RESIDENT EVIL: 3 part 2 AFTERLIFE 3D now in 3D!

R.E.A.3.D. is fantastic to say the least.  Director Paul W.S. Anderson has made a visually hyper film that looks ten thousand times better than AVATAR.  Using the same 3D technology that James Cameron used for Avatar, Anderson has taken a great but familiar tale of "Hey, we are surrounded by zombies!  We need to find a way out of here!" and given it a sleek new look and hyper-sized the action.  R.E.A. 3D is a perfect balance of video game and film.  The movie looks like the game but the main character can run and shoot at the same time making it a better experience than the game.  Usually I hate the 3D gimmick but R.E. made me really wished I had seen this sucker in 3D.  Yea, that's right.  I didn't go see it in 3D.  I actually regret not seeing it in 3D.  Congratulations 3D, you won me over.....this time.

From the very beginning Resident Evil Afterlife starts off ATTACK OF THE CLONES style.  You get to see "CLONES" of  Alice (played by Mila Jovovich of Zoolander fame)  "ATTACK"ing Wesker (played by Agent Smith of Matrix fame) in his super deluxe underground base.  This base is huge.  Its practically a large city underneath Tokyo.  I bet that the Umbrella corporation rents out some of the base to COBRA when they are fighting G.I. Joe.  The action you see never stops.  The body count is high and bloody.  Bullets fly out of the screen which would look really cool in 3D.  Dammit.  In fact in 2D the bullets seemed like they were coming out of the screen right at me impacting into the seat in front of me but then I realized that there was a drug deal that went south happening in the front row of the theater.  The camera never stops moving but it never  distracts from what is happening on film.  Anderson captures the intensity of the violence perfectly without shaking the camera all over the place.  Michael Bay could learn a thing or two from this movie.  Yes, it does look like the Matrix but the actors never turn into digital cartoon characters.  The whole beginning could easily be the final climax.  The movie could be only ten minutes long and you would feel like you got your money's worth.  But Wesker escapes and is able to change the real Alice back to human.  That's laughable because she can still do all that crazy impossible acrobatics stuff you see in the previous three films and she survives a plane crash into a mountain but she does lose her psychic telekinetic whatchamacallit abilities. No more Dragonball Z fighting for her.

The rest of the movie settles into a more traditional horror movie premise with Alice seeking refuge at a prison in L.A. (I think) surrounded by the extremely impolite undead.  There she meets more characters from the Resident Evil games.  My favorite is this large super zombie sporting an axe/hammer that shows up just to be a jerk.  I don't know where this guy came from but in his former life he must have been a real bastard.  For no reason he comes over to the main gate of the prison and starts hammering it down.  Go ahead.  Shoot him in the head.  That won't stop him.  So they have to leave in a hurry and the rest of the movie is spoiler alert territory so I will stop there.  I will say that one of the characters who turns out to be the "jerk" character (just like the "jerk" character in the Dawn of the Dead remake) looks like a really skinny Ron Jeremy.  Maybe that's just me.  Maybe I just watch too much porn.  I don't know.  You tell me.

Rule #1 for a great horror movie: Anyone can die at anytime. Rule #1. for a great zombie movie: Kill lots of zombies. This new Resident Evil does both. It does what it is suppose to do. Entertain. The movie never slows down. There is always something happening. The music is mostly really moody, sometimes dramatic techno that compliments the polished look of the film. I need to buy the soundtrack. At times the new Resident Evil is kind of scary. The zombies are mutating and provide new challenges when fortifying yourselves from the undead. Apparently they can burrow underground and their faces turn into toothy squids. Yikes.


Paul W.S. Anderson is one of the most hated directors in Hollywood today.  The reason why is because he directed the first Resident Evil and it looked almost nothing like the game.  The main character could walk and shoot at the same time and there was no giant purple snake.  (Insert Purple Snake in my pants joke here) He also made a PG-13 Alien vs. Predator movie which is a big "No-No".  But to be fair that is the studio's decision and with studio restrictions he made two really good movies.  Now with the leash off  Anderson has made a rated R Resident Evil movie that does two great things. 1.) He made a movie that delivers on the promised action and horror the audience seeks and 2.)  he pisses off the "die hard" nerds.  Good work, my friend.  Good work. 

Anderson is like John Carpenter from back in the 80's.  Carpenter films like The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China are two amazing films that didn't do too well theatrically and were ridiculed by the critics back in the day.  But the kids loved them.  Today those same critics see The Thing and Big Trouble as new classics.  But the kids from those days are grown up and they think they know better.  They have forgotten why we love the old 80's films.  Those older films showed monsters and zombies all the time.  When the 90's came those films became less available in the theaters.  Now Anderson brings those monster movies back but with a new more polished look.  Where's the love?  Hopefully the kids nowadays that grow up with these movies will love them when they get older.  I believe eventually some of his movies will be looked back on with similar favor that John Carpenter's films are today.

I don't know.  I think the new Resident Evil is my new favorite R.E. film which was previously part 2.  The movie isn't perfect but its better than what most people say even when they are giving a positive review about it.  Watch it, love it and don't do drug deals in the theater. 


Jason