Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) Screen Gems/Action-Horror RT: 96 minutes Rated R (language, strong bloody violence) Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Screenplay: Paul W.S. Anderson Music: tomandandy Cinematography: Glen MacPherson Release date: September 10, 2010 (US) Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Wentworth Miller, Boris Kodjoe, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Kacey Barnfield, Norman Yeung, Sergio Peris-Mencheta. Box Office: $60.1M (US)/$296.2M (World)
Rating: ** ½
Horror movie junkie that I am, I just had to see Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3-D. As I recall, it really didn’t do a hell of a lot for the movie. If anything, it acted as more of a distraction from the weak story line. Uh huh, Paul W.S. Anderson reclaims the director’s chair for this installment and it shows. It’s still an entertaining movie, but the narrative isn’t as strong as the previous two entries in the Resident Evil series.
I suppose that I shouldn’t really complain too much about Resident Evil: Afterlife; after all, these movies could have been much, MUCH worse. Look at the Mortal Kombat movies, the first one is bad enough, but the sequel is even worse. Compared to all the other video game movies, the Resident Evil movies all look like Citizen Kane. Besides, they all star that gorgeous bad ass Milla Jovovich and I’m certainly not going to complain about that.
In addition, Ali Later returns as Claire Redfield and she’s equally adept at kicking serious zombie ass. By now, you must realize that the Resident Evil flicks are all about the bad ass ladies! Sure, the guys are pretty tough themselves, but it’s the ladies that really take charge of the situation. Perhaps the strong female characters are part of these movies’ appeal? One could successfully argue that the Resident Evil movies belong in an entirely different category, the post-feminist action flick. Fortunately, this is about as deep as these movies get. The audience isn’t looking for deep meaning here, they’ve come to see bad ass babes fighting zombies. You’ll be happy to know that Resident Evil: Afterlife delivers the goods.
The movie opens with a sequence that looks like it was taken from The Matrix. Alice shows up at Umbrella’s facility in Tokyo to take care of Albert Wesker (Roberts) once and for all. She’s brought a few friends with her; specifically, a whole bunch of clones she created in Dr. Isaac’s facility at the end of the previous movie. The facility gets destroyed, but Wesker manages to get away in his private aircraft. The real Alice, who was waiting for him on the plane, tries to stop him. Unfortunately, he manages to inject her with a serum that strips her of all her superhuman powers. The plane crashes into a mountain and it appears that Wesker dies.
Six months later, Alice is travelling around North America, attempting to locate the source of emergency broadcasts from “Arcadia”. You see, it turns out that Arcadia is NOT a town in Alaska; it’s the name of a cargo ship that’s been collecting uninfected survivors. After landing in a coastal area, Alice encounters her old friend Claire (Larter) who doesn’t seem to remember her. She’s wearing some kind of mind control device on her chest and it causes her to attack Alice. Alice subdues her and destroys the device, but that doesn’t cure Claire’s amnesia. She puts Claire in her plane and they fly to Los Angeles where they find a group of survivors living in an abandoned maximum security prison.
The new group of survivors, led by former professional athlete Luther West (Kodjoe, Undercovers), includes actress Crystal Waters (Barnfield), movie producer Bennett (Coates, The Last Boy Scout), his intern Kim (Yeung) and Chris (Miller, Prison Break), a mysterious prisoner being held under lock and key. They’re safe in the supposedly secure building for a little while, but the zombies manage to get in and attack Alice. They have to find a way to escape to the safety of the Arcadia which rests right there on the coast.
Resident Evil: Afterlife is a fairly standard “fight for survival” story, but that really isn’t such a bad thing. It has more than its fair share of cool action sequences and gross zombie violence. As usual, Anderson opts for style over substance. In this case, it’s easy to understand why. He probably figured that the 3-D effects would compensate for any of the movie shortcomings. It doesn’t. I realized this when I watched the movie again on DVD in regular 2-D. Don’t get me wrong, Resident Evil: Afterlife is enjoyable enough, but it’s a comparatively weaker effort on the part of the filmmakers.
I suppose that I could fall back on my initial comment about the movie back in ’10. I said that if you like the other Resident Evil movies, there’s no reason that you won’t like Resident Evil: Afterlife. I could also sum things up by saying “It is what it is.” Both of these comments are accurate. However, I wonder where things will go from here. The final scene leaves the door wide open for a fifth movie. Based on the trailer, I have some idea where Anderson plans to take the story. In a way, I’m kind of hoping that Resident Evil: Retribution (opening Friday September 14, 2012) will be the final installment. Whether that’s true remains to be seen. We’ll know on Friday, stay tuned.
