DVD Resident Evil: Afterlife
Run time: 97 min
Rating: 5.9
Genres: Action | Adventure | Horror
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writers: Paul W.S. Anderson
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller
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Storyline In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead – and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap. Written by Screen Gems |
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Plot Keywords: survivor, undead, corporation, umbrella, siege | |
Details: Country: Germany, France, USA, Canada Release Date: 10 September 2010 (UK) |
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Box Office Budget: $60,000,000 (estimated) Opening Weekend: £1,690,655 (UK) (10 September 2010) Gross: $60,128,566 (USA) (29 October 2010) |
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In a series that deals with viral mutations, it's pretty fitting that the fourth Resident Evil, a film that found its roots in the sort of humble zombie/ mad scientist territory, is practically mutated beyond recognition. And when is mutation ever really a good thing? After a devastating zombie plague hits humanity, rogue survivor/ superhuman Alice (Milla Jovovich) roams the globe seeking those responsible: the evil Umbrella corporation. This time, the search takes her to LA, where she finds other survivors holed up in a prison, and a mysterious safe-haven called Arcadia.
Told like a story translated into French, Japanese, back to English, and finally into GGAAAAKEEERFLLLAAARGH, Afterlife is a bloody patchwork of action movie clichés, clunky dialog, and more slow motion than you can shake a clock at. There's also a villain so villainous he wears dark glasses inside. INSIDE.
The whole thing plays out like a video recording of a theme park ride, and if we were to defend Afterlife at all, it would be that its 3D appeal does make it sort of like a ride, so much so that watching it in any other dimension is a weirdly unfocused experience that falls (get ready for it) flat. Slow-mo rubble sails unimpressively across the screen. Slow-mo bullets sort of come toward you. Oh, and did we mention the slow mo? But all these hilarious jokes aside, it's a shoddy, lazy and repetitive film that treats the audience like we don't have brains, but are just hungry for them.
I'll be honest, I went to see this knowing it wouldn't be great. The 3D looked awesome, and I was excited to see Wesker. What I wasn't expecting was a dull, pointless, plot less, horribly-acted cornball "action" movie.
Milla has worn out her welcome as a poor-man's Angelina Jolie. I love her, I really do, she's one of my favorite actresses, but this has gone too far. That said…
Without trying to spoil anything, it seems that Paul Anderson had no idea where to go with this sequel, thus throwing everything out from the last film, (I wont go into detail), while shoving small things from the video game in, just to fill time and justify the 'Resident Evil' title. It falls flat, and leaves many of the scenes feeling unneeded and forced.
My MAIN grudge against RE:A is the lack of plot. I do like to see a good mindless action/horror film (Machete and Piranha are on my top 10 list already!), but this film took itself way too seriously, and forgot where the hell it was going at times. Taking a look back at the movie, it seemed like nothing happened throughout the whole 96 minutes! The action scenes, in my opinion, were lame, tame, dull, overdone, and the slow-motion wasn't impressing anyone. It came off, once again, as forced and corny.
I'm a fan of the RE videogames and do nitpick, but at the same time, I've taken the movies for what they are. The first film was great, second meh, third bad, but this one was downright horrible. I'm really not sure I saw the same movie as most of the reviewers here, because what I saw was a flashy, dull, pointless entry in an already dead series. Time to give it a rest Paul.
Resident Evil: Afterlife gets a 3/10 *'s
While I usually refrain from writing reviews, RE: Afterlife was such an excruciating experience to endure, I had to somehow vent my righteous anger. Thus: the review.
While I quite enjoyed the very first Resident Evil movie (except for the CGI showdown), starting with Number two (Apocalypse) the movies went from thrilling, spooky zombie movies to something like a low-budget Zombie-Movie-in-the-Matrix. I say low-budget, because the special effects and action sequences screamed of cheap and shoddy work, the stories were laughable at best, and yet, here comes another entry in a series that should have stayed dead.
