Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Hi folks! As you are no doubt aware, Resident Evil: Extinction opened this weekend, and, since I probably won’t be watching it for a second time until the DVD release, I’m going to try and publish a post of my thoughts ASAP. However, I also watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse earlier this week, and I want to hammer out some thoughts on that chapter before moving on to Extinction. So, please bear with me while I get Apocalypse out of the way first.

*Warning* Spoilers

As you may or may not remember from my first post on Resident Evil, I loved the first chapter of the series. It had its shortcomings, but it made up for it with its awesome soundtrack and ambient audio, the wonderfully creepy holographic Hive queen/girl, and a delightful minimum of comic relief. Very dark, very grim, very cool.

This second chapter however, not so much. That isn’t totally fair, as I do still get a kick out of the film, and it does have plenty of very sweet moments. However, it was not nearly as satisfying as RE1. If I could change one thing about the film, I would simply cut the L.J. character, or at least all of the humor he was injecting. I don’t have any particular complaint with the actor’s performance, I did think he was funny, but I just hated how it interrupted the seriousness of such a grim situation. Like I mentioned above, the minimal use of comic relief in RE1 was one of the best aspects of the film. In Apocalypse however, that quality was totally lost by L.J.’s steady stream of quips and humor.

Another thing I hated were the blurry shots of group zombie movement. There were only a few of these, and I guess it was a stylistic choice, but it didn’t seem to serve any real purpose (like suggesting rapid movement, or perhaps a character’s blurred vision). We could have been treated to great shots of bloodied, dismembered, shambling zombie glory. Instead, we got a cheap cheesy effect.

Further, I don’t really understand the theory that long buried graveyard corpses will come bursting out of the ground to attack people walking above them. I am afraid that I’m not very familiar with the RE video games, so I imagine that it may be a story element from the series, but I really don’t see this being a likely possibility. Even if the contagion is one that can some how achieve 100% permeation of an environment ( which brings up even more questions ), how on earth did these long buried corpses break through their coffins, dig up through five or six feet of solidly packed earth, and simultaneously attack the survivors passing by above? In the event of a real zombie outbreak, I might avoid the mortuary, but I don’t believe there would be anything unusually hazardous about fleeing through a cemetery.

[OUTBREAK CONTAINMENT]

Moving on to some more interesting aspects of the film, I would like to spend a little time discussing Umbrella’s response to, and handling of, the outbreak. I would say that most of the corporation’s behavior in the film was believable, and also logical, from a cold, profit driven, perspective that is. However, as the film’s writers needed the virus to escape containment, in order to have a movie to write, the corporation was oddly careless with their approach to reopening The Hive at the start of the film. While Umbrella might not have understood the full extent of what happened in The Hive, they knew that all of their employees had been killed, they knew that their elite commando team had not survived reentry, and they knew that one of the two people to escape The Hive was infected with the T-Virus. Why on earth would that information not warrant a slightly more cautious approach to their reopening procedures? You know, a small army of soldiers, machine gun nests, perhaps a second level of biological containment? Half-a-dozen guys in biohazard suits with fancy PDA’s seemed a little short-sighted.

[TRIAGE]

Despite the shortcomings of their initial response, Umbrella does a significantly better job in their subsequent handling of the situation. I imagine arrangements were immediately put into motion to muster the necessary troops, equipment, and containment structures, but while those steps were being initiated, vehicles were immediately dispatched to retrieve key employees located within Racoon City. Obviously the entire city could not be evacuated without carrying the infection with it, but there was still time to select and save a small number of individuals. True to the definition of triage, Umbrella defined and assured the recovery of their priority assets.

