Does little more than exploit the new 3D scene.

Rating: 3/10 (13 September 2010)

I can understand why the critics hate it. I can also understand why fans of the game would love it. But, i am at a loss as to what someone who isn't an avid gamer would make of this movie. For such a person (me), even if the person has followed the movie franchise to its fourth iteration, this movie was pointless in terms of taking the story forward.
It seems to me that all of the movie-maker's attention was on the 3D technology rather than anything resembling a plot, storyline, pace, acting, etc. Even the zombies took a backstage here.
What i liked about the first three movies was all absent here. Sure, we got to see the freeze-frame, slow-mo action bits, and they were no doubt awesome when seen in 3D. Like the freeze-frame when Alice has just lost her superhuman powers and her plane is about to crash. The detail was astounding and what a suspense it built - i almost broke into a sweat thinking how awesome it would be to see the remainder of the impact in full 3D slow-mo. But then i was presented a scene where the 'human' Alice walks out of such a horrendous plane crash.
Then there is the scene where a few survivors are holed up in a prison complex. And surrounding the prison, waving their arms through the fence are the zombies - just like the previous RE-Extinction movie.
And on the point of the zombies, what escapes me is why they were reduced to mere background noise! What bothers me is why they did not even act like zombies. First, they bore through the sewers in order to reach the humans inside. They also launch a stealth-attack on the people who go down to the armory to retrieve weapons. This shows active thinking, which they shouldn't be capable of doing. Second, they looked like the same make-up team from MJ's Thriller video was employed. Third, they ran and attacked like humans - this was quite obvious in the scene on the prison rooftop.
The biggest sin though was the way the Axeman character was handled. Why was he there? How did he get to be what he is (all the monsters introduced in the previous movies have had their origin explained)? Why did he decide to break down the prison gate? And why on earth was he so easily defeated? Now, in spite of all these and more flaws, if the pace was good enough (outside the freeze-frames and slow-mo) and the time-lines and dialog made sense, and the 'big reveal' handled better, then this would have been a much better movie. Unfortunately, it fails there too.
This movie ought to be taken as a lesson in the pitfalls of 3D. This is what happens when the movie-makers concentrate only on the technology they are using and ditch everything else.
Still, made me await even more 3D movies. They are surely the future.