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Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010 movie)

A movie directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

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In Eye-Popping Slow Motion!

  • Sep 25, 2010
Rating:
+3
When we last left the "Resident Evil" universe, the intrepid, superhuman Alice (Milla Jovovich) threatened to band together an army of her own clones and come after the board of the insidious Umbrella Corporation. And so she does at the beginning of "Resident Evil: Afterlife," raiding the vast superstructure that is Umbrella's headquarters buried deep beneath the streets of Tokyo. That such a structure could ever exist under Tokyo - or any city, for that matter - seriously stretches the limits of suspension of disbelief, but never mind. During this raid, we see lots of things flying around the screen in slow motion, including guns, bodies, debris, and fireballs; this, we eventually discover, is a visual technique used all throughout the film. Believe me when I say that this gets old very, very quickly.

This fourth installment of the hugely popular "Resident Evil" franchise, based on the video game of the same name, marks Paul W.S. Anderson's debut into the unstoppable world of 3D cinema, a distinction made possible through his friendship with James Cameron and the Fusion Camera System he developed for "Avatar." We're talking about some amazing 3D, here. Was there no way to put it to better use? "Afterlife" plays less like a thrilling adventure and more like instant replay on steroids, each action scene (and there are a lot of them) slowed to an agonizing pace. Every kick, stab, blow to the head, and airborne weapon seems caught in an inescapable time warp, as if Anderson was literally trying to analyze the smallest details of every shot. On the basis of this film, he would be a good candidate for the host of an after-game sports highlight show.

The plot: Eighteen months after the events of "Resident Evil: Extinction," Alice flies up to Alaska, where a transmission promising a safe haven for the uninfected had been emanating. Already there, she assumes, are a small band of survivors that flew away via helicopter. Upon arriving, she finds absolutely nothing ... except for a now feral Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who has a strange metal spider-like mechanism affixed to her chest. Claire, you may or may not recall, led the survivors at the end of the previous film. Alice removes the mechanism, only to learn that Claire doesn't remember her, nor does she remember anything else, including her own name. The specifics of this are left a little obscure, although Alice freely speculates that the mechanism had been pumping Claire's body full of an amnesia-inducing drug. I guess she was right; little by little, Claire's memory returns.

The two fly down the western seaboard to the smoldering remains of Los Angeles. They land on the roof of a former maximum security prison, which is now completely surrounded by mutated zombies. Inside, they find a new group of survivors, one of which is an imprisoned military officer named Chris (Wentworth Miller). No adequate reason is given for why he was locked up, save for a few vague references to him having killed people. If you're intimately familiar with the video game series, then you already know something else about Chris. If, like me, you have never played the games and don't plan on playing them anytime soon, then you may actually be surprised by who he turns out to be. In any case, I have a problem with film adaptations that make no effort to explain characters or situations known only to diehard fans. If you can't go into these movies cold and still get something out of them, then you're being unfairly treated.

What, for example, am I to make of the inexplicable appearance of a gigantic hooded brute wielding a makeshift axe twice as big as a normal person? I've since learned from internet research that this character is known as The Executioner, but sitting in the theater, I had no idea who or what he was, nor could I account for how he came to be in Los Angeles. Watching this scene, watching this whole movie, is a little like entering a conversation when it's halfway finished - you're being fed details, but you're missing vital bits of information, including context, intent, and meaning.

All leads up to an inevitable confrontation, which in this case involves Albert Wesker, the chairman of Umbrella. He's played by Shawn Roberts, whose low, monotone voice, stony expression, and dark-suit-and-sunglasses getup suggests he was channeling Hugo Weaving from "The Matrix." There's even a point at which he dodges bullets in invisible bursts of speed; when caught in grip of the film's slow motion, we can clearly see the bullets as they whiz past his face, leaving behind a trail of rippled air. Couple that with scenes in an underground cave that play like a cheap imitation of "The Descent" and elements from every zombie movie from "Night of the Living Dead" to "28 Days Later" - this movie doesn't merely exist in a closed fanboy universe, it's also a rip off. "Resident Evil: Afterlife" will almost certainly not be the last film of the series, but with any luck, it will be the last to be so blissfully unmindful of movie audiences.

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March 23, 2011
Excellent review, I liked this movie but I still think the third one was the best.
 
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About the reviewer
Chris Pandolfi ()
Ranked #7
Growing up a shy kid in a quiet suburb of Los Angeles, Chris Pandolfi knows all about the imagination. Pretend games were always the most fun for him, especially on the school playground; he and his … more
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About this movie

Wiki



picks up where the third film stops. Since the events of Resident Evil: Extinction, Alice has been roaming the world searching for any remaining survivors. Alice also comes face to face with her arch-nemesis Albert Wesker first time in the series. As she enters the ruined Los Angeles, she stumbles onto a base of Umbrella, surrounded by zombies.[2] She then teams up with a group of survivors who had been hiding in Los Angeles since the T-Virus outbreak, and helps them to free another group held-up in a prison, among them Claire's brother, Chris Redfield.[3]

Resident Evil: Afterlife

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil:_Afterlife

A barrage of 3-D effects enlivens Paul W.S. Anderson'sResident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth entry in the seemingly endless action-science fiction horror franchise based on the popular Capcom video game series. Plot, dialogue, and character development all remain secondary considerations; what's key here are the set pieces that allow Milla Jovovich to unleash maximum damage to virally infected zombies, villainous henchmen, and just about anyone else who stands in the way of her stopping the shadowy Umbrella Corporation. Jovovich retains the blend of grit and pulchritude that have made her a fanboy favorite (though said viewers may decry the film's bit of shower-scene interruptus), and she's well supported by returning cast members Ali Larter and Boris Kodjoe (Undercovers) andPrison Break's Wentworth Miller, who, as ...
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Tags

Movies, Action Movies, Science Fiction Movies, Horror Movies, Paul W S Anderson
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Details

Genre: Action, Adventure
Release Date: September 10, 2010
Runtime: 97 minutes
Studio: Screen Gems
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"In Eye-Popping Slow Motion!"
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