Resident Evil: Afterlife is the best movie in the franchise.
Resident Evil: Afterlife is to Resident Evil as Fast & Furious is to The Fast and the Furious. That is, it’s the fourth entry in a mediocre contemporary action franchise that benefits from a reunion of prime personnel absent since the first entry. In the case of Fast & Furious, that was Vin Diesel. Here, it’s terrible hack director Paul W.S. Anderson. Oh sure, he wrote the middle chapters, Apocalypse and Extinction, but his distinctive directorial voice was lacking. But now, his interim career having proven lackluster like Vin’s, Anderson has returned to the Milla Jovovich-shaped teat that most suits him. Balk as I did each time Anderson bitched about how the sequels were directed, but it turns out he was right. His writing sucks dwarf uteruses, or whatever, meaning it takes a particular alchemy to present it well on screen. Paul W.S. Anderson, bane of high-falutin’ film-goers everywhere, bless him, has that alchemy.
It’s a good thing he does, too, since his writing’s as derivative, plotless and awful as ever. It’s not as illogical as previous entries, and I only counted one egregious mistake. (The dating is all messed up, courtesy of a single “4 years later” title card.) But four entries in, any wise viewer understands the compromise at hand. One no longer seeks a George Romero epic from these movies, simply a mildly enjoyable restaging of classic bits from other mainstream genre movies of the past 30 years. It just needs to be fun. Somehow, I think this one is.
Anderson is helped greatly by Afterlife’s other great ace in the hole: 3-D. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but here me out. See, Afterlife is the first 3-D movie since Avatar to not be computer animated or converted to 3-D in post production. Yup, it uses the same exact camera technology as Avatar, but employs it towards an even more banal narrative. And as someone who embraces the gimmicky element of 3-D, the in-your-face ultra-stupidity, which Avatar sorely lacked, Afterlife fulfills that particular dumb-dumb niche.
Actually, it’s sort of a clip reel demonstrating just how this “new” technology could be employed in the future. Because what Afterlife is, as a Resident Evil film, is first and foremost a collection of movie references. Ever wanted to see what The Matrix would look like in 3-D? That’s Afterlife. How about Die Hard? That’s Afterlife. The Descent? Afterlife. The opening gun barrel from James Bond? You get the idea.
Honestly, this movie wouldn’t work in a mere two dimensions. Conversely, 3-D would greatly improve the other three Residents Evil. This all has to do with cinematography. There are images in Afterlife which are hideous as compositions, but which function on a spatial level. Reading the apparent distance between objects helps immensely in this kind of movie. Ironically, the 3-D actually diminishes my personal potential for headaches! All the weird angles and jumbled images appear clear in this new format. However, many composition-heavy films (Citizen Kane – yeah, I went there) would absolutely perish under this format. It is, quite possibly, an entirely new sort of cinematic language.
Also, 3-D forces longer shot length, meaning no incomprehensible sub-Bourne editing for us. This is also to Afterlife’s advantage.
So all that means Resident Evil: Afterlife functions on some sort of technical level. As a movie qua story, though, it dies on the vine.
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Jeepers. That incomprehensible diatribe up there is what happens when you try to type something in the middle of a Tetris marathon. It’s all a big mishmash of unrelated fleeting notions, which rather makes it appropriate for this franchise. But trying to speak of Resident Evil: Afterlife on its own terms is a silly thing, so rather let us consider, chronologically, the more obvious famous scenes that are recreated whole hog…
(Be warned, spoilers ahead. Not so much for Resident Evil: Afterlife, but for the movies it rips off.)
The Matrix (also Reloaded…and maybe Revolutions if you squint hard enough) – The first 15 minutes of Afterlife are the three-year delayed climax to Extinction. Why do long form franchises insist on these “Jabba’s Palace” sort of opening acts? No matter, for it’s here where Anderson cops to Resident Evil’s central compulsion: It is the world’s foremost Matrix homage artist. As such, this section is Anderson’s masterpiece, rendering the purest (and most anachronistic - it's 2010!) Matrix pastiche in history. Nothing greater can be imagined.
