Resident Evil: Afterlife (Movie Review)
The latest Resident Evil movie just got released recently and I'm here to give you the skinny on it. There's probably not much people who aren't at least vaguely familiar with the entire franchise but I'll just give a (very) brief overview of what you can expect. The Resident Evil movies are loosely (I really mean that word) based on the bestselling videogame series. The games have you dealing with the fallout of a biological weapon being unleashed that turns people into undead zombies that crave human flesh. The actual movies keep the idea of a biological threat, the zombies and well, that's about it. Nothing's inherently wrong with this, but it obviously pisses off fanboys of the games who go into cinemas expecting to see faithful recreations of the digital works that took up so much of their time.
Afterlife marks the fourth film released under the name, and it probably won't be the last. I won't go into the plotlines of the previous three films and I'll try to keep this one as spoiler free as I can. One thing that I have to say beforehand is about one of the biggest aspects this movie touted leading up to the release. The 3D craze that's been sweeping through cinema lately rears its head here again. Sometimes 3D can enhance a movie, draw you into it that much more, but for the most part, it's just a cheap cash-in that developers use to justify charging you more for a ticket. Read on for the verdict on the 3D in Afterlife.
The first thing I'll talk about however, is the plot. This is a zombie movie, people. A ZOMBIE movie. The focus usually isn't much on plot, but rather on action and scares. With this in mind, the plot in Afterlife is, well, it's serviceable. It works as a tool to push the story forward and to get to the next fight or action sequence. But as for finding anything that's gonna make you stop and think seriously about literally anything in your life? Nope, not here, move on. The movie starts off more or less where Apocalypse (the third RE movie) left off, with Milla Jovovich continuing her quest to bring down the Umbrella Corporation. If you haven't seen the third RE, that introduction will confuse the crap out of you and you'll be kind of jilted when you move into the actual meat of the movie. Overall though, the plot works well enough for what the film sets out to do.
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| The action is way hotter when there's three of me, cheyyahhh!!! | | | |
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Okay, moving on from plot, how does the action and general eye-candy hold up? Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter (playing Apocalypse holdover character "Claire Redfield") are as beautiful as ever but that's not really what one goes to an RE movie to see. It's all about the action, the zombies and boy did they get it right. The zombies look downright filthy and diseased this time around (that's good btw) and there's even some cases of mutations which seem ripped right out of the later Resident Evil games. This mixing of elements from the games is something the movies do well and I think it's to be commended. There are characters from the games (the aforementioned Claire and now her brother Chris) as well as the overall shadowy Umbrella corportation. The RE movies mix visual elements of the games with their own plot; it can be seen as a reinterpretation. The graphics and makeup fare well, with convincing creatures and a liberal use of gore. One issue I had with the action sequences is a lot of the time they slowed down the sequences to a Matrix, "bullet-time" crawl. I think this took away some of the adrenaline rush and immediacy you would've gotten had they not done that. I'll get to that aspect in a moment.
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| Speaking of creatures, there's this dude, yeah...He's huge | | | |
Okay so here we are now at the 3D aspect. This movie was filmed using the same 3D technology as James Cameron's Avatar so just on a logistical level alone the 3D should be better than any of the conversion cash-ins that are flooding cinemas now. Does it work? The short answer is yes. While the movie itself is nowhere on the level of Cameron's masterpiece the 3D effects are impressive and convincing. Unlike the conversions where you see cardboard-like figures popping out at you, the effects realistically bounce off and out of the screen. I actually pulled back in my seat a couple times before I realized what I was doing. It falls a bit flat though and here's why. In Avatar, the 3D was used as a tool, it was used to immerse you in Pandora with most of the 3D delegated to the dust particles, the flowers and the glowing living organisms that populated the world. This was awesome. In Afterlife however, the majority of 3D effects were used in flat-out cheesy moments where, say a bullet was coming out of a gun, or a guy threw his shades at the screen. There seemed to be no real reason for it other than "yeah, we can so do that". There were a couple of times when it really drew me into the movie though, with use of rain falling, or an explosion triggering huge clouds of dust and smoke and debris. These were all amazing. That's not to say the other effects weren't convincing; they were just cheesy. Also, it was because of the director's desire to capitalize on 3D that the battles were slowed down so much. It would be when someone stopped moving or slowed down that some arbitrary object would come hurtling towards you. I think this doesn't speak for the media but rather the execution. When done well, 3D can be a great tool that draws the audience in. While there were a couple instances where it worked here, overall I would've rather had the movie in normal 2D and skipped the ultra slow action sequences.
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| Actually, my shells ARE too sexy for this screen! |
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Bottom Line: So, what's the verdict on the film? If you're a fan of the Resident Evil movies then obviously yes, go see it, it's not bad. It won't blow your mind or anything but there's definitely worse ways to spend two hours. If you're someone that's being hooked in by 3D, I'd say it depends on your preferences. If you WANT to just see fancy effects or a shameless use of 3D then yeah I'd say go for it. If, however, you're not a fan of the RE series but you'd just like to see a cool zombie flick I'd say save your money and rent it when it comes out.
Movie Rating: 3/5
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