Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

Am I getting the feeling that nobody was keen on involving themselves in another Resident Evil movie? It looks like that because reading the script revealed that it is just the case with many video game movies: no plot, nothing innovative, sparsely any connection to the game, and an ill-thought choice of cast. Worst of all is the issue of continuity: this movie blatantly ignores events of the previous movie and decided that the whole desert planet concept was too depressing and devoid of any value. This movie was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed the first movie. And just to make things even more inconvenient for the viewers, you have to watch ripoffs from popular movies, and the overuse of slow motion, just to add more time to the movie. I have never played the video games, but I know that this movie makes no efforts to offer something exciting.

So this movie opens up in Tokyo, Japan. It is raining and there is a woman standing in a sea of umbrellas .(Very funny. Umbrella corporation and a sea of umbrellas. That is catchy.) And one thing I would love to point out here is that the only reason there is so much slow motion in this opening scene is possibly for this score to play for the duration. I guess that slow motion was used to match the mood of the score--sombre and dark as is this scenery.  I like the music, but anyone watching this movie demands it get started already.

You know, one would question how a bio-hazard is intelligent enough to stand in the middle of a pedestrian crossing without attracting attention until the last minute. Also, how is it that nobody except this poor soul bothered to look at her and detect an ounce of suspicion.

And I just want to point out that this is the first movie in the series whose credits roll out in the beginning of the movie instead at the end of it.

And if that's not a bother, then we must have to endure more of Alice's narration. As if I have to make it obvious, nobody wants narrations whether they have watched its previous movies or not, especially if it was lifted without any alteration. It just prolongs the movie to point of boredom. And to zoom out of the earth only to zoom back in was just a pretext to include her narration.

It is just the tiresome idea of having computer graphics as an alternative to a transition. It is a means of exploring the Tokyo Headquarters so that we can see for ourselves what Umbrella are concocting in preparation Alice's arrival.

Jason O'Mara was dropped as Albert Wesker and was replaced by this guy, Shawn Roberts. I guess from their respective tones that the director wasn't please with how O'Hara's aura didn't exactly fit in with that of the villain from the games. And if I didn't watch other reviews, I wouldn't even discover that this villain wasn't played by the same actor from the last movie.

Anyway, the facility is under attack. Alice has used something so subtle and cliched that even the smartest person watching this movie would think that originality is missing here.

 So despite the fact that the elevator is empty, this does not concern all but just one of the soldiers top turn around and catch Alice in the act of a sneak attack. Watching this fight scene can be boring if accompanied by slow motion, more than once in a succession.  As I have mentioned, originality is missing here: this movie decides to rip off The Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded. Just like those movies, an army of soldiers cannot take out one single female with their automatic rifles, and Alice is able to kill one soldier with a broken sword (the blunt half) through his helmet (doesn't this also sound familiar?).  

Remember the previous movie where Alice faced the mutant Isaacs with this ripping attack? She could have saved herself (and us) ample time and made her surprise attack worthwhile.

Another hoard of soldiers storm in and she takes the bullet. But what stopped her from ripping the floor again? Of course, one soldier shoots her from behind. So this should be the end of the movie, right? Again, there are clones to face.

The first clone on the left must have the most gormless grin since Agent Smith from The Matrix: Revolutions. They should have just shot on their adversaries instead of giving away their presence with one liners. I guess Alice's clones are as imperfect as Smith's clones. And the soldiers are slow to react despite this approach.

This guy could not even issue lock-down orders in good time.

 

Once again, this movie rips off the hallway shootout from the aforementioned Matrix movies, and add more unnecessary slow motion to the mix.

And just when you thought that this movie was done with ripping off The Matrix: Reloaded, you will be bombarded with this "falling through the window scene" where Trinity jumped through the window and shot repeatedly at an agent. So this movie has decided to rip off more original movies instead of dwelling on the source material.

This movie decides to go Batman & Robin: the clones now have grapple irons which easy stick to the wall regardless of the resultant force and the solidity of the concrete. Falling so fast should render this feat impossible. And despite this, Wesker is lucky enough to shoot one of the clones in the head.

 Convenience prevails again! Alice had enough life spark to hold the grenades so that the pins slip off when Wesker turns her body over. Wow, this is a lot of mouthful.

This guy is relentless. He did not even have enough time to escape when those grenades went off.

This is the remainder of the clone force. I can vouch that not all the clones survived and so were left to decay. I feel so sorry for them that they perished when a powerful explosion decimates them.

Is this the original Alice, or just a clone? Just like The Matrix: Revolutions, no one can tell who the real Alice is unless there is a distinction. And she should have just shot him dead after her clone missed her chance earlier.

