Resident Evil: Apocalypse wants to be a horror movie. It is not. It is a video game adaptation that has forgotten why anyone liked the games it came from, and it spends nearly every second of its runtime proving that a live-action version of this property can be worse than the source material.
The premise is simple. A virus has turned most of the population into zombies, and a small group of survivors is trapped in a government quarantine facility while a military force tries to exterminate everyone inside. That setup could work. Instead, the movie takes a perfectly serviceable concept and buries it under action set pieces that make no sense, characters who talk about plot details they clearly haven’t figured out themselves, and a tone that shifts from grim to goofy faster than a jump scare.
Trailer, via HD Retro Trailers.
Jill Valentine Returns
Jill Valentine, played by Milla Jovovich, is the lead. She is a cop and a survivor, and she spends most of the film trying to get out of the building while fighting off hordes of infected. The problem is that the script treats her like a video game avatar rather than a person. She runs, jumps, dodges and shoots with mechanical precision, and the movie never bothers to explain why she can do any of it.
The other characters fare even worse. Alice, the other main survivor, is introduced as a mysterious figure with no backstory, and the film never gives her one. The supporting cast is a collection of people who exist to die at convenient moments, and their deaths are often so abrupt that the movie seems to forget they were ever there.
A Facility Built For Walking
The setting is a quarantine facility, and the filmmakers treat it like a theme park. Corridors twist and turn for no reason. Doors open and close for no reason. The layout is a maze, and the film itself admits it by having characters repeatedly lose their way and find new horrors around every corner.
This would be forgivable if the scares were good. They aren’t. The zombies are slow, loud and easy to avoid. The film leans on jump scares and cheap lighting tricks, and it expects the audience to be terrified of things that look like cheap props from a B-movie.
Plot Holes As A Running Theme
The script is riddled with holes. Characters find keys in locked rooms without explanation. Others walk through walls that aren’t there. The military force outside the facility is never shown, and its actions are described only in vague terms. None of this would matter if the film had a strong central idea, but it doesn’t. It just moves from one empty corridor to the next, hoping that something sticks.
The dialogue is equally bad. Characters yell exposition at each other as if they’re reciting lines from a play. Lines like “We have to get to the roof!” and “There’s no escape!” are delivered with the same weight as a grocery list. The film never lets the audience breathe, and it never lets the audience care.
A Score To Match The Mess
The music is loud and repetitive, doing nothing to hide the film’s flaws. It tries to build tension, but the tension is already dead on the page. The sound design is worse. Footsteps echo in empty hallways, and gunshots sound like fireworks. The whole thing feels hollow, as if the filmmakers filled a room with sound and forgot to put anything in it.
Comparing The Games And The Film
| Element | Resident Evil Games | Resident Evil: Apocalypse |
|---|---|---|
| Pacing | Slow, deliberate | Fast, frantic |
| Setting | Detailed, believable | Confusing, poorly designed |
| Characters | Developed, memorable | Flat, interchangeable |
| Tone | Grim, atmospheric | Silly, over-the-top |
The comparison is stark. The games built their tension slowly, with careful pacing and well-designed levels. This film throws everything at the wall and hopes something sticks. It doesn’t.
A Schedule Of Suffering
The film is structured around a series of set pieces, each one worse than the last. Here’s how the movie wastes your time:
| Scene | Length | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 10 minutes | Barely watchable |
| First zombie attack | 5 minutes | Worse than the introduction |
| Mid-film chase | 10 minutes | A nightmare |
| Final act | 20 minutes | The worst of all |
The final stretch is the lowest point. The climax involves a plan that makes no sense, a reveal that contradicts earlier scenes, and a resolution that feels like it was written by committee. It’s a mess, and it ends the film on a note of pure confusion.
What Worked, Sort Of
There is one thing the film gets right: Milla Jovovich’s physical presence. She carries herself with a confidence that few actors can fake, and her scenes are the only ones that feel remotely alive. But that’s not enough to save the movie. She’s a performer in a bad script, and the script is the problem.
The Verdict
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a failure on almost every level. It fails to scare, it fails to engage, and it fails to respect the intelligence of its audience. The film is a monument to wasted potential, a reminder that a good idea can be ruined by poor execution.
The score is 1.8 out of 10.
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