Resident Evil: Afterlife

Wow. Am I just in a grumpy mood or am I actually posting two negative reviews in two days! I saw Resident Evil: Afterlife, expecting to love it. I have a long love affair with Resident Evil, having played the original game and just about every game since (excluding the Wii one). I saw every movie and loved them, and the Resident Evil films have become standard Halloween-watching fare at Chez Gates.

So, needless to say, I went into Afterlife expecting great things.

I was sorely disappointed.


As usual, I will point out some good things:

• Visually stunning
• Some decent new characters (loved the basketball player)
• Milla Jovovich is a bona fide kick ass action star
• Ali Larter is hot
• The new bad guy was mildly interesting
• Very "cross genre" (how can I say a zombie film is cross genre? Easy. Milla is a bonafide superhero in these films, so to me, this is a superhero vs zombie movie. Always has been).

So what was not good about it?

I thought the story was a bit weaker than the others. It was cool that Japan seemed to have survived all these years of infection, but why? And why inexplicably and suddenly did their protective measures fail? The people in the prison in the U.S - where have they been for the last 4 years? It seemed like they had just realized there was a zombie apocalypse that had been going on for years now.
Finally, why do some of the zombies have huge tentacles that burst out of their mouths everytime they feed? I suspect this was solely for 3D shock effect. Not a good use of the 3D media. Don't invent a new zombie characteristic just to make me squirm. It cheapens the story.

So that is my review. It is painful to deliver, like slugging an old friend in the gut. Maybe there will be more...if so, let's hope they are better.