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SYNOPSIS:
After a one-woman assault on the Umbrella Corporation's fortress, Alice's superhuman abilities are neutralized. Now, fleeing the Undead masses created by the T-virus, Alice reunites with Claire Redfield and her brother, Chris. Together they take refuge with other survivors in an abandoned prison where a savage zombie mob stands between them and the safety of "Arcadia". Escaping these bloodthirsty mutants will take an arsenal. But facing off with Albert Wesker and the Umbrella Corporation will take the fight for survival to a new level of danger.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
Whereas video games have become increasingly sophisticated with their complex storylines, myriad characters and imaginative game-scapes, it’s extremely disheartening to see that video game adaptations have not progressed in the same manner, perhaps even becoming more simplistic over the years. Such is the case of this fourth instalment of the ‘Resident Evil’ motion picture series, arguably one of the most successful video-game motion picture adaptations.
Returning to the director’s seat after relinquishing it in the sequel and the third movie is Paul W.S. Anderson, the man whose movies just somehow critics love to slam. This reviewer, for one, doesn’t think all the criticism has been justified- while no classic, the first ‘Resident Evil’ and the 2008 ‘Death Race’ remake were solid B-movies, perfect nutrition for an action junkie. But the same however can’t be said of his latest, a movie that starts off promisingly enough but gets progressively worse.
Picking up after the events of the last movie, ‘Afterlife’ opens with dozens of Milla Jovovich clones taking down an underground installation of the nefarious virus-breeding Umbrella Corporation. If you have the 3D Blu-ray edition, you can appreciate the action with the added dimension- which admittedly Anderson does use to good effect- but once the novelty wears off, you’ll find that the Matrix-inspired slo-mo action that seemed cool at the start just becomes increasingly frustrating as Anderson uses the technique to overkill.
The action then shifts quickly to a Los Angeles prison surrounded by hordes of flesh-eating zombies (what else?) where Alice is trapped with Ali Larter’s Claire Redfield (from the second movie), and a host of other new human characters. None of these stand out, except perhaps for Wentworth Miller’s G.I. Chris and brother to Claire. Yes, the coincidence reeks smack of contrivance, but this is not the kind of movie you quibble over such things.
Anderson, who also wrote the script, has the survivors trying to locate the source of a mysterious rescue transmission, which they eventually do, allowing the movie to shift to another location- on board a tanker out at sea- before its conclusion. Whether at the prison or on board the tanker, the movie never goes beyond the typical ‘band of survivors’ premise, proof that the series could well do better with someone else as scribe other than Anderson, who has actually scripted all four movies so far.
Even the action, supposedly the highlight of the movie, seems leaden and dull. That’s largely due to Anderson’s tendency to dish out his bag of slo-mo mayhem and freeze-frames religiously in every sequence- not only is the repetition downright annoying, it also affirms one’s suspicion that Anderson doesn’t quite know what to do even with the brief 90 mins of the film, resorting to such cheap tactics to pad out the running time.
Yes, Milla Jovovich looks good as ever as Alice, but the least her real-life husband Anderson could do is come up with better material for her character than this dreck. There’s nothing positive about this latest ‘Resident Evil’ instalment- it is dead-on-arrival, with any sign of life, this life or after, long sucked out of it. A fifth movie has already been announced- and going by the standards of ‘Afterlife’, this reviewer can only shudder in dread.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
There are a whole bevy of extras on this Blu-ray disc, beginning with the Audio Commentary with Paul W.S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer. Anderson does most of the talking, but neither him nor his two producers sound all too excited to be on this commentary. The most interesting bits are Anderson’s creative ways to stretch the budget for what you see onscreen.
Seven featurettes adding up to a total runtime of 47 min look at different aspects of the film’s production, from direction, to casting, to the 3D dimension, to action, to design, to the flesh-eating zombies and finally to visual comparisons to the video game. The best among them would have to be that about the use of 3D in the movie, and how difficult it is to shoot a film with the added dimension- as opposed to just doing it in post-production.
Exclusive to the Blu-Ray disc is the “Undead Vision- Picture in Picture” extra which pops up as a small screen on the bottom right hand corner while the main feature plays. The cast and crew take turns to talk about shooting the specific scenes in the film while the main feature plays, and there are also sketches, layouts, animatics and behind the scenes footage that make for an altogether worthwhile experience.
Less worthy of your time is seven minutes worth of Deleted/Extended Scenes, most of which add nothing to the story and look awkward without the special effects within, as well as four minutes worth of Outtakes, which are of little comic value. There’s also a 1-min preview of the “Resident Evi: Damnation” animated movie, which frankly looks like another edition of the video game.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
However bad the movie may be, you really can’t fault the awesome DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. It’s an outstanding mix of dialogue and soundtrack, the latter of which doesn’t ever drown out the former, which is more than one can say for packages of this nature. This is one audio track you want as a demo of the strength of your home theatre system, especially during the action sequences.
Just as flawless is the visual transfer of this Blu-Ray disc, that’s been given a 1080p AVC MPEG-4 encode at 2.35:1. It’s flawlessly clear, which provides depth and clarity even in the most dimly lit scenes of the film. The only downside of this is that it lays bare the CGI defects of the film, especially the digitally created clones of Alice.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 30 January 2011
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