Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Dir: Alexander Witt
2004
***
Alexander Witt takes over the directional duties for the first Resident Evil sequel but Paul W. S. Anderson is still very much in charge. Resident Evil: Apocalypse follows the video game meticulously in style but develops the story from the second and third games and adds new characters. Fans of the game will revel in the reconstruction of certain scenes and in the overall tone of the film, which seems a little spookier than the first. All the great elements of the game are covered and adapted pretty successfully and I was relieved to see that the follow up film retained much of the creepiness and nonsensical surrealism that I always enjoyed from it. In fact the film gets spectacularly silly in places which really did fill my heart as I was sure the ridiculous bits of the game would never make the cut. I would say that the film is ridiculous in content but also ridiculously entertaining. The big bad guy at the end is hilarious, unintentionally I'm sure but seeing the sort of thing that would have me and my mates rolling around laughing at in the game suddenly make it to the big screen - in a serious adaptation, is something quite glorious to this old gamer/cinephile. It is guilty pleasure viewing at it's finest and mainstream B-Movie gold.