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Stars:
Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr, Thomas Kretschmann, Jared Harris,
and Mike Epps
Writer:
Paul W.S. Anderson
Based
Upon Capcom’s Videogame: “Resident Evil”
Director:
Alexander Witt
Feature
length: 94 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Alexander Witt, Producer, Jeremy
Bolt, and Executive Producer Robert Kulzer, Cast Audio Commentary With Milla
Jovovich, Oded Fehr, and Sienna Guillory, Audio Commentary With Writer/Producer
Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt, Deleted Scenes, Cast Outtakes, Game
Over: Resident Evil Reanimated Documentary, Corporate Malfeasance Featurette,
Game Babes Featurette, Symphony Of Evil Featurette, Poster Gallery, Trailers,
Previews
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Two-Disc Single-Sized Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 28
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2004/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Screen Gems
Home
Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Resident
Evil: Apocalypse” picks up where the first film left off with Alice (Milla
Jovovich) finding herself seemingly alone in a burned out city ravaged by the
flesh eating living dead who were once the innocent citizens of Raccoon City now
infected with the Umbrella Corporation’s T-Virus. Having walled off the city
completely to contain the outbreak, citizens attempting to escape through the
lone checkpoint are suddenly cut off and threatened with the use of deadly force
when evidence of the virus at the gate appears after a person succumbs to the
effects of a zombie bite and consequently attempts to attack the closest
uninfected being around him. Umbrella Corporation knows that if the virus should
leak out of Raccoon City, there is virtually no way to contain it, but perhaps
even more worrisome to the multinational conglomerate is evidence of the secret
biomechanical research that was performed underneath the city, which could
financially ruin the company. So at dawn the plan is to set off a tactical
nuclear device and blame it on a reactor meltdown. Thus the infection and the
truth are both neutralized.
Trapped
among the hapless living struggling to find a way out of the city are Jill
Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a sexy no nonsense detective that’s handy with a
pistol, Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr), a member of an elite SWAT like peacekeeping
force that has discovered too late that he and his fellow STARS officers are
nothing more but expendable assets for the Umbrella Corporation. Mike Epps adds
comic relief as a small time hood just trying to stay alive amidst the chaos
around him. Our heroes unite through various circumstances to save the young
daughter of Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris), the scientist who created the mutating
T-Virus and whose daughter was the model for the homicidal hologram “The Red
Queen” that attempted to kill Alice in the Hive in the first film. However
Alice has changed. Somehow through her own genetic makeup she has a natural
ability to assimilate the mutating properties of the T-Virus, giving her
enhanced strength, speed, and agility as well as a sense for those infected
around her without becoming a monster herself. Unfortunately Matt (Eric Mabius
as seen in flashbacks from the first film) was not so lucky. He has mutated into
the lethal monstrosity “Nemesis” and the folks at Umbrella Corporation are
using this catastrophe as an arena to pit Alice against Nemesis in an urban
battle royal.
While
the first film was intended as a prequel to the popular videogame series,
“Resident Evil: Apocalypse” is a dramatic adaptation based on elements from
the games itself. In particular the film reenacts images and situations of
“Resident Evil: Nemesis” and “Resident Evil: Codename Veronica” and
brings together characters introduced in the videogames for the first time in
live action form while also assembling the zombie dogs, lickers, and of course
lots of flesh eating zombies. While the first film emphasized the horrific
aspects of the game series, this film places the Umbrella Corporation in the
forefront as the true villain behind all of the carnage occurring in the story.
Produced and written by Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed the first film as well
as the “Mortal Kombat,” movie and “Alien Vs. Predator,” Anderson proves
again that he has a gift for taking material that normally would seem
inadaptable for the big screen, like a video game franchise, and create a
popular feature film series that hopefully fans of the film will appreciate
while those not familiar with the games at all can still enjoy at face value.
Anderson is as much a genre film fan as anyone and I think that is why he is
good at what he does. He is passionate about the material and has a gift for
making others excited about his projects too. Anderson was heavily involved in
the pre-production and post-production of “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” but
he left the directing to Alexander Witt, who has experience working with a
number of well known filmmakers behind the scenes.
Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment’s DVD edition of “Resident Evil: Apocalypse”
presents the film in both an anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) aspect ratio that
preserves the manner in which the film was exhibited theatrically as close as
possible for home video users and a (1.33:1) modified full screen version
encoded onto the first dual layered disc for users with four by three displays.
