Studio Name: Sony/Screen Gems (Constantin Film/Impact Pictures)
MPAA Rating: R
Disc/Transfer Information: 1080p High Definition 2.35:1; Region 1 (U.S.) Release
Tested Audio Track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter
WARNING: Spoiler content included below.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again – the last installment in this franchise, which portrayed Milla Jovovich kicking the snot out of some virus plagued zombies on what was once the Las Vegas Strip should have been perfect material for a new John Carpenter “Escape From” project –
Escape From Vegas should have aptly been the title, and Carpenter could have had Kurt Russell once again going into a sand-covered Sin City amidst the rubble of condemned hotels and casinos to rescue some government official for some odd reason. I was tempted to write a letter to Carpenter myself suggesting the idea, but the thought was fleeting and instead I ordered a large cheese with extra pepperoni and called it a day. But seriously folks, it’s my opinion that the first two
Resident Evils didn’t entertain as much until the third one came along in its over-the-top and riddled-with-camp brainless action coating, showing us hordes of undead attacking “Alice” and her band of virus survivors amidst the ruins of what was once Las Vegas. Pure check-your-brain-at-the-door excitement that allowed
Resident Evil: Extinction to stand on its own as a kick- action flick even within the confines of its own franchise, much like what Jonathan Mostow did to
Terminator 3…
But I admit: I simply never understood the
Resident Evil films, and perhaps that had something to do with the fact that I wasn’t remotely into the games they’re supposedly based on; I mean…what exactly is going on here? The government creates clones of this “Alice” (Jovovich) who supposedly holds the extract within her blood coding that can cure a horrific plague that has consumed the world and turns humans into flesh-eating maniacs (this notion has been done in Hollywood countless times already and it makes me wonder if that’s what’s in store for us –
Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, I Am Legend…)…but the original Alice is somehow now the enemy of the government and a totalitarian like ruler of all named the Umbrella Corporation, and they have all gone underground to hide while scientists try and find the cure to the virus while looking for the original “Project Alice.” My research indicated that the video games actually didn’t go this way – but let’s put that aside for a moment. Somehow, Alice has superhuman abilities that make her a ninja-ess of sorts, kicking, jumping and punching with a ferocity that would make Spider-Man jealous. And so she has the task of taking on the undead walking the Earth and hunting down the government figures within the Umbrella Corporation as they simultaneously hunt her. There’s much more to it, but that was as far as I could get in attempting to understand this madness.
This latest installment in the franchise – shown in 3D in select theaters upon its theatrical debut – attempts to follow the events at the conclusion of
Extinction and both being helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the flow is pretty neat. However, I must say…boy, did
Afterlife come and go in the theaters in some hurry: I can recall it hitting the cineplexes, and I wasn’t even aware Screen Gems and Sony were planning on even making another of these or that one was even out. I know Anderson left the end of the third film open for another, but I didn’t think it would come so quick – before I knew it, the title was out on DVD and Blu-ray. Normally, when this happens, it doesn’t really bode well for the picture, as you have to wonder why it went from theater to home video so quickly and what went wrong theatrically…as it turns out, this really wasn’t up to the standards, story-wise, as the third one.
If you are a fan, and can recall, Jovovich’s Alice character “freed” all the Alice clones in the underground Umbrella bunker at the end of
Extinction after her battle with the mutated Doctor Isaacs. She then looked into a monitor and announced to the chairman of the board and other Umbrella holograms that she was coming to get them – and bringing some of her friends along with her. If you could also recall, the end of the last film depicted zombies lumbering around desolate streets in Tokyo – and this is where
Afterlife picks up. Boy – let me say this right now: This film felt much more like a
Matrix sequel than any
Resident Evil and was overtly silly and campy in terms of ridiculous CGI-coated action sequences. The film opens with a bustling downtown Tokyo district during a rainstorm, apparently before the virus went wild there. We see an attractive young Asian girl standing in a crosswalk who then locks eyes with a man passing her in slow motion, as she suddenly and violently attacks him, biting his neck and thus spreading the virus. We then fast forward a bit, to where Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo are dealing with hordes of undead – as well as the evil chairman that Alice addressed at the end of the last film – as we witness Alice and her clones as ninja-like assassins storming the complex, taking out Umbrella soldiers left and right in wild action sets. The action though, as I said, is so CGI-enhanced they’re almost silly and cartoonish – bullets are being dodged left and right, Alice clones are jumping off the walls and around ceilings, and the whole thing just felt like a video game…much more so than
Extinction ever did. It indeed felt like
The Matrix meets George Romero. Finally, the real Alice and one remaining clone attempt to take out the evil chairman in the control room in an exciting, over the top machine gun battle that has the two ladies flying down a tunnel by ropes, firing their guns at the chairman, while he attempts to escape.
As the remaining Alice clone is eliminated during the gunfight, the real Alice manages to get on to the high tech copter the chairman is escaping the exploding facility on – once there, another battle ensues between Alice and the chairman, although he ends up injecting her neck with a toxin that removes her superhuman powers; it seems he is the one that is super strong now, kicking her behind all over the interior of the copter until the aircraft strikes a mountainside and we assume that’s the last we’re going to see of the evil Umbrella chairman of the board.
REVIEW CONTINUED BELOW...
