie dad". All other zombies are credited as "undead". The newspaper with the headline "The Dead Walk!" is an homage to George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, in which exactly the same newspaper headline was displayed. It was Milla Jovovich's idea about having the heat wave in Raccoon City as the reason why her character and Jill Valentine are wearing very few clothes. Unfortunately, the shoot was in November in Toronto. The film contains many visual and thematic references to the games.

The problem with sequels in general is that they think it has to be bigger and better and more explosive and, well, you get the idea. Resident Evil worked because it was self contained. Get out of The Hive and you will survive. So how do they make it bigger and put the characters into a more deperate situation? Release the virus on a city. What's next? The wole world? This is a the same situation with Alien and Aliens. The first one was contained on the ship, The second one was on a colony but then they did a good thing and restricted it back down in Alien3 to a prison planet (the only thing on the planet is the prison. After seeing Alice start to rediscover her combat training abilities in the first movie she is full blown combat queen here with supernatural physical abilities (that we later discover is from Project Alice). Basically she can kick anybody's butt. One thing that puzzled me though. The T-Virus is transmitted at points by airbourne and mostly but physical touch by scratch or bite. It infects the living who eventually become undead or rise from the dead when they are killed. At one point the group goes through a cemetary and we see the cliche of the dead digging themselves out of the ground. First off, how did the already buried get infected and second, why did they all decide to dig out and break through right at that moment. Well, I guess that is why it is a cliche. So if you are paying attention I guess you already know what movie I am going to review tomorrow.