'Resident Evil: Apocalypse' (2004) Review: A Trashy Horror-Action Sequel That's Weirdly Rewatchable
By Dan Bremner - September 10, 2026
The second entry in the Resident Evil film franchise, and one that doubles down on the budget, scale and pure stupidity. The first film has always been a guilty pleasure for me, but even growing up I found Resident Evil: Apocalypse pretty terrible and it is generally regarded as a series low (it still sits as the lowest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes for the whole franchise). So I don’t know if it finally clicked and saw the vulgar auteurist genius or I was just in a weird mood, but I had a proper blast with this stupid, stupid film. Maybe even more than the first one? It’s far from good, but it is fun.
Where the first film at least pretended to be a contained techno-thriller with some atmosphere, Apocalypse throws all of that out the window and just goes for broke. It’s louder, dumber, more chaotic and significantly less interested in making sense. That should be a criticism, and in some ways it is, but the sheer commitment to being a ridiculous zombie action film somehow makes it more enjoyable than it has any right to be. It also borrows more explicitly from the games this time, specifically Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, bringing in both Jill Valentine and the big man himself, and loosely bringing in some plot elements gamers will be familiar with.
The jump in scale works mostly in its favour. There’s a broader sense of chaos and urban dread as survivors try to navigate a ruined city that’s falling apart in real time. Director Alexander Witt (taking over from Paul W.S. Anderson, who was busy helming AVP: Alien vs. Predator) keeps things moving at a fast, breathless pace across 97-minutes and stages a handful of genuinely memorable set pieces. Alice’s adrenaline-fuelled sprint and rappel down the side of a skyscraper is a highlight, as is her slow-motion motorbike crash through a church’s stained-glass window. Both are pure early-2000s action cinema nonsense, and nothing less than absolute cinema.
Milla Jovovich is once again the film’s biggest strength. She’s charismatic, physically committed, and completely sells Alice’s escalating superhuman badassery. She trained hard, did a lot of her own stunts, and carried the whole thing with charisma and locked-in intensity. A real shame that the rest of the cast are just not on her level. You can already see the franchise’s biggest long-term problem starting here. Alice is noticeably more superhuman than she was in the first film, and the movie clearly loves watching her do cool, physics-defying shit. It’s entertaining in the moment, but you can feel the slippery slope beginning, the one that eventually leads to her becoming a fully-blown superhuman as the franchise becomes more and more incoherent.
Nemesis is another win. He’s brought to life with a fully practical suit worn by an absolute unit of a stuntman, and he looks the part. Even if his origins are completely changed to tie into Alice’s story, he still has the iconic weaponry and that relentless Terminator-like presence. Watching him stomp through Raccoon City with a minigun and rocket launcher while repeatedly growling “S.T.A.R.S!” is, frankly, once again, absolute cinema.
There are clear problems. Some of the action gets lost in overly rapid editing and shaky camerawork, particularly during parts of the Alice vs Nemesis fights, turning what should be cool moments into visual noise. Outside of Jovovich and occasionally Sienna Guillory as Jill, the supporting cast is pretty straight-to-DVD. The dialogue is clunky, exposition-heavy and frequently laughable in the wrong way. Paul W.S. Anderson’s script has no interest in wit or character beyond the bare minimum needed to move everyone to the next set piece.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse, like the first film, this has weirdly high rewatch value if you’re in the right mood. It’s short, it moves at a fast-pace, the set pieces are mostly fun, and there’s something comforting about how little it cares about logic or good taste, even if it's overly-edited into a headache at times. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is pure early-2000s studio trash cinema, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want.
Come back for more Resident Evil content as we count down to Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' - Releasing in cinemas on September 19, 2026.
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Dan Bremner
Writer
Dan is a writer from Guildford with a love for all things genre, schlocky, and thoroughly '80s, and a part-time philanthropist.
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