Resident Evil: Afterlife isn’t a great film but does possess some entertainment value which is good considering the plot is incredibly thin as is the villain which was merely a knockoff of Mr. Anderson from The Matrix.
Resident Evil: Afterlife
(2010)
Genre(s): Action, Science Fiction, Horror
Sony | R – 97 min. – $34.99 | January 17, 2017
Date Published: 01/21/2017 | Author: The Movieman/Brad Lowenberg
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THE MOVIE — 3.25/5 |
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Note: This portion has been republished from a 2011 review by Brad Lowenberg. I assumed the Resident Evil franchise was over when Resident Evil: Extinction came out. Guess I was wrong. Alice (MILLA JOVOVICH) returns and once again taking very little from the dozen or so video games with the same name. The story this time is a bit more unique, but gives fans of the genre plenty of people to watch die horrible, nasty, bloody deaths.
Several years after Umbrella unleashed the T-Virus, Alice and her group of clones breaks into an underground Umbrella facility looking to destroy it from the ground up (get it?). But this time Alice is in for a rude awakening – Albert Wesker (SHAWN ROBERTS) injects her with something that cures her of her super-human powers and she pretty much becomes a hot girl with some karate moves (and no clones). I applaud this idea because Extinction took her super-powers a bit too far, and this was a nice way to hit the reset button and make things a bit more difficult for her. After Wesker escapes, Alice flies to Arcadia, which is known around the world as being a safe haven (and where she sent the remaining survivors from Extinction). She soon comes in contact with Claire Redfield (ALI LARTER) whose memory has been severely wiped in the months she was by herself. With Claire by her side, Alice seeks refuge with another group of survivors in Los Angeles who, after some time, figure out that Arcadia is actually a boat, and not a city in Alaska. As luck would have it, the boat just happens to be a few miles from where they are. The rest of the film deals with how the survivors will get out of the prison safely and on to the boat.
It’s tough not to enjoy the Resident Evil films. They has kick-ass fights, hot girls, and blood and were along great cheese films. Almost like a grind house film with a clearer story to it. So I was a bit upset when Extinction came and went and there was no news on a Fourth film. But it seems the franchise still has a little life left in it, and thanks to Afterlife, it certainly got a kick in the pants. What works in Resident Evil: Afterlife is the almost claustrophobic feeling the film has as the group of survivors (names? Who needs them? It’s your typical group of people one might expect to see in a movie like this who get picked off one by one) try to figure out a way to leave the heavily fortified prison in hopes of making it to Arcadia safely. Several nods to the games are made (Claire magically finds her brother Chris in this prison – just so damn lucky!), and overall, this is a great action-fest with some killer CGI effects.
But what does not work? For me, the film felt like it spent a bit too much time setting up the plot, when frankly, you are watching this film for action. After Alice arrives at the prison, it seems like hours before anything actually happens and it winds up being a bunch of people yelling at each other. But as soon as they decide to step outside, the real pain begins. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.0/5 |
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This release comes with a slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Audio Commentary – Paul W.S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer Undead Vision (PiP) — This is mostly comprised of the footage of the featurettes below… Featurettes:
Roughly 45 minutes of featurettes that provides an interesting look into almost every aspect of the film. I found the Undead Dimension to be the most interesting as the cast and crew discuss why the film was shot in 3D – and why it’s better because of it. The rest offers up your typical Making of and fans of the movie will want to check it out. Rounding out the disc is an Outtake Reel (4:30; HD), Five Deleted/Extended Scenes (6:48; HD) that I found to offer very little and was rightfully cut and a Sneak Peak at Resident Evil: Damnation (1:10; HD) a CGI direct-to-video movie. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife lands onto Ultra High Definition presented with in its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and a 2160p resolution from what I suspect was actually a 2K scan (upconverted to 4K). Even so, this release looks pretty good for a catalog title though I have to wonder why this Resident Evil got the UHD treatment. Still, there are some nice pops of color here and there though outside of the finale, tonally colors are geared toward more on the natural spectrum. |
AUDIO – 5.0/5 |
| Not only does the video get an upgrade, the audio gets one as well. The original Blu-ray release had a standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track while this one gets the newer Dolby Atmos audio and doing a quick comparison, this is a modest difference between the two but it takes it to a new level providing clear dialogue levels and shows off more depth and a robustness for the numerous gun battle sequences that occur, particularly early on as well as Tomandandy’s hardcore score. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, Resident Evil: Afterlife isn’t a great film but does possess some entertainment value which is good considering the plot is incredibly thin as is the villain which was merely a knockoff of Mr. Anderson from The Matrix. This UHD release by Sony offers great video, excellent audio and a fine selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more screen caps (1080p) by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.