Opening Day: 10 September 2010

Synopsis:

The fourth installment of the hugely successful Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife is again based on the wildly popular video game series, and will this time be presented in 3-D.

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Milla Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead - and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Movie Review:

So there we were - queuing up obediently at the cinema hall entrance, waiting to receive our 3-D glasses from the friendly ushers to watch this movie adapted from Capcom’s video game series. And we were thinking to ourselves: Another 3-D movie? Is our patience wearing thin? The phenomenon that seems really exciting 10 months ago when a certain James Cameron movie entitled Avatar was released is no longer a novelty now?

Somebody, please make us forget that the only 3-D aspect of Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans was its Chinese subtitles.

But being the humble columnists of this modest movie website, we decided not to rant too much about the 3-D movie trend that is taking over the cineplexes, and try our best to enjoy the roller coaster ride that director Paul WS Anderson is going to deliver with this fourth movie in the successful video game adaptation franchise, in 3-D nonetheless.

And what a ride it is. It feels like we are there in the video game.

From the opening sequence where Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya shopping district undergoes pandemonium and wreck by the zombies, to the subsequent scenes where bullets and raindrops fly (in slow motion – it has to be slow motion to achieve that poetic effect) towards the camera, audiences would be glad that paid the extra bucks to experience this movie in 3-D.

Then there are the zombies. Gosh, these guys just won’t let go. One by one they lunge at the camera, where their heads explode, their brains flare open, their jaws come dashing at you, and tentacles shoot out of their foul mouths. These ugly creatures are meaner than before.

Watch out for a perfectly executed fight scene in the shower where a menacing axe, crystal clear water droplets and bright red blood come together for an action sequence that we must confess is one of the best we’ve seen in a while.

Sure, many other scenes in this movie remind you of the ones employed in the revolutionary Matrix series, but hey, that wasn’t shot in 3-D.

With Anderson using Cameron’s Fusion Camera System (the same one which was employed in the filming of that “Blue Movie”), you know things won’t go wrong with this popcorn movie. It is also evident that Anderson wrote this movie with the 3-D technology in mind to enhance the action sequences, because it is one exhilarating experience after another. Now, the only thing we are lacking in this technologically advanced age is the fourth dimension – if only we could, in the comfort of our cushioned cinema seats, feel the bullets whiz past our faces, brush off the sprinkles of water droplets from our clothes, or smell the foul stench of the deep dark sewers.

Oh wait, there’s a story in this movie? We almost forgot. Well, if you must know, the ever alluring Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, to continue her journey to find survivors in a ravaged world consumed by zombies. She teams up with Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller’s sister and brother duo to, well, look for survivors.

How’s having pretty faces from the popular TV series Heroes and Prison Break to join Jovovich in her important quest which lasts for a grand total of 97 minutes? We don’t really care, you see, because as the protagonists go about squashing and stretching their faces to present different degrees of anger, fury and rage, we are busy indulging ourselves in the most enjoyable 3-D cinematic experiences to date in 2010.

Movie Rating:



(Choose 3-D over 2-D for this one, because you are in for a thrilling ride)

Review by John Li