Resident Evil Afterlife...they should have left it extinct

Tagline:          Experience a new dimension of Evil

Cast:                Milla Jovivich,  Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Spencer locke, Boris Kodjoe, Sienna Guillory, Kacey Barnfield, Norman Yeung, Fulvio Cecere.

Plot:                 Alice returns in the 4^th installment of the resident evil series to stop Umbrella and find survivors along  with fabled land of Arcadia in Alaska, a place untouched by the virus.

My Take:         Let me give you a little history: As a fan of the RE videogames I was stoked when I heard back in 2002 that a RE movie was coming. They went with a different story then the videogame with one similarity…a virus escaped from an Pharmaceutical Companies underground facility that turned everyone into flesh eating zombies. They went with a different story so they can attract a broader audience and give the gamers something new to see rather than watching what the already played. And it was great; seeing a Licker on screen, the laser room, and Zombie dogs.

Then they released RE: Apocalypse and I was excited to see scenes from the RE 3: Nemesis the videogame reshot for the big screen, Jill Valentine in her RE3 skirt, and Nemesis’s makeup was great but alas…Nemesis himself was a bitch with minor killing (only killing the S.T.A.R.S. team in 45 seconds with a chain gun) and at the end remembering Alice was his friend from the first movie and helping her and I was left with a feeling of disappointment. it was great seeing all those things and watching the root story from RE3 unfold with Jill, the now T-virus infused Super Alice, and couple other survivors trying to escape the now zombie infested Raccoon City that Umbrella quarantined.

 A couple years later in 2007 Extinction came out and again I was happy to see things from the game like Tyrant, infested Crows, and the Super strong zombies they encounter in Vegas which is what I would consider the “Crimson Heads” from the Resident Evil remake for the Nintendo GameCube. We also get to see Albert Wesker for the first time. The story was mediocre; the world has been laid to waste and is a barren waste land, we meet up with Carlos and LJ from Apocalypse. They are traveling with a group of survivors made up of Claire Redfield, a girl named K-Mart, and others not worth mentioning because they die. Umbrella is trying to replicate the Alice DNA so they can perfect the T-virus even though the world is completely dead. Why would they try creating a BOW for a dead world.

*SPOILERS* And finally that brings us to Afterlife… where do I start. Well I guess I should answer the question as to why the history lesson. And here is why, with each movie they slowly dissolve more of the story and show more monsters from the game. In this installment, Alice fights Wesker who is Super Human like in RE: Code Veronica and RE5. We meet Chris Redfield, and some zombies can open there mouths like Predator can as seen in RE5. We meet the Axe Man from RE5…the dogs can split themselves in practically in half like in RE5…we see the Controlling devices as seen in RE5...ugh are you seeing a pattern here. It feels if they wrote the story around these creatures. The stories in these movies are being put on a back burner so the gamers can see the monsters they fought in the game. Those who have not played the game are left with a hollow story with monsters they know nothing of or where they came from. There is no character development except for the introductions told in the movie so you know who is who but what’s the point, you don’t care whether the characters live or die. The fight scenes areare shot in slow motion…which makes the frantic what should be heart pounding action turn into watch grandma climb the stairs with a walker.  And you’re left with an ending that’s suppose to have a twist as character returns and if you haven’t played RE5 you would go….and the point is.

Cool Moment:   Watching Zombies and the Axe Man getting killed with quarters shot from a sawed-off.

Final Thought:  If you feel the need to see this one…then by all means……but I would wait to see it when it hits the $5 bin….or better yet just play the games…you won’t see Alice BUT at least you get more in-depth story, character development, and scares.

I give it 1½ Cherry Cheese Danishes