Purely Joyful Movie!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Having really enjoyed (at least as far as this series goes) the third entry in the 'Resident Evil' set of films, I was quite disappointed to see them take a step backwards in this one. 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' is my least favourite entry in the series to date. Interesting, my two least favourites, the original and this one, were both directed by series writer/producer Paul W.S. Anderson. The second and third entries, which he lent out to other directors, were far superior in my opinion. This is a disappointing fact, because I have two films to go in the series and he has directed both of them.The reasons I didn't enjoy this one as much were as follows. Firstly, this one is much slower than the other films in the series. At almost the halfway point in the run time the story is still being set up and characters are simply standing around introducing them self and discussing what to do. There are little hints of action here and there in the first half, but they are hardly anything worth mentioning. Secondly, it felt like this focused a lot more on style than actual substance. The opening scene is a prime example. Very very little actually happens in it, yet the whole thing is filmed in slow motion and with stylish camera angles to make us think this is a great scene. Also, it would have to be said that this series is starting to feel a little stale after four entries. You find yourself asking what exactly am I getting in this edition that I haven't already seen or experienced. I would love to see Anderson think a little outside the box for the next two entries. Try something different to mix it up a bit. Otherwise I feel this series really can't justify six entries.

Resident Evil: Afterlife was a stark and precipitous drop off from its predecessors. Besides being one long rock video with bad CGI, the acting was poor as well as the plot. Not to mention that at times I didn't know if I was watching Resident Evil, Tremors, Silent Hill or The Matrix. Let me say this: I get that slow motion and stop motion makes an action sequence cool but chill out a bit willya. It was way overdone like a child playing with his newest toy. Take out half the slow motion scenes and the movie is ten minutes shorter.Speaking of the action scenes: there's action and then there's "come on, get real." I'm all for bending the laws of physics at times for an exciting movie but my brain has a certain point in which it refuses to ignore the blatant impossibilities. More than once I found myself rolling my eyes at the otherworldly stunts. Just tell me they're in the Matrix so I can mentally accept what I'm seeing. The extreme action and the paradoxically calm faces that accompanied it were too much to bear.There is yet another exception I have with this movie. It's not fair but my idea of zombies has been largely defined by The Walking Dead and George Romero. Resident Evil is a totally different production, I know, and furthermore it's based upon a video game which probably has a totally different set of rules for its hordes of mobile carcasses. For all I know, the undead beings in Resident Evil aren't even zombies; they may be another creation entirely. But, since they look like zombies and behave like zombies I'm holding them to the zombie rules. So, with that, I have certain expectations that were thoroughly defied in this movie. I found these zombies to be fast, strong, slightly cognitive and able to be silent when needing the element of surprise. Look, that is not my vision of a zombie and it's simply not fair. Part of the reason zombies are slow, dumb and weak is that 1.) they're dead and all higher brain functions have ceased and 2.) there are millions of them!! They already have a significant advantage in that they can only be killed with head shots (which is tough enough as it is) then you make their numbers multitudinous which is a recipe for invincibility as a species. There's no need after that to also make them strong, fast, sneaky and somewhat smart. The remaining humans have no chance!Overall this movie just lacked intelligence and originality. They really went the mindless action movie route while liberally borrowing thematic and cinematic ideas from so many other known movies. The bottom line is they didn't even try and that's the saddest part.

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE is the fourth RESIDENT EVIL movie I've watched and by far the worst of the lot. It's an execrable piece of nonsense, possibly the nadir of Paul W. S. Anderson's career, and that's saying something given the amount of dross this guy has turned out. It's clear that the only idea behind this sequel was to make more money from a semi-successful brand, because there's an entire dearth of ideas and imagination.Once again, the wooden and unlikeable Milla Jovovich plays Alice, a dull cartoon character who goes around shooting zombies in the head and performing various wirework-assisted stunts. The story is very slight, involving her teaming up with a group of survivors trying to get to safety, but when they find themselves trapped inside a building under siege it's predictable zombie film time. Things get sillier and sillier until the ridiculous climax, which has to be seen to be believed.Everything's poor about this film: the writing, the acting, the lunk-headed characters, that dialogue. The CGI effects are noticeably cheap-looking, and I'm glad I didn't see this in 3D as the effects looked poor too. Half the film seems to be ripped off from other stuff: those PREDATOR-mouthed monsters from BLADE 2, that giant axe-swinging guy from SILENT HILL. Needless to say this is a waste of time, even worse than the previous instalments.

With probably the most over the top, outlandish, in your face action sequence you've seen for sometime comes the fourth entry of the endless Resi Evil franchise. Now I REALLY am gonna try and not mention a certain Keanu Reeves sci-fi action film involving bullet time too much if possible but its gonna be hard.This outrageously insane kamikaze opening sequence where all the clone Alice's storm the Umbrella Tokyo Headquarters is actually a guilty pleasure I must admit. Its so ridiculously stupid using every cliché in the action film textbook and rips every possible slick visual imagery you can think of from various other action/sc-fi films...yet its great fun. Jovovich/Alice is sleek, sexy and deadly as the clones tear the faceless Umbrella stormtroopers apart with machine guns and katanas. Bloody squibs bursting from the seams, bullet holes, hits to the head by Wesker on his own men at point blank range, beheadings...oh my!!Only one question begs to be answered, where did all those Alice clones get all those identical figure hugging catsuits??So the drudgery continues as Alice goes from one area to the next battling the undead and watching more and more of hers allies go down one by one. This time she lands her plane on a huge prison in LA, not too sure why she would quite clearly get herself stuck on this prison, let alone almost killing herself and Claire whilst trying to land on the roof. But she does because there are survivors there...but surely anyone would just fly by and find a more secure place? this prison is surrounded by millions of zombies! pfft your funeral.The ensemble cast is actually pretty cool in this, on the same page as the first film although not many famous names. Alongside Alice in this prison we have the token black guy who runs around in a vest so we can see his big muscles, at least he's well spoken. Standard fare sexy brunette who is British (at least she isn't a blonde), the excellent Kim Coates as a slimy film producer (nice touch Mr Anderson), a funny little oriental fellow, standard fare tough guy backup number two called Angel and Wentworth Miller who again is behind bars.To be totally frank this fourth film is completely run of the mill, bog standard stuff in terms of plot. Its simply another setup for Alice to pile drive into with a new team of zombie fodder at her side. The thing is like the first film its still quite an enjoyable ride, its totally predictable, totally clichéd and pretty much rehashes the same stuff all over again but in a different location. But thanks to a quirky cast the film is pretty cool I think.  There are still plot questions that hit me, especially as this is now the fourth film. Anyone notice that the Umbrella Company has so many underground bases? also they are VAST underground bases! How and when did they build them?? (under Tokyo??!!), how are Umbrella so rich n powerful? Where on earth do all the Umbrella henchmen come from? how come THEY are always safe? where do they get all their guns and ammo? how come they are so useless and why would they wanna do their evil job? why does Umbrella carry on playing with the dead when the human race is almost extinct?! and finally not being a game player...who was that huge axe wielding guy? where the heck did he come from?I must also ask why the cities in this franchise are in ruins? the undead are eating everyone not blowing up buildings, so why are they all stripped down to their structures and burnt out? The other main question was why some zombies can now run and have tentacles coming out of their mouths just like the vamps in 'Blade II'. When did this evolution occur?I can't delve deeper for obvious reasons, the film is what it is and we all know this, its Resi Evil, don't question that. The film does deliver in my opinion, it gives you what you expect with some decent visuals and good close quarter action. The finale against Wesker is just as insanely Matrix-like as the opening sequence and just as mind bogglingly daft, maybe more so. The rock soundtrack in the background means its officially cool, its official.You do feel the tension in these films when the heat is on and its time to escape from somewhere. The fact Alice isn't a superhero this time boosts the film giving a sense of uncertainty for once, even though you know she still won't die, still helps.6/10