Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

'Resident Evil: Afterlife' sees the return of director Paul W.S. Anderson at the head of the series, along with his wife Milla Jovovich as the character Alice, who has a settle to score with the sinister Umbrella Corporation. This sequel implements 3D techniques, having been released at the height of the craze coming out on the heels of James Cameron's 'Avatar'. 'Afterlife' is shot using the same cameras as 'Avatar', but this is far from Cameron here. As I've stated in my review of the first film, I don't completely disregard Paul Anderson's work (Event Horizon is my personal favorite among his earlier work) but he truly works better when working with someone else's screenplay rather than his own. His talents lie in visuals, not in writing which once again suffers the most in 'Resident Evil: Afterlife'.

To be truthful, I've come to accept the mediocre writing at this point, as with these films it's all about the action, right? Well, 'Afterlife' reaches a huge low in this department and it's primarily due to the very gimmick based special effects and 3D camera work which bog down the once entertaining action sequences with tedious slow motion and constant throwing of objects towards the camera. I swear if you sped up these scenes to the correct speed, the film would barely hit the hour mark. The villains also hit a series low with the introduction of fan-favorite Albert Wesker and here's where you really get the feeling that their mentality was clearly: "Well, he's a big name in the games let's put him into the movie after four films." This issue also leads to some of the worst aspects of the franchise so far come into the light, such as the ideas presented are given little to no explanation whatsoever.

 Creatures such as the Plagas parasite is introduced here because it was in the previous video game a year before, so I guess they felt the fans would be bummed if they didn't see them in this sequel but again no explanation. They're just there because they had a checklist another huge one being this giant monstrosity with a big axe. He shows up once for a big fight scene (Where the slow motion really annoys me the most) because he was in 2009's 'Resident Evil 5' then he's promptly killed and we never hear or see why he was there or where the hell he came from. This just leads to heavy sighs of frustration and really takes me out of the film. It's extremely hard to get any enjoyment out of 'Afterlife'. I could make certain excuses for 'Apocalypse' and even 'Extinction' but man this one is by far the worst out of the bunch. If you have to see this for continuity sake, take my advice and wiki the summary and watch any other film in the series.