Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

The world is ravaged by a deadly virus unleashed by the Umbrella Corporation that turns normal humans into zombies; Alice’s quest to locate any survivors takes her to Los Angeles which is completely overrun by the undead inhabitants.

Resident Evil Afterlife is the 4th film based off the popular Capcom video game series Resident Evil (Biohazard in japan). Mila Jovovich reprises her role as Alice alongside former “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller as Chris Redfield and the star of the upcoming NBC series “Undercovers” Boris Kodjoe as Luther West. Shawn Roberts (Wesker) stars as the major antagonist for Alice, Roberts performance as Wesker is spot on to the character in the video game, sadly that isn’t a compliment Wesker is awful and wooden in the games, to simply duplicate that on the screen shows a complete lapse in judgment from director Anderson.

Afterlife is a 30 minute movie stretched out to an hour and a half, Void of any semblance of a story instead it relies on the gratuitous usage of slow motion which negates any possible positive experience it could have provided in a limited quantity. Alice shoots in slow motion, Alice Kicks in slow motion; Alice uses a sword in slow motion. Zombies die in slow motion, blood splatters in slow motion and this sad trick is not just reserved for Alice. To completely tear away any possible enjoyment this could have brought Paul W.S Anderson (Not to be confused with the talented Paul T. Anderson of Boogie Nights fame) felt the need to make this slow motion abomination also in 3D. If there is a gimmicky trick that could be utilized involving 3D, Afterlife employs it.

Afterlife is a movie that doesn’t have its own identity, it is so caught up in trying to be what a 12 year old would think is cool that it cant even get that right. As a rule of thumb if a movie is based off a video game it typically isn’t going to be any good. The first Resident Evil would fall into that category with every subsequent sequel being even worse. I think its safe to say the Resident Evil franchise has been milked drier than a 25 year old cow.

Resident Evil the video game is a franchise that has some of the most awesomely bad dialogue known to man, even by video game standards. In addition to the dialog The PSone original includes an opening live action scene that is notoriously dreadful, in comparison Afterlife makes it look Shakespearean. When a Video Game is transported to the world of film, the idea is to take the heart and spirit of the game and try to improve upon it creating a more immersive experience through the art of story telling including dialog, actions, emotions etc. Afterlife forgets all of that, and decides to bombard the audience with unnecessary visuals that fail to entertain.

Grade-53