Evil, Inc.

Evil, Inc.
by Ed Owens

A friend and I were trying to decide what to see Friday night when I mentioned that I wanted to see Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Much to my horror, she appeared to have never even heard of it, revealing that she was a fan of neither trash cinema nor video games. Setting aside my natural inclination to sever the relationship then and there citing irreconcilable differences, I instead told her it was a film sequel based on a video game seque l-- an explanation which made more sense in theory than in practice. "A video game movie sequel? Why would you want to see it?"

"Milla Jovovich gets naked and shoots shit."

While that seemed an incredibly compelling reason to me, apparently the appeal was lost on my friend, who opted instead for The Manchurian Candidate .

Let me begin by saying that Milla Jovovich is nowhere to be found in The Manchurian Candidate, Denzel Washington only gets half naked, and nobody shoots much of anything (at least not enough to please one disappointed patron judging from his comments as he left the theater). Despite those seemingly insurmountable handicaps, Jonathan Demme's remake of John Frankenheimer's 1962 political thriller is a solid film.

Denzel Washington plays Capt. Ben Marco, the leader of a reconnaissance mission in Kuwait just before the start of the Gulf War. When the squad is ambushed, one of the men, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), single-handedly fights back the enemy and leads the squad to safety. Years later, Shaw is a beloved senator poised to become the next Vice-President, and Marco, driven by bizarre nightmares common to the men of his company, learns that things in Kuwait may not have happened the way he remembers them.

The original narrative, while mostly preserved here, has been nicely updated and revised to reflect the geo-political shifts that have taken place in the interim. The screenplay by Daniel Pyne (no stranger to the political thriller, having most recently worked on The Sum of All Fears ) and Dean Georgaris (currently working on the oft-delayed MI:3) is tightly written and nicely enhanced by Demme's signature style (finally returning after a lengthy hiatus). The film develops as a precisely observed slow burn, with an attention to detail that is refreshing and engaging. It only flags late in the second half, where it feels more deliberate than it should have been, and in the utterly gratuitous epilogue.

Washington and Schreiber both turn in finely nuanced performances in roles that could easily have been overly simplistic. Capt. Marco's slow descent into paranoia provides Washington the opportunity to focus on details in a way that is fun to watch, and Schreiber nails the role of the reluctant hero struggling to understand his own true identity. Meryl Streep, almost always good, is in fine form as well, though a bit over-the-top from the very beginning, all but telegraphing her role in the film's central conspiracy from frame one (she's also guilty of the film's most egregious misstep, though the fault may very well lie with Demme or the screenwriters).

While this Candidate still falls short of the original's innovation or power, it is that rarest of things...a remake that successfully stands on its own and is a worthy companion to the film on which it is based. On the other hand, Resident Evil: Apocalypse succeeds at very little, despite having not one, but two scantily clad women who shoot nearly everything that moves.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit to actually liking the original--a playful zombie flick that is as aware of its intended audience as it is of the conventions it pushes and prods. Unfortunately, Apocalypse, or more importantly its director, seem blissfully ignorant of the things which can make even a bad movie entertaining. Whatever wit the first film had is noticeably absent (even an amusing reference to the whipping boy of violent video games, Grand Theft Auto, that only the most die-hard gamers in the audience will even catch), and rather than conventionally playful, the film is instead slavishly conventional.

Picking up pretty much where the first film left off, the story focuses on the release of the mutagenic T-virus (manufactured by that other evil company, The Umbrella Corporation, as a means of bio-engineering super-mutants in order to...does it really matter?) into Raccoon City, and the chaos which ensues as its citizens begin rapidly turning into flesh-eating zombies. A small band of survivors, led by Alice, the heroine of the first film, must locate a small girl hiding out deep within the city and escape before Umbrella Corp. nukes the whole town in order to cover up its mistakes (I know, I know...it seems like overkill, but this is a movie based on a video game).

A film like this lives or dies on its set-pieces, and Apocalypse boasts one or two that are impressive (Jovovich's church shootout is pretty slick, if completely absurd). But the film suffers from confused staging that leaves you more bewildered than impressed, the apparent decision of first-time director, long-time crewmember Alexander Witt to shoot in low light and edit the hell out of the resulting footage. The film's concept of scary is extreme close-ups coupled with sudden noise played at ear-shattering volume, and, worse yet, the few, brief action scenes are separated by interminably silly dialogue that sounds as if it were written by a 12-year old (no doubt, the film's intended audience, despite the R-rating).

Most damning is the fact that the film is perhaps a bit too ambitious. While the first film was contained in terms of both narrative (a single group of survivors) and setting (The Hive, Umbrella Corporation's secret underground research laboratory), Apocalypse fractures its focus, following multiple groups that converge and diverge throughout the film as they wander the wide, open city, thereby squandering any inherent tension the premise may have held. The climax (which is hardly that climactic) is followed by an extended coda that, aside from accomplishing little more than setting up yet another sequel, grinds the film's already languorous pacing to a screeching halt--even a Jovovich nude scene generates little interest.

While Resident Evil was surprisingly entertaining, Apocalypse is alarmingly uninteresting. I would have thought that I could watch Milla Jovovich read the phone book, but Apocalypse only proves there are limits to even my tolerance level.

*sigh*