Nothing gets a teenage boy more excited to go to the movie theater than an hour and a half of guns, girls, and ghouls.
Fortunately for us all, Resident Evil: Afterlife is filled to the brim with all three of these. Afterlife is the fourth installment in the Resident Evil movie series, which is based on the famous series of video games of the same name.
After the evil Umbrella Corporation unleashed a deadly virus, most of the people on Earth have been turned into shambling, mindless, flesh-eating zombies. A woman named Alice, who worked for Umbrella, was at the “ground zero” of the outbreak, and has been dealing with the zombie outbreak for years. As one of the few remaining survivors, she must now find a safe haven from the impending danger that is constantly lurking around every corner.
Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of the movie’s plot. The zombie movie genre has never been praised for outstanding character development or an Oscar-worthy screenplay, but a little bit of effort would be a welcome gift to fans of the genre.
Resident Evil: Afterlife was made for one reason and one reason only: fan service. There is nothing here for those who aren’t fans of zombie movies, zombie games, or zombie movies based on zombie games. I personally am a dedicated fan of zombie lore, having played my fair share of zombie games and seen more than a few zombie movies. A long time fan of the Resident Evil franchise, I can say that, against my better judgment, I thoroughly enjoyed Afterlife.
The Resident Evil movies are awful. The production value is terrible, the acting is disgustingly cheesy, the one-liners are groan-inducing, and the effects are B-grade at best. And this is precisely what makes them so fun to watch. Afterlife physically cannot be taken seriously; to be fully enjoyed, it must be laughed at from time to time.
All this bashing is not taking into account the one thing that the movie truly does well: the action. While the plot is vaguely reminiscent of a third grader writing a short story, the action does not disappoint. Zombies get their heads blown off. People get eaten by zombies. Zombie-dog hybrids attack people. It’s gory, it’s ridiculous, and above all, it’s fun.
Afterlife differs from the first three Resident Evil films in terms of presentation. The first three (Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Resident Evil: Extinction, respectively) had horrible special effects, but with a much bigger budget and new post-Avatar 3D technology, Afterlife looks significantly better than its predecessors.
Unlike the majority of the movies that have been converted into 3D this year, Resident Evil: Afterlife was actually shot using the same 3D camera system employed by James Cameron on Avatar, and the difference shows. This is one of the few movies released since Avatar where the 3D actually enhances the experience, instead of being a gimmick.
Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, playing the “tough girl” role just as convincingly as she did in the first three films. She meets up with her old friend Claire Redfield, played by actress Ali Larter, whose memory has been wiped by Umbrella. They come across her brother, Chris Redfield, who is played by Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller. Any fan of the video games will instantly see the physical similarities between Miller and Redfield, and despite the fact that Miller overacts on more than one occasion, he is undeniably a good fit for the role.
After earning the title of the number five highest grossing zombie movie of all time, director Paul W. S. Anderson hastily announced that a sequel is on the way, and that he will create the movie with the help of the series’ fans via his Twitter page.
George Romero may have done it better in the past and it’s not going to resonate with viewers that aren’t fans of the source material, but for the fans that the movie does target, Resident Evil: Afterlife is truly a guilty pleasure.
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