Potentially good story poorly transposed to screen

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2011)

The Resident Evil franchise has had its ups and its downs, and it is a pity that a really good story, written by director Paul W. S. Anderson, has not been better utilised in this episode. Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter do their best but sadly there are parts where the film just doesn't scan as it should.
The opening is promising with Alice (Jovovich) searching for Arcadia, somewhere in Alaska, where there is "no infection", but there is Claire (Larter) who is not herself. The pair, searching in a plane for survivors, find a group holed up inside a prison surrounded by hordes of voracious undead. For those who need to work out how you break into a prison then the method is commonly used when breaking out.
I suppose the weakness in the story is timing making the story seem very pretentious. I mean just how long does it take an "undead" to know how you get at "food" inside a prison? Although much use is made of CGI it really isn't that convincing, although the concluding sequences are better than much that has gone before. As others have said the talents of many of the cast are wasted especially Angel Ortiz. It's probably impossible to know all that went to the cutting room floor, but I have a feeling a lot of this was botched together because continuity of action is poor.
I do hope the next output is better because from unpromising material some of the series has been excellent. I suppose this episodes suffers by comparison but, had it been standalone, I would have had trouble giving it better than two out of ten. However out of reverence to the franchise I give it five out of ten.