Review of Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) by Jason V — 31 Jul 2012

At one point, the Resident Evil movie series was about something. A big bad corporation decimating the world and the fight for survival. Now it's about throwing Milla Jovovich into some location with other cannon fodder...wait, other characters...and watch breathlessly as only a few survive. For everything I didn't like about the previous installment, Extinction, there may be even more not to like in Afterlife. I almost feel like this is the Prison Break of the series (literally) since the only objective is to get out of a jail and to the much ballyhooed Arcadia. Nothing of actual interest happens and, to be honest, at least 75 minutes of the movie could be cut without missing a thing, story wise. All we need to see in this movie is Alice rescuing some survivors and then the finale, which then leads into the story proper. But there is no story here. We're saddled with way, WAY too much slow motion (remember when bullet time was jaw dropping around the time of the original Matrix film?), yawn-worthy 3D and characters who simply recite lines. Heck, there's even an underwater scene in which some of the zombies start attacking our heroes. If that isn't straight out of Alien Resurrection, I don't know what is. There is a tag scene...which is 100% spoiled since the cast credits play right before it. Any astute filmgoer will see a name and realize that person has not appeared in the film.

Yup, RE 5 is on the way.