MyRating: YY1/2Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Boris Kodjoe, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Spencer Locke
MPAA: Rated R for sequences of strong violence and language
The Resident Evil franchise was brought into another new level. Yes, it's 3D! Every (anticipated) movie nowadays seems to have the urgency to be shot or presented in 3D. Everybody knows that it's the hot new trend. For certain movies, I have to admit that the 3D premises somehow adds my excitement to watch the movies. And this same excitement still made me craving more to see this fourth installment of the hugely popular 'zombie game' movie.
I like Resident Evil movies for reasons. First, I loved the games. Second, I love zombie movies. What can I say? 'Zombie' has always been one of my most favorite horror movie sub-genres. No matter what (bad words) people said about this franchise, and due to the fact that Resident Evil movies were actually never really that great because of the average storylines, however my weird love-affair with this series has made me want to see every new installment that came into the theater. It's simple, they were usually entertaining and fun to watch. And one more thing, I like Milla Jovovich (I like her because of this franchise). She is perfectly suited fine for her role as Alice. She is Alice now, and always will be remembered as Alice.
Alice continues her mission to find survivors from the world already invected by a virus that turns human into flesh eating zombies. On her journey, she has to fight with the numerous Undeads and the evil Umbrella Corporation with its troops, the cause of this outbreak. In Alaska, Alice meets again with her friend Claire Redfield (Larter), who seems to has lose her memory. They then flied a two-person plane to Los Angeles, where they find more survivors, including Chris Redfield (Miller), Claire's brother. Together, they have to find the way out of the city to a safer place. But it is not an easy job for Alice and her new friends, as not only they have to fight through the barricade of Undead, but also they have to confront with Albert Wesker (Roberts), Alice's nemesis from Umbrella Corporation and the new big monster, Axeman, who will chop them into pieces.
Despite my excitement to see this movie, somehow this fourth movie of Resident Evil was a bit below my expectation. Why? I think the storyline was not good enough. The movie was also a bit slow, with not enough chills and tensions as I expected. The third movie was definitely better. There were also more battles with the Umbrella Corporation than the battles with the zombies itself. And usually, as it was in the previous movies, the more they focus on the conflicts and politics of that evil corporation, the more I will lose my interest towards the story, because it will just become another action movie. In my opinion, it simply will be more interesting to see Alice fighting (or even running from) the zombies than seeing Alice fighting the countless Umbrella's troops.
Nonetheless, this is a Resident Evil movie. So, you will see many actions. And there were some pretty cool actions. The most exciting and memorable one was the fight between Alice and Claire with the Axeman. That fight was the best part of this movie. And the sexy Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter were definitely one of the main attractions, especially when they kicked-ass. They take all the best action parts from Wentworth Miller (of Prison Break), who appeared just fair enough as the new awaited character, Chris Redfield. In my opinion, the other new character, Luther (Boris Kodjoe) was more shining than Miller.
And now, about the 3D. As this movie was actually shot with the 3D camera works the same as Avatar, and not post-transferred into 3D after production, like many other so called '3D' movies, I have to say that the 3D was actually quite good. Not as colorful and rich as Avatar, this movie was a bit dark and bleak, but the settings did look cool in 3D. It also has some cool pop-up action scenes, including throwing a big axe out of the screen. From the actions, there was one uninspiring action scene though, when they tried to imitate The Matrix dodging bullets scene. It just looked like nothing more than imitation, as we have seen this so many times.
This fourth movie was not as good as the first Resident Evil and the third one, Resident Evil: Extinction, which in my opinion, were the best in the series. I will put Resident Evil: Afterlife slightly in par with the second movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which I think were the weakest of the series. Having said all that, have I bored yet with this series? No, I am not. Will I watch again the next Resident Evil movie? Yes, definitely I will. (MJ)