To see all of Afterlife's Non-Glory in 3-D, probably made it even worse for me. As much as I like 3-D movies, RE: Afterlife cannot be salvaged by anything at all, short of standing up after the first three minutes and walking out the door. Or maybe urinating on the screen, then walking out the door. Or maybe adding another dimension, time, which would allow me to go back to the beginning of the film and shoot myself repeatedly in the head.
Starting with the first (of many) utterly ridiculous action sequences, dominated by so-bad-it's-funny-in-a-sad-way wire-fighting and wire-wall-jumping, the movie actually manages to go downhill from there, which is somewhat commendable, since I thought it not quite possible to even get any worse.
What follows is an assembly of disjointed, poorly conceived action sequences, way too many slow-motion captures, incoherent story telling, continuity errors that made my teeth hurt, and then you realize that the movie has only been running for thirty minutes, and you ask yourself what you could have done in a previous life to deserve this.
The "story", if you want to call it that, is driven by ludicrous plot elements that only exist for the sake of driving a non-existent story ahead, while half of what happens seems to only happen in order to create the need for even more embarrassing zombie-killing action. Or poor attempts at creating some of that Wow-Feeling we all shared when we first entered "The Matrix".
As some critic once wrote about the new Star Wars Episodes (I-III), the Resident Evil movies offer great actors the chance for the worst performances of their lives. I am still astounded by the fact that Milla Jovovich has not filed a law suit against the producers for prolonged career murder or violent destruction of reputation.
I honestly cannot find more than two good things about this film, and I actually am an avid fan of the video game series, so seeing some familiar faces, as well as monsters, should have at least appeased my inner nerd-ness, but alas, it wasn't so.
As my final verdict, I will now present the two and only good things in this movie: 1. Ali Larter in wet clothes. 2. Kacey Barnfield in tight clothes.
The rest deserves to be laughed at, tarred, feathered, quartered, strangled, drowned, poisoned, stabbed, clubbed, and then buried in a toxic landfill next to the remains of Uwe Boll.
I went to the cinema with realistic expectations; however even my with my very low outlook I was shocked by how poor this film was.
The plot was so thin that I honestly feel that it didn't exist. The movie instead was random events of poorly scripted action scenes that at times looked like an 80's cartoon. I am going to list in no particular order the glaring aspects of the movie that exemplify the lack of thought and continuity that went into its creation.
Ammunition: Call me a cynic but surely even futuristic weapons, require to be reloaded or even ammunition? Instead we have full blown automatic fire from handguns that just never run out.
Food: Where does the food come from? Stored? Why is the Hollywood sign still burning 5 years after the end of mankind? Make up: Character been through the 'wars' covered in mud and guts, blink and perfect makeup is reapplied and hair in perfect condition. Miracle!! Fashion: Again would a few survivors, ever have designer trimmed beards, haircuts, clothes in perfect condition? Fuel: A small aircraft that can fly without the requirement for being refuelled.
Ship: Here comes more of my sarcasm: ' I have searched the whole ship and can't find 15,000 people hidden on board, or a giant science lab, or hundreds of fighter planes' …. Oh did you mean check that out that massive door with the umbrella logo on it… well blow me!! Giant Hammer: Random monster with a hammer, comically knocking down a metal door, if you've watched the movie you'll know what I mean.
Armoury: Look lets swim underwater, whilst holding our breath for 20mins to an armoury. Luckily for our intrepid characters the weapons and ammunition are stored together in the same room and oh look at the giant air conditioned unit in the ceiling, fantastic security and it leads straight to the roof of the building, magic.
3D effects: I have watched many 3D movies of late and this one was so poor that I think they forgot to make it 3D.
I feel that this movie could have been a five star bonanza except that there was not plot, thought or direction put into the movie. The movie never promised to be a dramatic enterprise with gritty story lines and depth of characters, never less I am sure any self respecting director of any note would have the self pride and integrity to produce something of more quality and reverence. My recommendation, do not watch this movie!!