Generally, the fourth installment of a horror franchise is one of the stronger entries. Consider A Nightmare on Elm St. 4: The Dream Master (1988), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Bride of Chucky (1998), and Saw IV (2006) to name a few of my favorites. With Resident Evil: Afterlife, writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson adds another to my list.
After a short and stunning opening credit sequence, Afterlife picks up essentially where Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) left off: a million, zillion super-powered Alices (Milla Jovovichs) are pissed and ready to destroy the evil Umbrella Corporation. The Alices take the fight directly to chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) deep in the heart of Nerv, I mean, Umbrella’s Japanese headquarters. Clad entirely in black and armed with sub-machine guns that never run out of bullets, Alice recreates some of the better action sequences for Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux (1991)for the first twenty minutes. After which the “real” Alice undergoes a tried and true videogame trope and is summarily de-powered.“Alice, you’ve just destroyed the evil corporation responsible for destroying the world and regained your long-lost humanity. What are you doing next?”
I’m not going to lie, if Alice went to Zombie Disney World, this could have been the greatest movie ever. Alas, we will have to settle for some exciting action set pieces as Alice searches for her friends and/or any humans left alive in a disturbingly empty world. Suprisingly, Anderson makes excellent use of 3-D. There are not too many shots designed for the “Oh my God, it’s coming at me!” effect. Primarily, it is used for creating larger depth of field shots that are stunning. Worthy of note are the use of rain in the opening credits, the airplane sequences, and shots of Alice escaping the zombies on the prison rooftop.
Similar to Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Alice is surrounded by a smaller but much more memorable cast. Ali Larter reprises her role as Claire Redfield is promoted to secondary ass-kicker to Alice. Boris Kodjoe plays Luther West, who shows off some of the best post-NBA action moves since Michael Jordan in ProStars (1991). Kim Coates got a transfer from Silent Hill (2006) to play his trademarked jerk. When it comes to secondary characters, Afterlife follows strict “Red Shirt Protocol,” meaning if you’re the only non-name actor in a scene, watch your ass.
Overall, the Resident Evil film series has leaned more towards the action movie with zombies as opposed to zombie movie with action and Afterlife is no exception. There are explosions, roll-of-quarter shooting, jumping, sword-swinging, axe-throwing, kicking, and probably just a little too much slow motion. But, if you are going to the fourth Resident Evil movie, you are already a fan and on board for a tentacle-faced good time. Right, forgot to mention that. Upgraded zombies. With tentacle faces. On your marks, get set….FANFIC!
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