Afterlife is Hell

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2010)

Paul WS Anderson returns to his franchise baby with a new toy. Amazing stereoscopic 3D the likes of which was used in AVATAR. And like any kid with a new toy, he goes overboard sacrificing all substance for all style. The silly excuse for a story begins immediately after Resident Evil Extinction left off. If the movie was truly a video game, Alice would be that idiotic hacker who got her hands on every single cheat code. She got "GODMODE", "AIMBOT", "/KILLALL" and even a cheat for "Ally NPC Spawn". For the benefit of non=gamers, this just means that Alice gots superpowers and gots a super-powered clone army too. Within the opening minutes, Alice and clones stage a daring incursion into the Tokyo facility of Umbrella corporation, causing chaos and ultimately facing down the T-virus powered chairman, Wesker. The writer, also Paul WS Anderson, must have known by now how quickly the movie would be over since Alice could just pop the guy's head like she did in Resident evil Apocalypse. So through some stupidly convenient plot device, Alice is superhuman no more and all her clones are gone. Now on the run, she proceeds to Alaska in the hopes of reaching the last safe haven where her friends fled to, a place named "Arcadia".
The mystery thickens when all she discovers is an empty landing field and a deranged Claire Redfield (Ali Karter) under the control of some weird biomechanical device. After saving Claire, the duo proceed to Los Angeles where they encounter another group of survivors holed up in a prison. With zombies all around and a new dangerous giant axe/hammer wielding threat heading their way, Alice, Claire and the survivors must find a way out ASAP. Their last hope may rest with a prisoner named Chris.
It all sounds a lot better than it turned out. Story-wise, it is a very standard action movie narrative with maybe only one good twist. Though the resident evil films have always been light on story, this one is possible the lightest. The characters are the main problem. Anyone who is not Alice is relegated to being a one-dimensional stock character common in zombie apocalypse movies. You have a conniving a55-hole in a business suit, the damsel, the rough-n-tough soldier, the big strong African American guy and a token Asian dude with no attempt made to make the audience care whether they live or die. Claire Redfield takes over the role of amnesiac from Alice's initial appearance in the first movie, who slowly regains her memory and conveniently reveals the plot. None of them are given any development at all. Even the main character of Alice manages to be both uninteresting and underdeveloped; getting no emotional closure after four movies.
Paul WS Anderson, the baby with the 3D, must have spent so much time making his wife look good on screen that he forgot not only to write a good story but to direct good action. He blatantly rips off The Matrix trilogy, Dawn of the Dead, and possibly Ninja Assassin. And by "blatantly" it means lifting whole scenes to the point where it should usually be considered a copyright violation. Almost 90% of the combat scenes are in slow motion, easily reminding one of Uwe Boll's "House of the Dead", complete with painful over usage of 360 degree panning and other matrix bullet time effects. As a resident evil movie, Afterlife commits the worse crime possible by having little Zombie killing action. The very sci/fi-ish set up, the CGI cityscapes, lack of Zombies and Milla Jovovich doing Gun Kata makes this feel more like "Ultraviolet 2" than a Resident Evil film.
Perhaps the one redeeming factors is how the franchise is trying its damnedest to move back on track with the games. There are numerous references especially to Resident Evil 5 and Code Veronica; the Executioner, Wesker's appearance, even that P30 bug thing just to name a few. Alice no longer dominates the screen as Game characters like Chris and Claire get their fair amount of time to shine. No doubt the fan-boys might be more pleased than usual about this. Oh yes, and there is Avatar-style 3D which just shows how weak the movie would be without this gimmick.
Like a shambling zombie in the movie, Resident evil Afterlife now plods through the underworld. A sad Frankenstein's-monster pastiche of past action films with an erratic pace and a lack of good action. It has become Paul WS Anderson's vehicle to showcase his pretty little wife and his latest gimmick 3D toy to the world. Among the Resident evil movies, this one is has the least substance but the most style. No doubt the slick 3D action would please the millions of simple-minded adrenaline junkies. It would find warm reception too perhaps from fans who desire something closer to that of the games (compared to past movies), and maybe existing fans of the Resident evil movie franchise who know what to expect.
With the promise of a sequel, one wonders how much lower can the franchise go now that its already all gone to hell. Well, At least it is a nice looking and entertaining Hell.