 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Unlike most other live-action 3D movies, Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D was shot natively in 3D, using the same Cameron/Pace cameras used for Avatar. After a one-woman assault on the Umbrella Corporation's fortress, Alice's (Mila Jovovich) superhuman abilities are neutralized. Now, fleeing the Undead masses created by the T-virus, Alice reunites with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and her brother, Chris (Wentworth Miller). 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. Storyline: In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (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. Written by Screen Gems Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, January 2, 2011 There is hope. Director Paul W.S. Anderson is back behind the camera for Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth installment in the popular zombie-infested, video game-based franchise that's made actress Mila Jovovich something of an Action icon as a gun-toting, butt-kicking lead, settling in as Hollywood's number two guns-blazing star of the fairer sex behind Angelina "Salt" Croft. With Zombies as popular as ever and playing the part of featured attraction in, it seems, as many movies, novels, and video games as there are meandering undead in and around Western Pennsylvania's Monroeville Mall, Anderson's franchise seems a safe bet to keep on plopping Jovovich in front of hordes of disfigured baddies, armed with as many guns and bladed weapons on her person as she can safely tote. Still, amidst all the Zombie hoopla, Resident Evil just doesn't seem to epitomize the genre. The movies favor slick visuals rather than bleak backdrops and prefer to riddle the screen with bullets rather than take the time to develop characters. It's all good, though; the Resident Evil series works as mindless fun, just the kind of entertainment any zombie worth its weight in maggots will love. Alice (Jovovich) is back in action and still working on taking down the Umbrella Corporation, the outfit responsible for unleashing the deadly T-Virus, a viral weapon that has turned most of the world's population into zombies. Alice's latest venture takes her to Japan where she hopes to eliminate an Umbrella bigwig named Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). Wesker gets the best of Alice, however, and injects her with a special concoction that eliminates her supernatural powers and effectively limits her ability to wage war on Umbrella. Alice barely escapes with her life, and months later a now-superpowerless Alice has taken to searching for an almost mythical human stronghold known as Arcadia, presumed to be a small Alaskan town where the virus is said not to exist and where man is not plagued by hordes of hungry zombies. Alice reaches Arcadia only to find it deserted, save for a confused and potentially hostile Claire Redfield (Ali Larter, Obsessed), who had previously fought alongside Alice in the Mojave desert. The two return to the smoldering remains of Los Angeles where they team up with a band of survivors trapped in an otherwise deserted prison that's surrounded by countless zombies. Amongst the living is former basketball star Luther West (Boris Kodjoe) and Claire's long-lost brother Chris (Wentworth Miller, "Prison Break") who the survivors deem a threat and keep locked away in the lower recesses of the prison. With no way out and no hope of rescue, the survivors must band together, learn the real secret behind the supposed safe zone of Arcadia, and, of course, do a bit of zombie killin' if they're to make it out alive. Resident Evil Afterlife is as straightforward as these sorts of movies come; it's a run-and-gun slugfest that's built for fun and not at all concerned about anything else. The plot is stable and the characters suitably developed, but the film's unquestioned strong suit is its Matrix-style violence. Afterlife often plays more like an homage to bullet time and slow motion photography than a freethinking movie; fresh ideas are frequently eschewed in favor of a seemingly incessant barrage of highly similar action scenes that are differentiated one from another primarily by backdrop. In between bullet-time shots, slow-motion stunt work, and wave upon wave of gunfire squirting from the business end of magical weapons that never, ever, run out of ammo (except for when it's dramatically convenient), Resident Evil: Afterlife does muster up just enough of a story to appease viewers who have paid attention to more than Jovovich's good looks and the violence and the special effects of the previous installments. In the end, however, Afterlife and its sister films are little more than targets waiting to be shreded by a hail of gunfire. In that light, it seems almost superfluous to review a movie like Resident Evil: Afterlife. There are no surprises here; everyone in the audience who is at all familiar with how the typical movie of this sort works knows what to expect, and the only thing that can really separate Afterlife from the litany of similar movies -- and about the only thing that requires any sort of critical analysis -- is how well it goes about its business. Afterlife is a movie with plenty of spit and a lot more polish. The movie isn't a stunner but it's certainly slick and visually appetizing, even if most of the effects look rather phony and cartoonish, a disappointment for a moderately big-budgeted major studio Hollywood release. Even then, it's no surprise that the film is technically proficient from the top down. The acting is fine but unremarkable -- ditto the direction, the score, and everything else that makes a movie meet that magical requirement for Hollywood proficiency. "No surprises" is pretty much the defining axiom for Afterlife. Viewers into this kind of picture will get their money's worth, no more and no less. Ultimately, Resident Evil: Afterlife is, no surprise, nothing but a generic Action movie that's big on spectacle and low on meaning. There's zero originality and the film does nothing that hasn't been done better elsewhere, so there's really not much of a reason to watch. With a storyline that's mildly engaging but that's ultimately just a flimsy excuse to shoot or otherwise maim and (for the second time) kill zombies and most of the main characters, Afterlife is meant to be taken not as a serious picture but instead a comfortable little shoot-em-up that treads well-traversed ground, only in a different pair of shiny new shoes. Unfortunately, Sony's Blu-ray 3D release of Resident Evil: Afterlife lacks the dazzle and depth associated with the better 3D presentations, a surprise to be sure considering the film was shot natively in 3D rather than converted after the fact. Nevertheless, the accompanying extras are solid and the audio track is excellent. Considering that a 2D version is included, 3D ready fans are encouraged to pick up this version, anyway, if it can be found at a price that's no higher than the 2D-only release. [CSW]: One of the films I will advise you to see in 3D. Cast Notes: Milla Jovovich (Alice), Ali Larter (Claire Redfield), Kim Coates (Bennett), Shawn Roberts (Albert Wesker), Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Angel Ortiz), Spencer Locke (K-Mart), Boris Kodjoe (Luther West), Wentworth Miller (Chris Redfield), Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine), Kacey Barnfield (Crystal), Norman Yeung (Kim Yong), Fulvio Cecere (Wendell), Ray Olubowale (Axeman), Christopher Kano (Sniper #1), Tatsuya Goke (Sniper #2). IMDb Rating (04/10/13): 5.8/10 from 89,111 users IMDb Rating (12/27/10): 6.0/10 from 27,499 users
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