Friday, September 10, 2010

Movie Review - Resident Evil: Afterlife


File:Resident Evil- Afterlife.jpg

For my first movie review in this blog, I am going to evaluate the latest movie I have watched - Resident Evil : Afterlife (in 3D)

(Warning: Spoilers are included)

Before I continue to my review (which would be a bloodshed), here's a brief synopsis of the movie.
Alice, the main character is seeking to destroy the Umbrella Corporation which is creating the most formidable bioweaponry (even when the world is infested with zombies). Turning into a weapon herself at the hands of Umbrella scientists, Alice wishes for nothing more than to eradicate the company and take her vengeance on the CEO of the company, Albert Wesker.

She succeeded by not without the cost of her lives(her own clones actually). That's only the beginning of the horror. In the following events, she had to go to Alaska to search for the others. (watch the third movie). She found Claire Redfield instead (another lead female character) but she was brainwashed by a device attached to her chest. After Alice put some sense into her, they travelled to the City of Angels and other hell occurred.

New game characters includes Chris Redfield, the Executioner from RE5 and the Majini (translation: 'evil spirit'). There's another character who appeared during the after-credit scene but it's kinda obvious for fans like me ^^

Done with the synopsis, on with the criticism. (Warning: vulgarity is included)
For typical movie goers, the film might seem fun with all the senseless fighting and killing mindless zombies. Conversely, to RE fanatics like me, the only thing that went through my mind was " What the FUCK were they thinking!?"
Seriously, directors nowadays have little regards for what fans wanna watch. They just simply throw anything related from the game or comics into the film without any concerns for the storyline. For instances, the Executioner. True, they retained the original design from the game. Plus, the axe/knife was impressive in the film for both fans and victims. The only thing missing in the film for this enemy was the reason for his presence.
As the film progressed, viewers would see this behemoth dragging his killing machine to shed some blood from the survivors but the thing is, he just appeared out of nowhere with no apparent reason.
Though the slashing of the victims was cool, the director should have dwelled into its origin and explain why it was there in the first place. IDIOTS!!!
Moving on, the next character I would like to lament about is Chris Redfield. In the film he was played by Wentworth Miller from Prison Break.


On the left is the RE5 version of Chris. All pumped up on steroids.
On the right, we have another version of Chris from the previous
games. See the vast disparity.

The film's Chris looked more like the one on the right which
was acceptable for me because, truth be told, I hated the newly
designed Chris. He was too buff and they turned him into a
stereotype.



Claire + Chris in the film
Claire in Code Veronica
On the other hand, his sister, Claire Redfield, was a major casting disaster.
Don't get me wrong, Ali Larter is a great actress but she's just not a suitable
choice for Claire. Firstly, Claire is way much younger than Ali and Ali just doesn't have some
of Claire's attributes. Besides, these two looks totally different.

The following character whom I need to complain is Albert Wesker. Shawn Roberts did a good job impersonating Albert but in the game, he did not have creepy extended mouth coming out of his
mouth. He was instead infected by the Uroboros( play RE 5) and some unknown virus in the game. His stealth and matrix-like movements were a safe for him as they followed the game.

For me, I am all about originality =P

Aside from the characters differences, there were colossal amount of plot holes in the film.
There were the unexplained appearance of the Executioner. Chris and Claire's relationship was
never explored. It was all about Alice who didn't even appear in any of the game. Furthermore,
zombies do not evolve into a freaking a Majini(the main enemy in RE5). To make it worse, they
didn't even mention how the zombies become a Majini look-alike.

I do, however, wanna praise the surprise at the end of the film but still I want the original
Jill Valentine back T_T Oops...I have said too much

All in all, the film is quite enjoyable for its action but there just too much plot holes which makes it seems like Transformer 2. I still prefer the directors to reboot it and revisit the story back in Spencer Mansion(play RE 1) but this time, exclude Alice please...

I shall give it a 2 out of 5

This review is brought to you by the Umbrella Corporation

1 comment:

  1. good review ! hope to see more blog post in future ! good luck man !~

    ReplyDelete

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