“S.T.A.R.S…….”
Sorry I have not done one of these in awhile, it has been a hectic week. But I am back, Today I am doing of course, Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse.
This is my favorite of the series and fights for the position of best in the series with the first movie. The movie picks up right where the first one left off. Alice is reprising her role as Leeloo from the Fifth Element. I’m kidding of course but if you look at Resident Evil 1 and 2 as one film, which, they kind of are as they take place immediately after one another like John Carpenter’s Halloween and Halloween Part 2, it makes sense. Alice is a girl who when we are first introduced to her, she has lost her memory, as she begins to gain it back, she realizes she is a strong fighting force—a highly skilled combative soldier. Then we find out she is super-human, fully evolved human, essentially the perfect being. In The Fifth Element, when the perfect being is first seen, she is disorientated and is not sure where she is, who she is, or what is going on and she is a weapon. To quote Uncle Buck (one of the greatest 80’s movies of all time) “Is there a little similarity? Whoa, I think there is!”
But enough about that, I’m here to talk about RE: Apocalypse. The movie takes place in Raccoon City and we finally meet some characters who are actually in the game, S.T.A.R.S operative (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) Jill Valentine, and Umbrella soldier Carlos Olivera. We also meet Project Nemesis who I have to say, is my favorite boss villain in the game series (Resident Evil 3) and in the movies. He is big but not huge, a badass, and he has all of him intelligence, just not all of his memories. If you recall, Matt from RE is now Nemesis.
There really is not that much to say about the movie. Maybe my heart is not in it right now or something. I know it’s my favorite but one of the reasons for that is it’s the second zombie movie I ever saw, the third being Shaun of the Dead. There was more to say about RE because it was the first in the series so I had to give back-story.
The movie is fun overall, and has a few things going for it. The CGI is much better in this one than in the last, it is action filled, it has a group of zombie kids who slowly eat one of the group members (I will not say who it is…spoilers and all that), and the acting is quite good. Jill and Carlos are very convincing and stay true to their game counterpart’s personalities. Furthermore, Jill’s outfit is a dead ringer for the games. The movie gives some cameo scenes lifted right from the first few games as well. The message about corporations is even stronger. Every movie has an Umbrella villain in a way, and a Mutant villain. Nemesis is this movies mutant. The Umbrella villain is Major Cain who is pretty much an allegory for Nazism. He seems to have no real ethics, his morality is warped, he is in fact German, and he only cares about evolution and what Nietzsche also German but certainly not a Nazi) called the Uber-man (the super man). The movie does have redeeming messages. There is also the comic relief LJ, who is actually funny.
We also get to meet the girl the Red Queen (Umbrella villain from RE) was based on. This is where the movie really deviates from game continuity. The Ashford’s in the game are completely insane their grandfather founded the Umbrella Corporation back in the day. They are also incestuous, creepy and have architects build strange things in their mansion. In the movie, there is not mention of the grandfather and the girl’s dad seems to take that roll but rather than founding the company, he created the T-Virus to help his daughter with what seems to be polio, which he has as well.
What else can I say about the movie? Well there are even more nods and ‘thank-yous’ to Romero. At the end of RE (which is also the beginning of RE 2) there is a newspaper floating around that has the headline of “THE DEAD WALK!” which was featured in Day of the Dead. The zombies are still Romero zombie (except for the dogs but they always ran in the games anyway), and there is even a nod and a wink to Russo’s Return series. When the group is walking thru a graveyard, the T-Virus reaches its highest level of infection causing the corpses in the graves to come back to life. In this scene, we have the rotten, dug-up zombies we have only really ever seen mainstreamed in the Return series. In addition, there is a song on the soundtrack called Nympetamine by Cradle of Filth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dW6aNAZGTM) and if you listen closely, you will notice the tune is from the main theme by Goblin from Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Xw_7BUXic), so that in itself is another tribute to the master. This is a common theme with Cradle of Filth—they take scores from old horror movies and use them for the background tune in their songs. For another example you can check out this video, which ironically enough, uses clips from RE: Apocalypse and music that emulates John Carpenter’s Halloween theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwto24MjB3M
The movie also revolutionized the character of a zombie. What I mean is that as great as Romero movies are, the zombies are all cliché zombies. They all walk like they are still in rigor mortis, have a limb, etc. In Return the zombies were rotting apart so had some interesting movement. What RE Apocalypse did was create the “liquid zombie”. This zombie is that where all the muscles are limp and the zombies is constantly falling over itself. It sounds like it is funnier but is actually on screen is a bit more scary and realistic. Romero actually picked this up in his later films such as Diary and Survival.
I only have one more critique: for those who have played the game and live in Canada, you will know that this is not Raccoon City. The main building where one of the final scenes takes place is Toronto City Hall.
Again, the movie really does have an allegory of "Big Brother" from 1984 feel to it with the Umbrella Corporation being Big Brother looming over us. This message is furthered pursued in the sequels that follow.
The movie is fun overall and I definitely recommend it. It is fun, action-packed, has good messages, and can be slightly scary from time to time. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment