Resident Evil: Afterlife - The Review

So, last night I went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife with LB (little brother) thanks to Review Brisbane. In exchange for the tickets, I was asked to do a review of the film, so here we go:

I’d never seen a 3D movie before, so walking into the cinema to see Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, I was feeling a tad apprehensive. What if some zombie jumped out at me and I screamed a little, annoying the other patrons? What if that scream was a tad a louder than intended? What if, god forbid, I oohed at aahed at the beginning credits, while everyone else looked at me like I was special?

Well, it turns out I didn’t need to worry about any of that. I DID ooh and aah at the credits, but so did the rest of the cinema, and every time something came flying at the audience, I wasn’t the only one to let out a whimper.

The film opened to a woman standing stock still in the middle of a busy street, while the credits ran in their awesome 3D fashion. There was a zombie attack pretty much straight away, like any good living dead movie, which certainly got me excited.

So there I was, bouncing in my seat, shoving popcorn in my mouth and stealing my brother’s frozen coke while the movie continued. I’m ashamed to say, but I hadn’t seen a Resident Evil film before so I was struggling to keep up with what was going on. Who was that mean dude? Why are there so many of the same girl? How did she make the ground do that weird wave thing and kill everyone? How can she shoot a shorn off shotgun with one hand without breaking her wrist? Oh, scratch that last one; it is a movie after all.

The movie did try to explain as much as it could about the whole situation, but there were some parts where you would need to see the previous films, or have played the games to understand what was going on. Like, the massive man with the weird axe/meat hammer combo and the potato sack with nails poking out of it covering his head (how could he see anything?!). I had no idea what that was about, but it was still pretty cool when he broke down the gate and a flood of zombies entered the survivors’ prison compound. Then there was the fight scene in the bathrooms with him trying to take down Claire. He managed to make a big ‘ole mess of the bathroom, so there was water spouting everywhere and slow motion slides galore, which was obviously the BEST EVER.

What I wasn’t keen on was the high-tech Umbrella Corporation. It reminded me of when I was a kid and would play Half Life on my dad’s computer and get scared of all the aliens and army guys trying to kill me, so I’d cheat and be invincible but still freak out when something attacked. Also, I’m just not a fan of all the white rooms, frozen people in tubes and odd control screens that look like see through iPads, but can blow up massive buildings and open and close doors (they can probably turn lights on and off too).

I have been instructed by my little brother to mention the blood splattering on our 3D glasses, which actually was pretty awesome. I might have even jerked my head back when I knew what was going to happen but everyone else did too, so shut up. So basically, I quite enjoyed the movie and will now be purchasing the other ones so I can attempt to catch up. I’d still prefer a plain old zombie movie though, where people have to go on raids to get food and end up losing half of their group BECAUSE THEY’RE JUST NOT VIGILANT ENOUGH.

Fin.