Resident Evil - Afterlife

There are just some movies and some actresses in those movies that get a pass from me. It has everything to do with the mindset I was in when I first saw the movie they starred in. My beloved Milla Jovovich is just such an actress for me.

When she was in her teens she played Joan of Arc in THE MESSENGER and I fell in love with her. Since then I have seen everything she has been in. It was great that she made several cool action films like ULTRAVIOLET and of course RESIDENT EVIL.

I never played the game that RESIDENT EVIL is based on because I was an old school arcade gamer and the movie came upon the scene with a host of others that too were based on popular video games of the day - few if any were very good.


However, for some reason, the combination of all things - Milla, the red dress, the stinking Umbrella corporation, the T-Virus, zombies, the rescue team - all combined to create one of my favorite action franchises of all time. They are movies I watch every time they come on TV and I like them each and every time. Milla's ALICE is one of my all time favorite action movie heroines.

So no matter what Rotten Tomatoes thinks (they gave it a 14%) this film is critic and bullet proof for me. I wish I could convince someone else in the world that these movies are terrific but I think the god`s just intended for me to have a special relationship with them alone.


Maybe that means one day Milla and I will be trapped on an elevator while zombies try to get at us and, when she is at her most terrified, I remind her of that time, in RE 2, when she shot that guy, with the nail gun - and she will become the character she played in the movie and saves both of us before whisking me away to a Swiss Chalet for Turkish Delight and sweet monkey love. (What? It could happen!)

Anyways. If you remember the last movie, we left Alice in a birthing chamber in one of Umbrella`s many labs where they had rows and rows of clones of her growing in giant glass containers. The tease was that our Alice now had an army of herselves to take down that stinking Umbrella Corporation for good.


We first see them attack an Umbrella base in Tokyo where only ONE Alice is more than a match for a whole squad of heavily armed soldiers. The combat scenes remind you of the MATRIX with a lot of slow motion shooting and action choreography. They do alot to showcase the fact that the movie was shot with new 3D technology throughout.

As with past movies, Alice manages to find a group of survivors (this time in L.A.) and together they attempt to reach a boat offshore that promises them safety from the infected that surround the prison the uninfected are trapped in. But they are running out of time as cracks in the walls of the prison are allowing an ever greater number of the zombie infected to breach the walls.

The survivors are trying to reach a ship called the Arcadia that lies just off shore and has been broadcasting a message of hope to any people still not infected with the dreaded T-virus.


Then things become like one big video game - shoot your way to freedom or die in the attempt. There are some incredible scenes and stunts that made me hold my breath. I never was bored with the story and though many questions were answered, the movie leaves for the possibility of a fifth movie in the series and I have no problem with that. Like I said - critic and bulletproof. You know your own tastes well enough to decide if you want to see this one.