For the most part it gives the genre fans what they want.

Rating: 7/10 (11 September 2010)

'RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Video game adaptations are almost never successful at the box-office but studios have been working out the kinks to their problems over the last several years (I really liked 'PRINCE OF PERSIA') and they're actually planning many more, realizing that there's a higher built in fan-base for them than even comic book films. The 'RESIDENT EVIL' franchise is one of the few exceptions; it's already kicking out a 4th installment, that killed at the box-office opening day, and it doesn't look like it's the last (It's rare for any franchise to go beyond two sequels). The fans, for the most part, seem overwhelmingly pleased (as of this writing, on it's 2nd day of release) the film has an average IMDb user rating of 7.8 out of 10, from 2,503 votes, and 62.5% of those are a perfect 10! This is a much higher rating than any of the previous three installments and I've heard it's due to the movie's killer 3D effects (which it's only the second film to be made using the state of art 3D effects that 'AVATAR' did, as opposed to converting the movie to 3D after filming) and also the fact that this chapter is supposedly more faithful to the video games (I wouldn't know, I've never played any of them). Writer / director Paul W.S. Anderson (who many consider to be a hack, but just as many also love) once again directs this fourth chapter, after only previously directing the first (although he wrote and produced all four films).
Milla Jovovich returns to her signature role of Alice (a character that isn't from the video games, I know because I read a lot of movie talk). This film takes place right where the last one left off and Alice is leading a team of her clones in an attack on the Umbrella Corporation, the evil big business (representing 'the man') that unleashed a deadly virus on the world, in the first film, which turned most of the world's population into zombies. Alice is the only person that has been successfully combined with the virus (known as the 'T' virus), which gives her super telepathic abilities as well as inhuman speed and strength. After her big attack on the corporation a new deadly villain (played by Shawn Roberts), who's also been linked with the virus to different results, strips her of the virus and makes her human again. She then meets up with an old friend named Claire (once again played by Ali Larter, and she is a lead character from the game) who has amnesia and doesn't know who she is. The two follow a signal, promising a safe haven from the virus, to Los Angeles and meet up with another random group of strangers trying to escape a building surrounded by zombies. The problem is Alice's plane only holds two. So, with the help of a mysterious prisoner there (played by 'PRISON BREAK's Wentworth Miller), they try to find an escape route to safety and the radio signal, coming from a ship, promising it.
The movie does have amazing 3D visuals, which is how I saw it, if not for them I might have gone a half a star lower. Some of the stylized action seems played out and repetitive but for the most part it's entertaining. I wish there would have been more use of the zombies and other creature elements (which it still has it's fare share of) but for the most part it gives the genre fans what they want. I don't know how well it lives up to the video games but I like how each installment has a different feel to it; this one feels more like a traditional zombie movie to me, event though the zombies are in it less. Milla is once again a great action heroine and the supporting cast delivers what you'd expect from this type of film, although Shawn Roberts as the bad guy is too cheesy for me and not in a good way. The movie as a whole is about at the same level as the other three installments, with the second being a little lower and the original being a little higher. I think it's everything it was meant to be and just that.
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