Dumb fun, with equal emphasis on both words

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2010)

Alice takes her army of clones to make Wesker pay. If you don't already know what that means, don't expect this film to tell you. Anyway, after that, she finds herself in the same situation as the last three times: Trapped in the middle of somewhere, wanting to save everyone there with her. No, really, that is it. As far as the plot(which is swiss cheese, what else is new?) goes, I mean(and don't expect it to hold up, make sense, or explain much of anything). This is rather entertaining and is, occasionally, effective in getting us excited and the like, in fact, in those aspects, it's the best of the four. Heck, in nearly all regards it is, really. Action is cool(as are a few of the sets) and surprisingly fitting in amount; there is the occasional awkward pose or sequence, and slow-motion, whilst not always bad, is severely overused. Anderson can come up with nifty ideas, but not all of them are as good as he seems to think they are. Again, par for the course. He is getting better(I keep watching his flicks hoping that that will happen, and trying to figure out why he is allowed to write or direct), using his own horrid(like faking us out by establishing something only to abandon it, having chaos erupt out of calm, false tension, etc.) clichés less(with that said, this has a couple of Hollywood ones) and balancing things a little. The music is more appropriate and less noisy than the others. Costumes are well-done(the Cronenbergs are a talented family), with the Umbrella troops being faceless stormtroopers and the unbelievably hot Jovovich's(who doesn't get naked in this one, breaking the trend) outfit being the least silly since the original(in spite of the cut-off sleeves, similar to the pants-legs of the last one). The ninja-thing is enjoyable, and in general, if you liked the trailer(as I did), and you know that these are stupid, you may very well get into this(as I did). While this is still centered on her, Larter gets actual screen-time here. Michael Scofield joins, adding nothing other than a face-palming "joke"(care to take one guess where we first see him?) and scowling(worse than in that show). Guillory as Jill only has a cameo. So, Exctintion was one big set-up to this. Does it live up to that? Not story-wise. Our lead loses her powers(she just barely used them!) almost immediately, albeit without her becoming particularly vulnerable. As sad as that is, honestly, at this point, it's probably too late to do otherwise. Maybe this should be the last one. I understand this is the one most based on the games(I've barely played any of them); it doesn't get the mood of them right(why start now? The original was eerie, the second was clearly inspired by RE2 and 3(without getting stuff right), that's the closest they ever got). There is zero character development. We don't care about any of the new ones(not that the old ones put us on any emotional rollercoasters). About half of the one-liners are average(the rest are below). Dialog is poor. Wesker speaks and moves just like Agent Smith, and that's not the only clear Matrix reference. This is shot with the tech of Avatar, and the 3D does indeed look nice, and it's used well and not excessively(...well, a little is), and this is something that it is made for. FX are well-done, if not stunning. The humor is OK; this got unintended laughs, as well. There are jump scares, and they work. This got and kept my adrenaline pumping, without my ever forgetting that it was simplistic. As horror should have, there is a moderate amount of blood, gore, disturbing content and strong language in this. I recommend this to anyone fan of the movie series, forgiving lovers of the video-games, and anyone who wants something to turn their brain off to and just kick back with. 7/10