Thursday, October 20, 2005

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

I've just watched this film, so can finally give you the verdict you've been waiting for. If you enjoyed Resident Evil, you'll probably like it. I like Resident Evil, so I thought it was OK. There are these two great women characters in Alice and Jill and there is something slightly subversive in how sexy they look and how they always top the men. The women are (of course) gorgeous and retain their femininity as well as their strength, as to be expected in a Hollywood film. It begins where the last film ended and takes the story on further. Like in the first film, there is a uneasy sense that nothing is explained satisfactorily - rather like in playing a videogame. The twisted, evil Umbrella Corporation is somehow behind it all (whatever "it" is) and it is still more or less a faceless entity. There are some great moments of slow motion action photography and some good stunts - very professionally done. The special effects are what I think people watch this kind of film for and they do not disappoint. For this reason alone it is worth watching more than once. That said, I didn't feel the zombie flesh eaters were particularly scary and this detracted a bit. I wasn't scared at all or made uneasy and in a way that's frightening - am I having my tolerance for violence and gore increased by continually being exposed to Hollywood-style versions of it?
There is a saying that there's only one thing worse than a game based on a film and that's a film based on a game, in this case I'd say that wasn't true but Resident Evil was a better film first time around. If you want to see a bad movie that fell out a game try The House of The Dead.

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