The picture quality is quite good with only a few night scenes revealing a
slight softness indicative of having two versions of the same film placed on one
disc complete with animated menus, commentaries, and so on. While not quite as
sharp as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s “Superbit” series of films on
DVD, “Resident
Evil: Apocalypse: Special Edition” delivers in ways that the original
“Special Edition” for the first film never had. As some consumers might
remember, a few extra value features that were supposed to appear on the
“Resident Evil: Special Edition” DVD released in 2002 were held back for the
“Resident Evil: Deluxe Edition” DVD strategically released in time for the
theatrical debut of “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” this past summer. This is an
expected practice among the major studio distributors so I do not begrudge Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment for re-releasing an improved DVD release of a
popular film to help prepare viewers for a feature film sequel. What I am very
happy about with regard to the DVD release of “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” is
that most if not all of the extra value material related to the film has been
placed onto both discs, which comes housed in a single-sized double-disc Amaray
keep case with interesting cover art.
A
somewhat aggressive English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also
encoded onto the first disc along with optional English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired. Director Alexander Witt, Producer, Jeremy
Bolt, and Executive Producer Robert Kulzer provide one of three feature length
audio commentaries for the film where they discuss the in camera effects
approach as being the preferred method for much of the action sequences over the
dependency on only CGI or the effects sequences. While I am still finding it
hard to believe because of the amount of insurance it must have cost the studio
to enable this to happen, on all three commentaries as well as some of the extra
value materials, they said Milla Jovovich actually did the stunt where she runs
vertically down a building so I guess it must be so. The second audio commentary
features Stars Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, and Sienna Guillory. Milla seems to be
having a ball on the commentary track and she genuinely seems like a fun person
to be around and shares a sense of playful comradely with Oded Fehr, who is best
known by genre film fans for his roles in both “The Mummy” and “The Mummy
Returns.” Sienna Guillory’s commentary was recorded separately and mixed in.
I saw “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” when it played on the big screen and I
honestly did not realize she was the same beautiful young actress who appeared
in the USA Network original miniseries “Helen Of Troy” as well as the
DreamWorks Pictures remake of “H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.”
Writer/Producer Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt provide the third
feature length audio commentary track, which in many ways is my favorite of the
three because both Anderson and Bolt really have a respect for the sci-fi,
horror, and action film genres with “Alien Vs. Predator,” “Event
Horizon,” and “Soldier” among their shared collaborative credits. Anderson
is quite clear about their goals for the film and even discusses in some detail
the digital grading done to the negative during in the editing of the film. If
you compare the shots from the theatrical trailer to the shots on the finished
film, one can truly get a sense of how much can be manipulated with computers
today. I wish I had that technology available back when I was in film school.
All three audio commentary tracks are accessible for the anamorphic widescreen
and full screen versions of the film. Previews for “Boogeyman” (2:23) and
“Steamboy” (1:28) appear before the main menu comes into view. The
interactive menus on disc one represent the Umbrella Corporation computer
readouts on Alice while the menus on disc two depict the computer data on
Nemesis. All of the interactive menus feature animated transitions to standard
interactive still frame menus and all are easy to navigate.
Disc
two includes the six-part documentary “Game Over: Resident Evil Reanimated”
(49:39), which can be viewed as one long piece or as featurettes covering the
pre-production, stunts, zombie choreography, production design, weaponry, and
special effects. Additional featurettes focusing on the Actresses as “Game
Babes” (11:04), the various effects tests and composites in “Symphony Of
Evil” (7:42), and comments regarding the danger of existing all-powerful
global corporations doing something like the Umbrella Corporation in
“Corporate Malfeasance” (2:53) are also provided. Automat Pictures produced
the documentary and featurettes for this DVD release. Next are twenty deleted
scenes, including part of an unfinished alternate ending, that can be viewed
individually or as one reel (11:56) and these scenes are presented in a
widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions. There’s
also a humorous outtake reel (2:53) and a short gallery of one-sheet art created
by the finalists of the online poster design contest for the film.
The
theatrical trailer for “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” (2:33), as well as the
teaser (1:21), and the trailer for the original “Resident Evil” (2:17) are
all presented in anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 audio. Additional home video
preview spots include “The Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition” (1:43),
“Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid” (: 32), “The Grudge” (: 32),
“The Forgotten” (: 32), and an interesting looking Asian feature film
entitled “House Of Flying Daggers” (: 46), which wraps up the bonus
materials within this two-disc set.
Overall,
I think Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has done a terrific job with the
“Resident Evil: Apocalypse: Special Edition” DVD set and it is well worth
checking out now that it is available at retailers on and offline courtesy of
the Umbrella Corporation… ;)
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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