Models and movies usually shouldn’t mix. Very few have made the transition from catwalk to screen with success although many have tried. One who has managed to escape this trap is Milla Jovovich. Making a career of playing tough gun-toting chicks, her whippet frame disguises her tough interior which certainly gets a work-out in Resident Evil: Afterlife. The fourth of the zombie killing series her role sees her kick some serious un-dead butt whilst always giving a slight pout to the camera as only a former model can.
Super-soldier Alice (Milla Jovovich) still roams a world ravaged by a deadly infection. Caused by the evil Umbrella Corporation, she stops at nothing to defeat them. Learning of an outpost of survivors living in the ruins of Los Angeles, she travels to sanctuary. Discovering their base is in an old prison she meets Chris (Wentworth Miller) and Claire (Ali Larter). Banding together to escape to a super-tanker which can take them home, they attempt to battle zombies and wicked scientists and obliterate the savage plague once and for all.
You have to hand it to director Paul W.S. Anderson – he knows how to make trash look good. That isn’t to say it isn’t anything less than entertaining with his utilisation of 3D re-energising the franchise. Specially filmed in this process, every bullet and knife is thrown at his audience with obvious glee. He seems like a child in a playground, with the characters and huge budget becoming his toys. His return to it after a two film absence is more than welcome as his ability to marry action and horror serves it well in its wildly creative action sequences.
Although its’ heavy ‘borrowing’ from the Matrix series suggests ideas are running a little thin, there’s still some fun to be derived. Wisely making Alice more reliant on her combative skills than convenient special powers brings back a sense of danger missing previously. Her interaction with an expanded group of misfits also highlights there’s more than her skin that needs saving. It’s hardly King Lear we’re watching but the actors do their best to be convincing whilst battling rampaging corpses and zombie dogs.
Resident Evil: Afterlife is silly nonsense with a booming soundtrack sure to bash the eardrums. Certainly better than most of its type, the announcement of a fifth entry proves even former models can have a more extended shelf-life than the clothes they wore with aloof panache.
Movie Review Rating 6 / 10
Movie Review by Patrick Moore
Resident Evil: Afterlife released in Australia on Thursday 14 October 2010.
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