Resident Slow Motion

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2010)

Much like the two other sequels, this fourth installment in the great movie adaptation of the popular gaming franchise is different than the ones before it.
Picking up after the third movie, Alice is seeking revenge on Umbrella's Tokyo Underground Base, specifically Wesker, and as she promised, she brings a few friends along. The beginning is a very clear sign of just how much slow motion is in this film, as we watch what is assumed to be the first zombie outbreak in Tokyo, painfully slow as the camera crawls up along a woman standing in the rain as people walk past her, during which the credits flash about. Finally, as expected, she attacks someone, lights go out across Tokyo, Japan, and the whole world as the camera pans way back, skipping ahead four years to where the third movie left off, and slowly going back down again.
We are treated to Alice's invasion of the underground lab, and in a nod to the first film, 3D wire frames of the immensely massive building are used constantly throughout the opener to this movie. As she goes after Wesker, we are shown that is in fact her clones from the end of the third movie attacking, using the powers that apparently, all her clones share and that were shown in the previous two sequels.
Unfortunately, they strip these powers away, via Wesker injecting the real Alice with antibodies that destroy the T Virus within her. Which brings up about the only really confusing part of the movie, as she literally right after survives a helicopter crash and walks out pretty much unharmed.
Skipping six months ahead, she seeks out Claire and K-Mart in Alaska, and thus begins the actual movie itself. As she searches for everyone, mysteries pop up, and she meets new people, yet again, including Claire's brother, Chris (who unfortunately has no real point in being in the movie) and your typical group of people (Black guy, Asian guy, dickhead guy, hot lady who dies about 10 minutes after we meet her, perv guy) Arcadia turns out to be a ploy by Umbrella to gather survivors, to keep testing the virus on them. Why, you never really know, it doesn't seem like there would be much point, since the impression is that the world is pretty much destroyed. Once they find this out, it's time for revenge on none other than Wesker, who as was hinted at at the beginning, is infused with the virus as well, much like Alice.
Not an overly complicated story, and aside from the why of it all, it works. It is, of course, left open ended once again, with a surprise cameo from Sienna Guillory, which incorporates plot elements from the recent Resident Evil 5, which was nice to see. And it does leave you wanting more.
Throughout the film, slow motion is used to the point of you sitting there and going "Why?" There is more bullet time in this movie than the previous three combined, there is even a freeze frame shot of the helicopter crash in the beginning with Wesker and Alice, which as far as I could tell, served no real purpose. It's neat looking, yes, but....doesn't really have anything to do with how she survives it, or him for that matter. There's slow motion of Alice jumping off buildings, jumping off ropes, throwing stars, jumping through glass, falling down a shaft, shooting zombies in the head, there's a ~seriously~ stretched out fight between Claire and a hooded hulk of a zombie with an axe to match his size, where quite literally at least an entire minute and a half is them running, looking at each other, looking at the gun on the ground, and running towards each other, before Claire finally ducks under him and shoots him while sliding along the floor...in slow motion.
I was sitting there thinking they did this on purpose just to make the movie longer, and also wishing they would just hurry up already.
When they do finally fight Wesker, slow motion goes into over drive, as does the bullet time, with the movie finally incorporating the awesome fight scenes we've seen in the games with Wesker essentially beating the living hell out of everyone, and it is quite awesome and fun to watch. Unfortunately, since they did so much slow motion before that point, it's a bit anti climatic.
And then unfortunately, Wesker gets stupid villain disease and is dispatched of incredibly easily. If you're a fan of the games at all, you will be cringing at the end when you see what happens to him.
Once again, the music is also completely different from the others, and the awesome tunes from the first one do not make a return, although some of the sound track is very interesting to listen to.
The acting is great, the story is decent, and the graphics are amazing. Way too much slow motion makes what few fight scenes there are tedious, and underwhelming, and since the ending is basically just a set up for a fifth movie, it leaves you a bit disappointed, once again.