Review of Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) by Pillis — 24 Oct 2019

Afterlife is the second top grossing entry in the franchise thanks to a highly publicized (and rather spectacular) 3D and the return of Paul W.S. Anderson as a director. In spite of all of the good stuff, Afterlife is a sterile movie with little story supporting the action and suffers a lot as it is mostly contained in a single location for a big chunk of the movie without the claustrophobia of the first one. Also that building is not well designed and I have always wondered who lit up all those torches on the walls that were clearly unreachable (lol).

The big screen reunion of Chris and Claire Redfield is underdeveloped and it is never really explained why Chris is kept prisoner by the other survivors. The movie seems to be stuck in a loop where nothing happens and no progress is being made. The only key moment is Wesker taking away Alice's powers preventing the next movies becoming a superhero nonsense BS... as if the franchise needed more over the top action with ridiculous physics. This was a good thing.

Afterlife basically serves as a way to set Alice in a trap by the Umbrella which makes sense for a scene but not a whole movie. Having said that, the action scenes are stunningly shot with great stunts, precise camera work, sleek design and cool costumes. An overuse of the slow motion can become ridiculous at times but the 3D mania back then made it look pretty cool. Now with the 4K UHD Blu-Ray we can admire every single water drop during the iconic bathroom fight. Audio is just as spectacular with a bombastic soundtrack and impressive surround sound rich in deep bass. This is technically a sublime effort so much it affords to pay homage to The Matrix without failing at it.

Milla is always the queen of the show with her intense dramatic scenes, credible action starpower and humorous one liners not to be missed in mindless horror/action/sci-fi movies like these ones.

So overall it's my least favorite movie from the RE franchise but thanks to its visual style, superior direction and elaborate action sequences, Afterlife is still a fun movie to enjoy on a big 4K screen or in 3D with its impeccable audio. It entertains.