Alice (Jovovich, whom I previously called Mr. Anderson’s one-time girlfriend…that’s because she’s his now-time wife) makes her ultimate assault upon Umbrella Corp’s headquarters in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. That is to say, it’s the “lobby shootout.” The differences? It’s in 3-D, the rocktronica soundtrack is somewhat more contemporary, and it involves dozens of lithe Jovovich clones instead of one rapidly aging Carrie-Anne Moss.
Oh, those clones! They’re the latest part of Alice’s arsenal, along with super-speed, super-strength, super-healing, super-Spidey Sense, and psuper-psionics. She’s become ridiculously powered over three films, which makes for a fun opening sequence, but a tricky overall tale. Luckily, her foe today is Ultra Umbrella Ubermensch, Albert Wesker, who has been granted a similarly preposterous set of powers by the plot-friendly, zombie-making T-virus. Basically, he’s a fatter Agent Smith, with a little bit of Dracula for the hell of it. He also has the latest Umbrella brew, which quickly reverts Alice back to a run-of-the-mill bad-ass normal. This makes the rest of her exploits both easier to film, and easier to sympathize with.
Also, those clones are now dead too.
Anderson’s kind of blown his load on his wife a tad early. The rest of the flick is reasonable enough, but it never reaches the opening heights, as plagiaristic as they are.
I’m actually not sure what movie this is from – Alice flies a biplane out to Extinction’s Alaskan utopia, which is now revealed to be named “Arcadia.” Ooh, symbolic! Actually, it’s not Arcadia, but rather an abandoned airfield. I fooled my stupid ass into thinking this section was more suspenseful than it was, because I thought Anderson was stealing from movies he wasn’t stealing from (like Paranormal Activity). I know, I’m dumb.
Time passes, and Alice finally runs into someone: Clear Rivers – whoops!, that’s Ali Larter’s character in Final Destination. Here she’s Claire Redfield. Excuse the mistake.
Amnesia remains a franchise hallmark, a simple means of manhandling the plot. In a reversal, or something, this time it’s Claire who is the amnesiac, meaning she’s the one with the irritating memory flashes. Basically, to sum it up, she escaped from an Alaskan Umbrella ambush, in a development that makes less and less sense the more I think about Extinction. That is all, really.
Alice decides to spend the rest of the movie in Los Angeles, for pretty much no stated reason.
Escape From New York – Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) has been charged with gaining access to an isolated prison colony in the ruins of a great American metropolis. To gain access to the prison, he must perform an insane stunt, landing his fixed-wing aircraft on the roof of a skyscraper. He barely makes it, the craft teetering over the ledge.
Oh wait, this isn’t an awesome John Carpenter movie from 1981, it’s Resident Evil: Afterlife! Eh…whatever…simply replace “Snake” with “Alice.” And “New York” with “L.A.”…which is where Carpenter’s underwhelming sequel took place. So…nothing new here, folks.
Every zombie movie ever made – This prison colony Alice (and Claire) are now at is the sole holdout of all life in L.A., populated by the most standard Los Angeles stock types imaginable: the movie producer, his intern, the egocentric basketball player (for legal reasons, it isn’t Kobe), the wannabe actress, and the few other guys who die earliest.
Yes, it’s the Romero siege scenario everybody pilfers from.
The Silence of the Lambs – There’s also this one jerk behind the plexiglass cage, whom everyone else is terrified of solely because they’ve seen the Jonathan Demme directed serial killer movie. In actuality, it’ Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller, of “Prison Break”), here again the only person with the knowledge to affect a prison break. That casting’s a little too on the nose. Right, and he’s Claire’s brother, simply because he was in the games too. In film, it seems a might coincidental that a brother and sister would separately be among the few dozen post-zombie apocalypse survivors on earth.
Some Terminator movies – Eh, probably.
