Resident Evil: Afterlife – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

People tend to forget that George A. Romero was so close to making the original Resident Evil movie after he directed two Biohazard 2 commercials for Capcom back in September 1997. Those television spots were the closest we would ever come to seeing George’s return to zombieland [until Land of the Dead in 2005] as he and Constantin Film couldn’t come to an agreement and that opus never came to fruition. The screenplay was written in 1998 and it is more true to the franchise than the action-heavy foursome that have been released so far.

Paul W.S. Anderson came on board after making a name for himself with Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon. He cranked up the action racket full throttle and made a Resident Evil entry that heavily aped the current phenomena of the time, The Matrix. While it wasn’t the game that I played for hours at a time, it was an entertaining popcorn flick that was a box-office hit.

Anderson left the director’s seat and concentrated on writing the first two sequels, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction, and by doing so, the series improved as a deeper mythology blossomed and the deadly battle between the Umbrella Corporation and Alice became more personal. Eight years have passed since Paul W.S. Anderson directed a Resident Evil movie, and with the advent of a more technically sound 3D system, you know he was chomping at the bit to kick-ass and take names in three dimensions.

Things begin in grand style as an army of Alice clones storm an Umbrella hideout and lay waste to everyone except the suave man with superpowers of his own, Albert Wesker. Hoping that her friends are still alive after seeing them off in the prior chapter, Alice runs into an amnesia-stricken Claire Redfield, who ends up that way because a metallic spider mechanism has been attached to her chest by Umbrella. They make their way to Los Angeles and meet up with old friends and new cannon fodder as thousands of the undead are banging on the door of an abandoned prison where our heroes have holed up. Salvation lies in radio messages from a ship called Arcadia, one that is supposedly a safe zone free of infection. Girl power reigns supreme, gore hits the lens in 3D, and Paul W.S. Anderson has followed up the greatness that was Death Race with another action-packed wallop of fun.

Resident Evil: Afterlifehad a budget of $60 million, and with the use of James Cameron’s vaunted Fusion F35 3D cameras, this is one of the flashiest and clean flicks I’ve seen in quite some time. Everything pops on the screen, from the monochromatic landscapes to bullets zipping past your face, this is why real 3D is the way to go. The hot leads, who look like Maybelline models with guns, battle octopus-mouthed zombies, The Executioner, and split Cerberus dogs that make the one from Return of the Living Dead look like Toto. That’s a compliment because I don’t mind watching sexy women take out the garbage with a fashion sense.

For all of the fans walking around with a throbbing vein in their head because of the dearth of story, well, I guess you have never watched the first three movies. After a long, hard week at work, I don’t have a problem leaving my brain at the door and watching shit blow up at my local multiplex, and now on my Blu-ray player. This was done in spades, and it was the best 3D experience since My Bloody Valentine.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Here’s another solid Sony release. While not in 3D like the theatrical experience I had, the clarity, sharpness, and colors are all high and detailed. There’s a few issues here, but they’re not a deal killer. Mostly on some of the CG elements, the outlines are soft. I feel as if this isn’t a problem with Sony’s transfer, but either from the post from 3D to 2D a nd lazy CG work.

Tell your neighbors that the big loud boom they just heard wasn’t the end of the world, just this disc’s DTS track. Aggressive and rear speakers are constantly active, makes along with the bass, for one hell of an audio experience.

Commentary: Director Paul W.S. Anderson is joined by Jeremy Bolt, and Robert Kulzer, for a lazy, uninvolved track. They state the obvious far too often, with just some little nuggets of worthwhile info here and there. Just too boring for me.

Undead Vision: This is a picture-in-picture track that offers up new interviews, sketches, animatics, and plenty of other goodies not seen elsewhere on the disc, making for a must watch.

Deleted/Extended Scenes: Seven minutes of unfinished scenes wisely cut.

A slew of featurettes follow in HD: Back Under the Umbrella: Directing Afterlife; Band of Survivors: Casting Afterlife; Undead Dimension: Resident Evil in 3D; Fighting Back: The Action of Afterlife; Vision of the Apocalypse: The Design of Afterlife; New Blood. Viewed together of individually, they are all pretty much informative EPK pieces that are nice to view once.

Outtakes, Trailers, and a Sneak Peek at Resident Evil: Damnation round out the extras.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: