Review by Ryan Casey

Resident Evil: Afterlife is the fourth movie adaptation of the highly acclaimed videogame franchise. The film stars Milla Jovovich as the unstoppable heroine ‘Alice’ and is directed by Paul W S Anderson, thus the collaboration behind the first 'Resident Evil' film is re-united.

Being a huge fan of the videogames, I was eagerly anticipating the opportunity to follow the plight of some the most memorable characters of my youth, as they tried to escape the un-dead nightmare of Racoon City. Considering how disappointed and angry the first Resident Evil film made me feel, I didn’t bother watching the two preceeding movies. My train of thought was that surely by the fourth movie the total imperfections of the original would have been remedied.

PLOT SYNOPSIS
To put it bluntly, the plot of Resident Evil: Afterlife is so badly paced, confusing and mind-numbingly boring, I really can’t work out what is supposed to be happening, and ultimately what does happen. The characters just travel to different locations. First Japan, then Alaska, then Los Angeles and then a boat, and in between there isn’t that many zombies, but there is a man with a giant hammer who isn’t explained (even though he is from the games).

WARNING: I’m not going to pull any punches with this film. This is personal.

The opening sequence of the movie sees Alice, accompanied by unlimited clones of herself (I assume they are clones, it’s not really clear) infiltrating an underground Umbrella facility, to which the villain of the piece, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) is in command. Everything about the sequence is absolutely awful. It seems to be Paul W S Anderson’s poor attempt to re-create the iconic 'Matrix' lobby scene, and it pales in comparison.

The sequence is littered with terribly executed stunts, one of which sees Milla Jovovich jump in the air, do a somersault and decapitate a couple of hapless guards. The way this is executed looks so weak and is cut so badly. Jovovich seems to defy the laws of physics. She stops in mid air and lands in a fashion that her momentum simply wouldn’t allow. Stunt wires are so obviously in use, it’s embarrassing. Surely one of Anderson’s crew would have stopped him in the edit and told him, ‘Paul, this looks shit!’

The film just gets worse and worse with each set piece scene. My personal favourite sees a man slam-dunking the back of a plane to prevent it falling off the edge of a building. Constant continuity errors accompanied with awful script and bad acting, all lead to a terrible climax fight scene with Chris and Clare Redfield versus Albert Wesker. Not to mention the terrible plot twist, where even though we’ve followed Alice throughout the end scene, she’s somehow had the time to hide a bomb on Wesker’s escape vehicle. Wesker has four of these vehicles lined up in the hanger, so it’s bloody lucky Alice puts the bomb in the right one. Bit of a shame really, might have caused the end to this atrocious series of cinematic filth.

The amount of slow motion that is used in Afterlife is ridiculous, it’s like they’re on commission for using it. The slow mo is infuriating but what I really want to know is, who the f**k gave Anderson access to a 3D camera? This results in nearly every shot of the movie seeing an axe or a pair of sunglasses getting lobbed at the screen in the dire attempt to justify the film's marketing as a 3D experience.

RATING
After watching this utter dross, I was in serious need of a green herb to revive my tortured senses. Thank you Paul ‘Well Shit’ Anderson for continuing to take a crap on the institution of videogame culture. 0.5 stars out of 5.