Dawn of the Dead (Zack Snyder version) – That’s right, I keep forgetting, these are zombie movies! And while the prison has withstood the zombie siege for roughly half a decade, of course the instant Alice is here, all zombie hell breaks loose. They start breaking in, and running with a degree of comfort the other Residents Evil never toyed with. Oh, that T-virus, able to do whatever Anderson wants…including giving the zombies Predator mouth thinguses possibly in accordance with the games.
Anyway, Chris knows the way past the undead – in a weaponized shielded vehicle. Only it’s a tank now, not a school bus, so it’s “different.” Oh, and the tank’s engine is kaput, so never mind that whole DOTD scenario after all.
Soulcaliber (video game references now) – Instead, the zombies are closing in on from everywhere all of a sudden. There’s also a ridiculously gigantic axe-wielding behemoth (in executioner’s hood), whose existence is never questioned nor answered. Here’s the short of it: T-virus. I’m sure he’s a product of the Resident Evil games, but he reminds me most of Astaroth from Soulcaliber in every fiber of his being.
Die Hard – When Alice is cornered (by zombies) on the rooftop, the only means of escape is by movie reference. Break out the fire hose and explosives! “Yippee kay yay, motherfucker!” (Alice doesn’t say that. She doesn’t say much that registers in my mind as an action one-liner.)
The Descent – Dawn of the Dead scrapped, escape must be made through the monster tunnels of Los Angeles which now suddenly exist (actually, we Angelinos have known about them since the ‘20s). Not much to say here, except claustrophobia benefits extensively from 3-D – except for all the irritating flashlights shining in my face!
Children of Men – Apocalypse at hand, the only salvation for mankind is a roving tanker ship. That’s what Arcadia really is, and right now it’s in the L.A. harbor. And while the Tomorrow of Children of Men was a mighty symbol of hope in man’s darkest hour, its sister ship Arcadia is merely the setting for an action sequence. A lackluster climactic action sequence.
2001: A Space Odyssey – Yes, Rotten Tomatoes lists Anderson’s favorite films, which are to a T-virus all excellent (Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, the Kubrick space movie). It is for this reason that I choose to interpret Arcadia’s sleek, antiseptic interior as a remarkably misguided homage to the Star-Child sequence, Anderson having learned seemingly none of that classic’s tonal lessons. (That I also saw 2001 on an actual movie screen last night doesn’t hurt.)
Amazingly, this white, white space isn’t even bloodied by the franchise’s trademark bloody, bloody doggies. (And here I’d thought they’d been forgotten, just like the once-essential Jovovich nudity – nowhere to be seen!) Of course those dogs are pretty boring four times in…
The Thing – Except when they sprout gory vagina-flower-tongue-thingies from their heads, much like those poor canines the Thing once assimilated. Of course, Jovo-kicks are still fatal to these monsters.
The Matrix again – What else could Wesker’s predictable return entail? He even gets a variation on Smith’s anti-humanity speech, re: the T-virus. If only he had the wit to call Alice “Mrs. Anderson.” See, ‘cause her husband now is Paul Anderson, and – Oh, never mind…
There are more references embedded in here, I’m sure, but it’s early yet in the film’s existence, and my recap-happy butt doesn’t want to overdo it with a movie still in theaters. Let’s just say that Wesker is defeated (maybe only for now…) and Alice rescues the thousands of survivors imprisoned aboard the Arcadia. This somehow makes up for the franchise’s total refusal to do anything with the potential T-virus cure Alice represents – zombie apocalypse or no, somehow humans vs. humans is a more important conflict.
And even while there are no official plans yet for a fifth Resident Evil, this series cannot help but end on a sequel hook. No entry yet has been conclusive. When you’re just watching the things for the spectacle (the 3-D helps with that), this is easily ignored, but it’s still another example of the poor narrative structure underlying all Residents Evil. So once again I must surprise myself, and praise the 3-D to the stars. Without it, and (I can’t believe I’m saying this) Anderson’s sure hand as director, and I’m sure there would be absolutely nothing in Afterlife to set it apart in my mind. But with those things…I’m not upset I went out to see it.
Related posts:
• No. 1 Resident Evil (2002)
• No. 2 Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
• No. 3 Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
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