My Review of Resident Evil: Afterlife

Well another sequel of Resident Evil is upon us, some might say that the franchise has become more and more watered down with each addition to the series so what can we expect from the new outing called Resident Evil: Afterlife? well I just finished watching it this morning with the miss' and here are my thoughts of it, don't worry I'll keep it spoiler free for anyone interested in watching it themselves.

Much like with Scott Pilgrim vs the World, RE:Afterlife was shot in Toronto Ontario Canada and much like with Scott Pilgrim my wife got to work on it, the only difference was that I was generally interested in seeing this movie vs what I was with seeing Scott Pilgrim.

My wife spent a great deal of time on this particular feature, she even served as the onsite carpenter for the movie meaning she was hobnobbing with the celebs, well not really hobnobbing, its not like she was sitting down for lunch with them or anything but for those that have either seen the movie or watched the trailer, the red fighter jet that Alice is flying around in, you can thank my wife for having a hand in its creation as she built the majority of it.

So yeah I had several occasions where I was living vicariously through my wife, she'd get home tell me how she had to adjust the cockpit glass inbetween shoots while Mila Jovovich and Ali Larter were about a foot away in the plane's seats, she'd come home and tell me about how they were shooting this and shooting that and half the time I was telling her "I don't want to hear it, I don't want to know what's going to happen in the movie". One day she even came home with a cast picture including the actors in the movie and all the set workers with my wife tucker in the picture right above the director in the Wesker chair...I can only tell you that I was insanely jealous of her.

As for the movie itself, how did it really stack up to the previous RE's that came before it? well I enjoyed the first movie, it was pretty faithful to the game except for of course some character changes here and there but as a whole it was a solid movie and was very entertaining. Then we come to part 2, which was solid again, paying I think alittle more homage to the game by bringing in characters from RE2 the game and the inclusion of Nemesis, which like the way he looked or not it was thrown in there for the fans.

The only one I wasn't found of from the RE movies was the 3rd movie, it didn't to me feel like a real Resident Evil movie, and I found it seemed real final, it was set up that everything in the world was gone and that the last survivors are moving through the desert area having to contend with a new breed of Zombies, it was action packed sure...but did I enjoy it, not really.

So that brings us to Afterlife, and in some ways this sequel brings us back to the first 2 movies, taking us back to the cityscape of the T virus and the outbreak and the movie seemed refreshing. Alice is back kicking Zombie and Umbrella's ass and it was full of bullets flying, walls getting shot up and a ton of explosions. This sequel also brings in Albert Wesker finally to the live action Resident evil world portrayed by Shawn Roberts. Roberts at times seems a tad silly playing Wesker as if he's almost trying to channel Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith from the Matrix movies, when you see the movie you'll know what I'm talking about. This Wesker is at times...well all the time over the top but its likeable and I enjoyed every bit of screen time he was in, cheesy a bit but very entertaining.

The sequel also brings finally Chris Redfield which is a rewarding sight to see, wish he could have had some scenes where it was just him and his sister Claire taking Zombie names but I guess that could overshadow Alice's character and much like the sequels she's the main character to root for. Also like in Resident Evil 2 where we got a game baddy thrown in for the fans, Resident Evil Afterlife brings us the appearance from the very large, very intimidatiing Executioner from the RE5 game, every bit of screentime this guy gets is gold, unlike the Nemesis who at times looked like a guy wearing a rubber suit, the Executioner in RE afterlife looks downright scary just like Pyramid Head looked in the Silent Hill movie and I don't know if they altered his size in post production because this guy is huge in the movie.

Overall this Resident Evil sequel delivers a very entertaining story, solid action and just enough Zombies to make it a Resident Evil movie...ok it can be fluff at times but I liked the characters, none of which seemed out of place or just there to be killed, the effects were done well and surprisingly the 3D didn't ruin the movie like I was almost thinking it would. Resident Evil Afterlife gets a 6 out of 10, sure there's been better movies to come out but in the realm of the RE movies, this one is a tie for the 2nd best of the series, 2nd only to the original...go check it, sit back and just have a fun time at the movies, don't over analyze what you're watching after all its a Zombie movie right?