Resident Evil fans won't be disappointed

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 2010)

¨Five years ago... A virus escaped, and everybody died. ¨ It has been three years since the last Resident Evil movie came out. Afterlife is the fourth of the franchise and lives up to the expectations most fans of the series had although it isn't as good as the first movie. This is my favorite franchise based on a video game and in my opinion the series has worked because of Milla Jovovich. She is great in her role as Alice and has become a huge action star. Paul W.S. Anderson directed the first film of the series and now he came back to direct the fourth one, although he has written the screenplay for all four films so he has been involved with the entire process. The effects are great and if you are a fan of the franchise I recommend you see this in 3D, but if you didn't like the other films or aren't familiar with them I wouldn't recommend them since you might find yourself lost in the midst of the plot. I have to admit I never played the video games or know anything about them so I can't say how true to the game the story is, but considering all the video games that have been turned into movies this is by far the best series. The thing I liked least about this movie was the opening 15 minutes in Tokyo, but I understand they served to connect the end of Resident Evil Extinction with Afterlife. After Tokyo the movie really picks up and I found myself engaged in the story. This is not a movie you will enjoy for the acting, dialogue, or intelligent script, but it is an action packed movie with cool visuals, good fight scenes, and a very hot Milla Jovovich doing what she does best: killing zombies.
The movie begins right where Resident Evil Extinction left us. Alice (Milla Jovovich) is trying to destroy the Umbrella Corporation using her newly discovered clones and goes deep inside Umbrella Head Quarters in Tokyo to kill Wesker (Shawn Roberts). After a face-off with several soldiers, Wesker escapes in an aircraft and the base is destroyed. Alice's clones have all been exterminated in the explosion, but she managed to get to the aircraft in time and just when she is about to kill Wesker he injects her with a serum that neutralizes the T-virus in her blood. She losses her superpowers and becomes human and thanks him for that right before they crash in the mountains. Alice survives and decides to go search for any survivors left in the apocalyptic world. She travels to Alaska in search of Arcadia where her friends had parted in the third film. Once in Alaska she finds the helicopter her friends where in, but there is no sign of survivors, the place is deserted. Right when she is about to lose hope she is attacked by Claire (Ali Larter) who has no memory of who she is because her memory has been erased by an Umbrella device. Alice frees her from the device and tries to help her get her memory back, while in the meantime they travel together on a two-man plane to Hollywood in search of more survivors. Here they find the city infected with zombies, but there are a few survivors in the rooftop of a prison cell. They make a forceful landing and meet some of the survivors who think she is here to rescue them. Luther (Boris Kodjoe), Crystal (Kasey Barnfield), Kim (Norman Yeung), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere) are some of the survivors who tell Alice what Arcadia actually is and together they have to try to get there before the zombies find a way in the prison walls.
Wentworth Miller was a good addition in this film as he plays Chris Redfield, Claire's brother, but due to her memory loss she can't recognize him. Alice and Claire are back from the third film and they have a lot of screen time as usual. Miller and Kodjoe give good supporting male roles, but we all know that the Resident Evil franchise is about girls who can kick zombie butts. In the first film it was Jovovich with Michelle Rodriguez, then she teamed up with Sienna Guillory in the second one, and now in the third and fourth films Jovovich and Larter are the true stars of the film. There are some very memorable scenes with great Matrix like effects. The 3D visuals are cool, and I especially liked the scene where Alice and Claire battled the Axeman in the bathroom. This is a popcorn action movie and probably not for everyone. If you didn't like the other Resident Evil movies then there is no reason why you should go see this, but if you liked those films then you will probably enjoy this one as well.
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