Review of Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) by Tatsunori O — 25 Nov 2013

I'm not actually opposed to films based on video games, in fact I'm actually quite a fan of the first two Resident Evil movies. Extinction and Afterlife however, not so much... Or at all, really.

Though this is truly a testament to the cinematographic mind of Writer/Director Paul W. S. Anderson (Death Race, Alien VS Predator, The Three Musketeers), what it is most certainly not, is a good movie. The idea's actually pretty cool, but the story is fucking weak. Axeman The Executioner (above) and Chairman Albert Wesker were both "cool" villains, but they completely lacked substance.

The premise of badasses being locked up surrounded by zombies was executed far more poorly than even the Dawn of the Dead remake, and nowhere near as much dumb fun as something like Dark of the Moon or Death Race. However, there's small elements of both, and you most certainly find yourself keen to see where the film's going next. It's always to a place of brainless disappointment, but still, 'counts for something.

What can be said for the Resident Evil franchise, is at least they do heroines well. Despite being based on a Japanese Action/Horror game (which just fucking screams All-Female-Characters-Are-Walking-Tits) the films manage to have self-sufficient BAMF-women to spare. I mean, they're not terribly deep or anything, but it's better than you'd think to hope for, given the material. Four movies along now, that's as many as Miss Ripley got! Yes, I just compared Milla Jovovich (The Three Musketeers, The Fourth Kind, A Perfect Getaway, Ultraviolet, Zoolander, Joan of Arc, The Fifth Element) to Sigourney Weaver, eat a dick and calm the fuck down Alien fans, no, I don not think that Resident Evil is anywhere near the calibre of Alien, but at least Resident's upcoming sequel has the same female lead.

In summary, Afterlife, is plain and simply bad. But if you sat through Extinction and at the end sort of liked it enough to go "...Aw, yeah... I s'pose"; then Afterlife is not very much worse, and at least you'll be keeping an eye on the franchise. I'm sure it would have been better on a big screen, but I can't bring myself to support 3D, even when it isn't post-conversion.

38%.

-Gimly.