Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) Director: Paul W.S Anderson


The Resident Evil films have serious flaws but there's something hugely enjoyable about them - schlok horror, action and babes shooting big guns. Resident Evil: Afterlife, aka Resident Evil 4, is a welcome addition to the franchise. It's obvious how much director Paul W.S Anderson loves his wife Milla Jovovich who plays protagonist Alice - he shoots her in slo-mo, often in the rain or involving some kind of showering, with the camera lingering on her phenomenal thighs and incredible face as she shoots baddies and zombies with two massive guns. You don't need to know much more than this. Great success!

Resident Evil: Afterlife starts four years after the events of Extinction - Tokyo has gone all chompy, and Alice and her clones attempt to kill Matrix-like baddie Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). Shit happens. Then we follow Alice as she travels to the pure and unzombiefied Arcadia to try and track down her friends from Extinction. Shit happens. Our journey takes us next to the apolcalyptic ruins of Los Angeles, namely a prison where there are a group of survivors and big zombie nutcases surrounding the gates, ready to chow down. Or so we think. We are then faced with zombies who can crawl through mud and drainage systems and have sucky weird faces like Predator. Not good. Despite the addition of these mutant zombies, the actual zombie chomping count of Afterlife is pretty poor - more effort is put into the, err, plot and Arcadia final set-piece than the gut-busting carnage. The sucky weird zombies grab by surprise, rather than with gore. There's not much pay-off in that.

Fans will still love it, despite the rubbish gore count. Newcomers to the franchise may be confused. The final scenes set us up for more - bring on Resident Evil: Retribution next year, I still want to see more.
3/5 zombie roars

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