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Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

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Overall Rating 54%
Overall Rating
Ranked #1,076
...out of 20,329 movies
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Connections: Resident Evil

While still out to destroy the evil Umbrella Corporation, Alice joins a group of survivors living in a prison surrounded by the infected who also want to relocate to the mysterious but supposedly unharmed safe haven known only as Arcadia. --IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: December 22, 2012
The Resident Evil film series was never really in sync with its video game counterpart. Anderson has been content to kick out a totally unrelated zombie action series, name a few of its characters after the game's characters and call it a sequel. So the trend continues, as the fourth film adds a protagonist from the first game, some villains from the sixth, and as usual, a shitload of incoherence.

After Alice discovered an army of her own clones, she's made good on her promise to Umbrella. The heroin and her personal militia made their way around the globe, using their superpowers to lay waste to Umbrella strongholds. Things take a turn for the worse in the Tokyo raid however. It just so happens that Albert Wesker, the head of the corporation, who has also been modified by the T-virus, is at the facility. He hasn't gotten to the top of the biggest company in the world for nothing though, and he's able to escape, nuking both the city and the army of Alices behind him. As luck would have it, the last remaining Alice, the original, has stowed away on his aircraft. Right before she puts a bullet in his head, he whirls around and jams a syringe in her neck. The serum neutralizes the T-Virus' effect, returning her to a normal human. Still, she survives the subsequent crash that tends to happen when the pilot is dicking around in the back in mountainous terrain, hijacks a plane and heads for the States, looking for her friends in Arcadia, Alaska. Not sure how that little tail-dragger made it across the Pacific, but I digress. She is able to find Claire, but she doesn't quite get the reception she deserves. The woman has some strange device on her chest, and attacks Alice on sight. Even with Wesker's injection, Alice easily overcomes her old friend, and after removing the device, the pair head down the coast, encountering a new group of survivors, a new breed of undead, Claire's brother, and the truth about Arcadia.

Resident Evil: Afterlife is one of those movies that seem to serve more as a transition piece between its neighboring films in the franchise than an actual chapter itself. You see, there's no real development other than the nature of Arcadia, and they didn't do anything with that other than set themselves up for the sequel. The plot does nothing for this movie in a vacuum. In the same vein, other than Claire's brother Chris, all of the characters seem to be throw-aways, just there to get us through the film. And not only that, but the whole "throw random shit from the games all haphazardly" that's defined this series is in full effect here. This time, they took a few pages out of Resident Evil 5's book, including the plagas zombies (zombies with a parasite protruding from the mouths) and the hulking creature known as the Axeman. Now, apparently it's a boss in the game, but having never played it I just wrote it off as a Pyramid Head rip-off. He even dragged his absurdly large weapon behind him in the same manner. Anyway, in that game it was explained that these new breeds, and others, are not results of the usual T-Virus, but a completely unrelated parasite. In Afterlife, they're given precisely zero explanation. Guys, a little effort is all it takes in these movie. Alice exclaiming "it's a new mutation!" or something would have been more than sufficient. Let's get it together.

Once again, the acting was right on par with the rest of the movies; certainly no compliment. As usual, Mila simply goes through the motions, able to differentiate herself from a 2X4 here and there by feigning a girlish coyness with this movie's doomed pseudo-lover role. Speaking of, Boris Kodjoe at least brought some charisma to his role. Shame he didn't have more running time. On the other hand, Wentworth Miller brought zilch to his Chris Redfield. From his lack of any emotion whatsoever to that God-forsaken Batman voice, he pretty much dropped every ball there was. As his on-screen sister, Ali Larter continues barely scraping the par line. To be fair, none of them hurt the movie, but that's in large part due to it being in the shitter in the first place.

And so, the franchise takes yet another step in the wrong direction. Apparently, the next movie ends on something of a final note, and I think it's high time Anderson turns the series over to someone else who can reboot it and bring Resident Evil back to its horror roots. 2.5/10.
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