Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, directed and written by Paul W.S Anderson (who wrote, produced and directed the original) is the fourth film of the Resident Evil video game series and the first to be shot in 3D. The story picks up where the previous installment left off and yet it is not imperative to have seen the other films to get the picture.

It is four years after the outbreak of the T- Virus which was supposed to combat aging and nerve-based diseases. However, as in all good science fiction tales, something went horribly wrong and the world is now full of ravenous zombies. Alice (Milla Jovovich) who managed to develop incredible powers as the result of a mutation of the virus, is single handedly trying to ward off the enemy. She is in Tokyo, leading an army of her own clones, fighting her nemesis, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), the Chairman of the corrupt Umbrella Corporation, who is after her super-human powers.

She has a fast and furious battle with Wesker and leaving him for dead, she commandeers a two-seater plane and flies off to Arcadia, purported to be in the Alaskan wilderness, to try and find survivors who are not ravaged by the T-Virus. Alas, this is not the case. She picks up with an old friend Claire (Ali Larter), who happens to be suffering from amnesia. They head off to a burned out Los Angeles and land in a spectacular fashion on the top of an old prison, which doesn’t even have a helipad. The gals meet up with a handful of other survivors who are barricaded in the prison, safe for the moment, from the marauding zombies outside.

Arcadia turns out to be something else. Alice and the survivors, an assorted bunch of misfits, try and work out a way of getting to it without being attacked. In true Resident Evil fashion, people get bumped off left, right and centre. There are numerous special effects which are enhanced by the 3D experience. In particular the number of heads that are blown up in full screen. The many spectacular shoot-outs with Jovovich wielding her weapons put her on a par with the likes of the Terminator or Rambo.

This is a fairly predictable film and judging by the preview audience, it has a real ‘geek’ appeal. However, it does not let-up for a moment and be prepared for scenes of the ‘living dead’ which are a-plenty and quite scary. There is enough blood and gore leaping at you which at times makes you leap out of your seat. Jovovich, in particular, really kicks ass and the film sets up the next installment. Anderson is understandably Jovovich’s greatest fan (they are married) and he maintains that, ‘… there aren’t many women who have played those characters and played them as convincingly as Milla has’. He’s right, she is the ultimate heroine and the camera loves her.

// SALT

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