14 DAY TRIAL // Last night saw the release of the latest installment in the “Resident Evil” franchise, “Afterlife.” Shot with 3D technology also used in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” the fourth film does justice to the franchise – but fails to be inviting to newcomers.
The first reviews for the film are already in and, as ScreenCrave says after summing some of them up, it will certainly be quite an enjoyable ride for the fans.
“Afterlife” sees Alice and Claire Redfield patrolling the skies looking for survivors. They come across a group of prisoners, whom they’re trying to lead to safety – a mission just perfect to present the new zombies or how they’re slain.
While with such flicks the question of good acting is of minor importance (after all, this is a zombie film), Milla Jovovich proves once more she’s a solid action movie actress.
“Milla Jovovich puts in another fine performance as the movie’s heroine; not just does she look like she could rip the head off a zombie but exhibits a calm and confident panache as she conducts her business,” ObsessedWithFilm writes.
“Jovovich has become a fully-fledged action starlet who is deserving of far more praise from action audiences and critics than she has received,” the same reviewer says.
Still it’s not the acting, the interaction between characters or the story itself that audiences are being made to focus on with “Afterlife,” critics agree.
As with the recently released “Step Up 3D,” with “Afterlife” too, the highlight is the 3D effects, which are truly astounding. Battle scenes are carefully choreographed to look just excellent in 3D, while everything else falls in the background.
“Most of the fight scenes are well thought out, with great care taken to have interesting things flying into the camera or other moments which benefit from added depth perception,” BlogCritics also says in a review of the film.
The result is a film that most fans will undoubtedly enjoy, especially as it brings something new to the franchise: 3D. Skeptics will tear it to pieces, though, FilmShaft points out.
“Anderson’s film flies by on a wave of energy, rapid editing, rockin’ music and highlights the fact a fantasy film can get by quite well without an interesting story to tell. It is formulaic genre material with little ambition but to please the audience with the hallowed trinity: girls, gore and guns,” FilmShaft writes.
“It’s daft but strangely enjoyable. One doesn’t want to call it a ‘guilty pleasure’ as such. As a lover of the first two games I have a soft spot for this series. But for some Resident Evil: Afterlife is the embodiment of ‘evil’ and will no doubt assume the role of ‘portent to the end of cinema’, with Paul W.S. Anderson pegged as Beelzebub himself,” the same reviewer underlines.