I wish I was lying, but the T-cells are actually shaped like T's. So Wesker has neutralized the T-cells, thus robbing Alice of her powers. Alice feels that she is human and is "grateful" to him. Sounds stupid, doesn't it? She is weaker and more vulnerable now.

Wesker may be "what she used to be but stronger," but he is less smart enough to forget to activate the autopilot before assaulting Alice and gloating over her predicament. And just as if slow motion was more than too much to endure, we get something that critics would call "freeze frame." Surely there is no need for us to see how the impact on the mountain results in the demise of the characters. So that should be the end of this pointless sequel, right?

Sadly no. Alice emerges unscathed from the wreck, even though she is no more the powerful specimen. And looking at the transition from day to night, I wouldn't believe that she would be still alive after sitting in the flames. 

 Six  months after the raid, the biggest plot hole of the series emerges. We were all aware of the premise of the previous installment where the entire earth was reduced to a desert. So who would not say a thing about this? Forests, rivers and lakes have recovered in six months and life seems to be normal again. Alaska was shown to be part of the global desertification, so it should not have been able to recover or resist the outbreak. So much for spreading like a wildfire. And just to add more insult to injury, more of Alice's narration pops out.

 

What is with all these planes? And what's with these helicopters? They are sitting among the trees without having shredded them upon landing. This scene suffers from negligent production design.

One question: that camera has to be recharged from time to time, so have you ever recharged it? Another question: why don't you scour the area for anything suspicious? The first-person view indicated that you are being watched. Well she forgets that as she monologues. But this monologue she makes now sounds like she, Milla Jovovich, was not acting but was serious about not being able to continue this pointless escapade.However, her monologue ends when she finally senses a presence and decides to check.

 

This movie decides to implement the bird scare once again. This movie, along with Extinction and the first film, excluding Apocalypse, have done so. But the real threat shows up after that and Alice soon discovers that she is controlled by some kind of mechanical spider. Does she look familiar? Claire Redfield is her name, and they met in the Nevada Desert 'eighteen months ago.' Now I want to get this right: six months ago, Alice and her army attacked Umbrella; twelve months ago, she separated from the others at the helicopter base. So did she actually spend one year preparing for the attack on the Tokyo facility? And Claire has lost memory thanks to the spider on her chest?

Up to this point, the only reason she has this camera is so that she does not look as if she is constantly soliloquizing. Other than that, she has no use for the camera.

So Alice and Claire fly to a beleaguered city of Los Angeles. Does this other shot mean anything? The undead have dealt heavy damage to the Hollywood sign, an in-joke that Hollywood is in a right mess. Ironic, right? And why is L.A. in this state when it is on the same continent that was reduced to a wasteland in the last film? Again, this movie is a sequel but makes like a reboot.

 This ruined city is still bellowing smoke as if the decimation just took place recently even though it occurred at least a year ago. This is the major problem with this movie: continuity. they spent so much money on visual effects without taking the last film into consideration. Las Vegas was swamped by a desert, but this city wasn't.

"HELP US" indeed. Help these guys out of this pointless sequel so that we can move on to a more worthwhile film project. As if convenience knows no bound, there are survivors on a rooftop of a building not decimated by the undead.

If you thought L.J. Wade (Mike Epp) was annoying, this guy should be food for the undead in no time. This movie must have a whiny, spineless whelp among the group.

 Now that the plane has been saved, Alice and Claire can be acquainted with the survivors. But Claire is as ill-mannered and ungrateful as well as amnesic, just like Jill Valentine from Apocalypse. These guys think the two are from Arcadia, even though they did not see the plane fly from the very location they could view from a telescope. And it is, once again, convenient that the very building they are taking shelter in happens to stand opposite the billboard with Luther West on it.

So now this is the point where black-and-white flashbacks are a norm and expositions are more frequent than the actual shootouts on the zombie. Plus, the plot continues to show a dropping momentum as a result of lazy writing, and the characters have nothing better to do than to ask questions that add no substance to the story. In other words, they just look for an excuse to waste time. And while this goes on, Alice is under satellite surveillance.

Every time I watch this movie, I ask myself what Alice would do with these coins. In a time when the world economy has collapsed, money is not exactly worth the paper or metal it is minted from. But watching reviews revealed that Alice loads them as ammo to inflict heavy damage on her adversaries.

A vicious giant has decided to play boss. But what brought him into this movie? In Apocalypse Umbrella were shown to have exploited the chaos in Raccoon City by unleashing project Nemesis. But here they are not shown to be unleashing this behemoth into the vicinity.As I have not played the games, I do not even know what name of this monster is.

