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| Resident Evil Afterlife 3D :: Hollywood Movie Resident Evil Afterlife Review |
“I don’t know if I can do this much longer,” groans an exhausted Milla Jovovich, shortly after dispatching a horde of corporate paramilitary goons in the explode-tastic introductory sequence of Resident Evil: Afterlife. I feel her pain. But Jovovich, in her fourth turn as Alice, the genetically enhanced, zombie-slaughtering heroine of the video game-inspired series, isn’t the only one looking a bit tired. The entire film suffers from a severe case of franchise fatigue, the hallmarks of which no amount of “big guns, beautiful women, [and] dogs with heads that explode,” as producer Jeremy Bolt so artfully boasts in the film’s official press notes, can possibly hide.
This latest edition finds Alice stripped of her superpowers by her arch-nemesis, the blond Matrix reject Albert Wesker (a cringe-worthy Shawn Roberts), whose evil Umbrella Corporation created the virus that inadvertently turned most of the planet’s population into flesh-devouring zombies. Though she can no longer pull off fancy tricks like triggering spontaneous earthquakes, she’s still able to withstand powerful blasts without shielding and fire handguns the size of her head without any visible recoil. Both traits come in handy when she’s charged with leading a small, ethnically diverse group of human survivors through an army of undead, many of whom are armed with face-sucking tentacles in lieu of tongues, to a refugee camp located on a ship anchored off the coast of Los Angeles.
For all of its recycled plot elements, predictable twists, and cliched dialogue, Resident Evil: Afterlife does feature one genuinely interesting new wrinkle (and no, it’s not the aforementioned dogs with heads that explode, though they are quite nice): It’s the first film of the franchise to be shot and edited entirely in 3D — the real, non-Clash of the Titans variety. Who knows, perhaps writer-director (and Jovovich hubby) Paul W.S. Anderson, returning to the helm after ceding directing duties on the prior two Resident Evil films, was simply too drained from the work of adding an additional dimension to all of the film’s flying limbs and bursts of blood to devote much creative energy to anything else. More likely, there was never any creative energy there in the first place.
And still, Anderson sees fit to end the film with a transparent pitch for yet another sequel. Might I suggest Resident Evil: Straight to Video?
Source Courtesy : Hollywood.com
This latest edition finds Alice stripped of her superpowers by her arch-nemesis, the blond Matrix reject Albert Wesker (a cringe-worthy Shawn Roberts), whose evil Umbrella Corporation created the virus that inadvertently turned most of the planet’s population into flesh-devouring zombies. Though she can no longer pull off fancy tricks like triggering spontaneous earthquakes, she’s still able to withstand powerful blasts without shielding and fire handguns the size of her head without any visible recoil. Both traits come in handy when she’s charged with leading a small, ethnically diverse group of human survivors through an army of undead, many of whom are armed with face-sucking tentacles in lieu of tongues, to a refugee camp located on a ship anchored off the coast of Los Angeles.
For all of its recycled plot elements, predictable twists, and cliched dialogue, Resident Evil: Afterlife does feature one genuinely interesting new wrinkle (and no, it’s not the aforementioned dogs with heads that explode, though they are quite nice): It’s the first film of the franchise to be shot and edited entirely in 3D — the real, non-Clash of the Titans variety. Who knows, perhaps writer-director (and Jovovich hubby) Paul W.S. Anderson, returning to the helm after ceding directing duties on the prior two Resident Evil films, was simply too drained from the work of adding an additional dimension to all of the film’s flying limbs and bursts of blood to devote much creative energy to anything else. More likely, there was never any creative energy there in the first place.
And still, Anderson sees fit to end the film with a transparent pitch for yet another sequel. Might I suggest Resident Evil: Straight to Video?
Source Courtesy : Hollywood.com
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