<\/strong><\/p>\n Directed By: Paul W.S. Anderson<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, Wentworth Miller, Kacey Barnfield, Norman Yeung<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Thanks to Resident Evil: Apocalypse<\/em> and Extinction<\/em>, there are no high hopes for the franchise’s fourth installment, Afterlife<\/em>. Even the promotional material highlights the fact that this is going to be just more of the same and sure enough, more of the same is exactly what we’re getting. There’s tacky dialogue, underdeveloped characters, poorly constructed plot points and utterly ridiculous stunts, but Milla Jovovich is back as Alice and just like in Resident Evil<\/em>, Apocalypse<\/em> and Extinction<\/em>, even as the film crumbles around her, she’s still captivating.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Resident Evil: Afterlife<\/em> kicks off right where Extinction<\/em> left off; Alice (Jovovich) has gotten acquainted with her clones and now she\u2019s making due on her promise to destroy the Umbrella Corporation, the company responsible for the creation of the T-virus, the substance that causes the infection. After devastating Umbrella\u2019s underground Tokyo facility, the real Alice attempts to reunite with her friends from Extinction<\/em>, Claire (Ali Larter) and K-Mart (Spencer Locke). The problem is, upon arriving at the supposed safe haven, Arcadia, Alaska, Alice finds only a field full of abandoned planes, a barren beach and a rather maniacal and memory-less Claire. Claire somewhat comes to her senses while she and Alice fly aimlessly looking for, well, anything.<\/p>\n \n While soaring over Los Angeles, they catch a glimpse of a group of people calling for help on the roof of a prison. After a risky landing, the duo receives a briefing and ultimately learns that Arcadia isn\u2019t a place; it\u2019s a boat. In fact, they can see the boat in the distance. The trouble is, they\u2019ve got no way of reaching it for the prison gates are swarming with undead.<\/p>\n \n Afterlife<\/em>\u2019s multiple Jovovich opening is quite impressive. Half the fun of these films is seeing Jovovich pull off impossible stunts while annihilating hordes of zombies. Multiply that by about a dozen Alices and you get a fantastically deadly sequence. The sad thing is that once the Umbrella raid comes to a close, Afterlife<\/em> turns into a completely different movie.<\/p>\n \n You\u2019re instantly detached from everything that happened in the opening once Alice arrives in Alaska and, minus a minor scuffle with Claire, the film is basically devoid of action for quite a while as well. In fact, up until this point, save for a brief introductory show-and-tell during which a woman indulges in human flesh, we\u2019ve yet to see a zombie. Things start to look up as we find ourselves in a new situation involving a group of survivors who\u2019ll ultimately be killed off one-by-one. If only those characters weren\u2019t so generic, perhaps that initial excitement would have had a lingering effect, but no.<\/p>\n \n In addition to Claire and Alice, we\u2019re trapped in the prison with a clich\u00e9 stuck-up film producer (Kim Coates), his loyal intern (Norman Yeung), a buff basketball star (Boris Kodjoe), a wannabe actress who, you probably guessed it, wound up waiting tables (Kacey Barnfield), an expendable character who\u2019s quite obviously the first to go (Fulvio Cecere) and an incarcerated Wentworth Miller. This is easily the worst portion of the film not only because there\u2019s zero fighting, but because the characters are so weak and some of the performances are downright laughable. Much of the time in the prison is spent chatting and when you\u2019re submerged in conversations involving uninteresting characters, odds are, what they\u2019re discussing is just as mundane. Miller makes for a fine action hero, but when the guy attempts to display emotion, whether it be that of a potentially dangerous killer or a loving brother just reunited with his sister, he either takes it way too far or falls flat entirely. Even worse is Shawn Roberts\u2019 comically over-the-top portrayal of Umbrella\u2019s #1, Albert Wesker<\/p>\n \n It isn\u2019t until the safety of the prison is threatened that we finally get some of what drew folks to the series to begin with, zombie killing. Well, actually, I don\u2019t know if they quite classify as zombies anymore. Now we\u2019re dealing with mutations, mutations with tentacles coming out of their mouths. There are a handful of notable sequences the best of which involve Alice jumping off the roof with flying zombies decorating the background and a battle between Claire and some massive axe-wielding beast that\u2019s thrown into the mix with zero explanation. Of course leaping off of walls, jumping a ridiculous amount of feet in the air and swimming underwater for at least five minutes is utterly absurd, but when it\u2019s at the expense of some action, it\u2019s easily digestible.<\/p>\n \n
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