You know, in a modern American city there must surely be electricity to keep the water flowing through these pipes. Since the city has been under siege from the undead, there is no power to keep this up and thus water cannot flow.
Aside from that, this is the only movie where Alice is not near naked or completely naked because just as she prepares to undress, something causes a stir. But even if there wasn't a stir, I wouldn't think she would shower in a great, open space without a type of cubicle made up of shower curtains.

Now this is grossly disturbing. Anyone who has played the game can vouch that these monsters are not a result of the T-virus. But for someone such as myself who hasn't, I find this very gruesome and unsightly. And I hate the cliche of 'one minute it's nothing serious, the next minute it's something really serious'. These monsters appear out of the blue when Alice could have spotted them easily.

Bennett shows no letting-up when it comes to whining. After Alice and gang discover a hole that those new bio-hazards can burrow, Bennett nags from one scene to another, as if this is one of those cartoons with annoying characters with similar personalities.
Why is Chris Redfield dangerous? I rather not even bother.

Oh yeah. An axe is ample defense against an army of undead. how effective(!)

Remember Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Apparently the director thought it as a good idea to have Alice jump off rooftops again.

Recall the coins? They are now ammunition, even if they are useless if they scatter.I always thought this movie turned scatty by having coins scatter from these monsters every time they take a hit. But it is now confirmed that they are used as ammunition.

So now on they are on ground level again. What was the point of going up to the roof only to fight off the bio-hazards and venture back down again? We had to watch unnecessary action scenes riddled with slow motion and repetitive fights when they could have just gone all the way though the burrows instead. Time is just wasted.

Look at that. Had they just traveled through the tunnels they could have avoided the giant in the first place. You know, Alice is now human and should be immediately dead after tacking a megaton hit from this beast. But no, she survives it despite the obvious attack.
I love the soundtrack that plays here, but the slow motion makes this scene dull and arduous.

 

Sometimes I wonder what would kill this Wesker. He says the T-virus brought him back, and that he is having issues with it. The only way he can address this is by, get this, ingesting Alice. Wow. I am perplexed by this sort of plan. Why does he plan on doing this? Because Alice 'has successfully bonded with the T-virus', even though it has been neutralized and left her human again. This so-called plan is undoubtedly implausible.

Since I cannot paste the actual video clip due to copyright, I am going to recite the very dialogue that just happens to emerge from nowhere.
Wesker: "Chris and Claire Redfield. You've become quite an inconvenience for me."
Since when in this movie did they every become an inconvenience for you? They had not made one mention of you from the beginning.

Alice: "I told you I would be bringing a few friends."
Wesker: "You should have brought more."

What!? This exchange of words has to come now instead of earlier on?! I think it is Alice and Wesker who have amnesia here. It's as if they dismiss the event at the beginning of the movie where Alice had an army of clones. Did they forget to deliver their lines only to remember them too late?

After that twist for words, Wesker fights the Redfields, with such agility that he pulls it off poorly.

This guy makes my skin crawl so furiously. Taking a photo of this is enough to leave me mentally scarred.

Agony!!! This is by far worse!

I have to say, if Wesker wanted to ingest Alice, he must kill her or maim her so that she poses no resistance whatsoever. But it shows that stabbing him in the head and shooting him in the head doesn't work because he has no brain in his cranium. Yet the only thing the Redfields choose to do is shoot him in the abdomen, even though that method is beyond ineffective. Shouldn't they just cut his head off or something?! The editing couldn't happen sooner so that we wouldn't have to watch them shoot Wesker non-stop.

This guy has been locked in (how is that easy to happen?) and soon Wesker devours him off-screen. Good riddance. Bennett should have become undead meal sooner rather than later. I guess it was horrific enough to Watch Wesker reveal those hideous appendages again, and kill Bennett.

This time Alice was smart enough to place the atom bomb onto the aircraft. Let's hope the immense destruction to Tokyo puts this monster in his final place.

So to summarize, Alice and company liberate the survivors from their prison capsules. Unfortunately, trouble emerges from afar and it spells an indication that another sequel is on its way. And you won't believe who is in charge of this aerial assault.

Now I feel that there would be no point trying to pinpoint every fault in this movie since this, just like its predecessors, have nothing new to offer. A video game movie franchise continues to come up with one excuse or another to have characters with nothing to offer stand out on screen. This movie has a lot of lazy writing, cardboard characters, a non-existent plot, lackluster acting, overuse of slow motion, dreary exposition, cringe-worthy dialogue and references to the video games that come up without reason or motivation.

This movie was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.