The corporation then made some effort to save what others they could, within a certain level of risk. Civilians who made it to the containment perimeter, and passed an infection screening, were allowed to exit the hot zone. However, the moment an infected was identified at the gate, it was decided that allowing further civilian exodus was no longer an acceptable risk. The gates were immediately closed, sealing off everyone who remained inside. Furthermore, the use of lethal force was announced and authorized for the defense of the containment perimeter. Undoubtedly this comes across as a heartless and draconian containment measure, and it was portrayed as such in the film, but it was the correct decision on Umbrella’s part. Leaving thousands of civilians to die is a terrible sacrifice, but it is a small price in comparison to losing the entire region, continent, or planet. Once the infection had escaped The Hive, the city was the next and, more importantly, the last realistic opportunity for containment.

[POLICE RESPONSE]

Another interesting perspective explored in this film were the role and actions of law enforcement officers in a zombie outbreak. First off, I appreciated seeing the police station chaos during the early hours of the outbreak. Not yet understanding what they were up against, the police station was swamped with calls, struggling to deploy officers, and fighting to maintain control over their cannibalistic detainees. This is precisely the chaos that Max Brooks warns against in his ‘On the Defense’ portion of The Zombie Survival Guide, and why one should avoid police stations during an outbreak. They may have equipment that can be salvaged at a later point, but not before the initial chaos has subsided.

I also found it interesting watching the large groups of police officers, STARS members, and Umbrella soldiers battling zombie crowds in the streets of the city. Despite substantial firepower, and support from coordinated fighting, these officers were unable to turn back the tide of undead, and were soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of zombies. Greater success was found by a team holing up in an abandoned building. They were able to limit the number of directions they needed to defend, they attracted far less undead attention, and they were able to engage approaching zombies in smaller numbers. Unfortunately, this didn’t end up doing them much good when the minigun-toting Nemesis monster was ordered to attack. Of course, it might have helped if their rooftop sniper wasn’t busy sipping a beer, rocking out on his headphones, and forgetting the effectiveness of a good clean head shot.

[ZOMBIE PHYSIOLOGY]

Moving on to another topic, Apocalypse spent a fair amount of time focusing on the biological properties of the T-Virus. Beyond simply reanimating the dead, and somehow giving rise to the Licker monsters, the virus also proved capable of turning Matt (from the first movie) into the frankenstein-like Nemesis mutant, gave Alice superhuman strength, agility, and senses (without any ill effect on the star’s fine feminine figure), and gave the girl, Angela, the ability to walk again, after suffering a crippling illness. Quite the versatile virus it seems.

Should a contagion of this nature actually exist, it is no wonder that it would be of great interest to a company like Umbrella. It would seem that its medical and military applications hold almost unimaginable potential. However, I think a contagion of this nature would all but certainly guarantee our demise, as I don’t think there is any reasonable hope of surviving on a planet populated with creatures like the Lickers and Nemesis. Personally though, I think that an agent with the potential for such extreme genetic mutation seems a bit far fetched. I may even (hopefully) go my whole life without ever seeing the undead rise. Consequently, I don’t think I’ll be doing myself any good worrying about Lickers.

[CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT RESPONSE]

The last item I’d like to mention is the reporter’s filming of the event with a handheld camcorder, and the ensuing cover-up after the event. A corporation of this size, and certainly a government, is more than capable of manipulating major media outlets to serve their needs. Despite being plagued by challenges to authenticity and manipulation by special interest groups, I think there is hope to be found in non-traditional media (i.e. internet, blogs, podcasts, etc. ). Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy way of sifting through the mountains of garbage content out there, but that really isn’t much different than what is being fed to us through our TV’s and newspapers.

Alrighty, I’ve got to draw the line somewhere, so I’m going to call it good for this post. There are plenty of other fun topics of interest raised in the movie, but I think I’ll leave you with just these. Again, while I didn’t love everything about this movie, it is still pretty damn fun. Check it out.

Read other “Resident Evil” posts:

• Lasers, skinless mutants, and an army of the undead, you say? Hm.. well, what benefits does your company offer?
  Resident Evil (The Movie)
• Use the force, Milla.
  Resident Evil: Extinction