Resident Evil: Afterlife

Tuesday Lisa and I went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife on IMAX 3-D. After taking a few days to digest the movie, I'm ready to share my thoughts.

Let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of the Resident Evil game franchise. Though late to the party, I have eagerly collected every title I could find (though I'm still lacking the PS2 titles). Like many fans I eagerly awaited RE4 and the change in game play. I was reluctant about the change in focus from zombies to the plagas, but after playing RE4 I became fully supportive of the change. I loved that the plagas returned in RE5, and I really enjoyed that game.

But we're talking about the movies here... still, now you know my bias.

I enjoyed the first and second Resident Evil movies, but hated Extinction with a passion. So when I heard about Afterlife, my first thought was "I'm going to hate this movie". Then I heard it was being filmed in 3D, and I said "So the movie industry is exploiting this gimmick AGAIN. Great. This is REALLY going to suck." Needless to say, I was going into this movie hostile.

I came out of the theater happy. I enjoyed Afterlife. Not that it doesn't have problems, because it does. Lots of them. Still, it was a fun movie. I'll try to explain my positives and negatives for Afterlife below.

Resident Evil: Afterlife takes two of my biggest problems with the movie franchise (Alice is a superhuman and Alice has an army of clones of herself) and rids itself of them VERY quickly. Alice goes back to being a normal human being (kind of; see my problems with the movie below), and the clones go out with a bang. A big bang. Visually, director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson has chosen to move the films in line with the games, giving the current zombies a look that resembles the Majini from RE5. It's a great visual, and a nice attempt to tell game fans "I haven't departed COMPLETELY from the games".

Claire Redfield is back (yay for characters from the games!) and this time Chris Redfield is introduced as well. Unfortunately, they both play second-fiddle to Alice. Viewers willing to sit through some credits also get a brief look at Jill Valentine, appearing like she does in RE5.

Returning to its game roots is all well and good, but it does lead to one of my problems with the movie. At this point the Resident Evil movies have diverged SIGNIFICANTLY from the games, mainly because of the events in Extinction. Anderson has written an alternate setting where most of the world's population has become the walking dead, leaving only a scattered group of survivors looking for places of refuge, or Umbrella bases trying to find a way to return humanity to the surface of the planet.

While Anderson has visually brought in the creatures from the later games, he has failed to explain HOW they've come to be. Here's an example. The zombies that now look like the Majini from the games. In the games, the Majini are a result of exposure to plagas parasites that have taken over and mutated their hosts. The plagas, in turn, were discovered by European miners. They have NO connection to Umbrella before RE5 in the games. In the movies zombies have taken on Majini traits because... well, who knows. No reference is made to the plagas, the zombies are called "zombies" and the characters in the film don't seem surprised by this change... so the viewer is left wondering what happened.

Plot holes like these are riddled throughout the movie. Claire Redfield loses her memory because of a device implanted on her chest by Umbrella. In the games this device is implanted on Jill Valentine's chest to pump a performance enhancing chemical into her that also keeps Jill subservient to Wesker. The device in the movie... well, apparently it makes Claire forget her whole life, and ONLY Claire, because another character freed from the same device exhibits no evidence of memory loss whatsoever. Chris has to tell Claire that he is her brother... but we never get any memory flashbacks  to actually show us that this is true, or the nature of their relationship in the movies (after all, we can't assume it is the same as the games when Anderson has changed so much). The biggest plot hole is Wesker claiming that the Redfield siblings have become a thorn in his side... when he has only met them five minutes prior to making the statement, and neither has been shown to have had any past history with Umbrella. Perhaps there's a deleted scene to explain it, but the finished product in theaters doesn't.

Afterlife also has problems with its use of 3D. Frankly, the 3D is boring and adds almost NOTHING to the viewing experience. At no time did any 3D effect shock or wow me. There were some great opportunities for the 3D effects to make some "jump" moments... but Anderson fails to exploit them.

Still, the movie is fun. Don't over-analyze it, because it can't stand up to it. Fans of the movies who don't know much about the games will be lost (it borrows too much from RE5 without explanation), but if you aren't trying to match up the games and the movies you'll probably just say "wow, that looks cool!" Either way, sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the ride.

End of Demented Ramblings.

A Great Book To Recommend

Are you a fan of memoirs?

Do you recognize the cultural commentary in George Romero's zombie movies?

Have you read the Zombie Survival Guide back to back, and written criticisms in the margins?

If so, have I got the book for you...

Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker.

Don't really click to look inside; I took the image from Amazon.

Brains is narrated by English-professor-turned-zombie, Jack. As a zombie virus is unleashed on the world, Jack finds himself transformed into one of the walking dead. Unlike the shambling masses around him, Jack has retained his intelligence and has the amazing ability to communicate through writing. Sadly, Jack's abilities with speech are... less than successful.

Filled with an overwhelming desire for brains, and the need to create a zombie society, Jack sets off in search of other intelligent zombie and the creator of the zombie virus. He meets a large cast of zombies who are capable of fighting off their need to feed, and creates a small "family" with them. There's Joan, the former nurse who retains her ability to patch up her dead brethren. Guts, a small child who is quite empathic with other zombies and can move as if he were still alive. Ros, the soldier-turned-zombie who can actually SPEAK. Annie, the teenage zombie who has amazing sharpshooting skills. The group also keeps a couple of non-intelligent zombies around, including Eve, a woman Jack turned into a zombie to be his "wife".

The book takes the reader through the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of Jack's band of shambling misfits. From being captured by the military, hunting a Wal-Mart for brains, capturing a living person to act as a driver, and finally wintering at the bottom of Lake Michigan to hide from human hunting parties, the zombies provide a delightful, if sometimes disturbing, tale. Becker has laced Jack's narrative with sarcastic references to pop culture that left me laughing out loud. I rooted for the zombies the whole time, even when they were at their most despicable.

Obviously, I liked the book, and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys zombies or dark comedies. I found the book in the Horror section at my local Borders bookstore, but I wouldn't really classify it as such. There was nothing to invoke horror in the reader, really, but I'm not sure where else they COULD classify it. If my description sounds interesting, but your not a "reader", fear not! Brains comes in at only 182 pages; I finished it in less than a day, and the chapter lengths were short enough that there plenty of good places to set the book down if life prevents you from reading large chunks at a time (like having three kids).

End of Demented Rambling