Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife is trophy cinema

Resident Evil: Afterlife(3D)
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larte , Kim Coates,Wentworth Miller, Spencer Locke
Director: Paul WS Anderson
Rating:  * *

This is the kind of cinema I’d term as 'trophy cinema'. It’s techno snazzy no doubt, but there’s not much of a plot to go with it nor is there any
character depth.

This game adaptation's 3D depth and dimensions are awesome, the stunt choreography takes the Matrix graph to a new high and the camerawork is aptly magnificent. But there is basically no story to tell.

As a suckered audience we continue to be primed for virus infections, clamouring undead and vitiating action. This film pulverises us with the same. 

Traversing through Alaska, Japan and Los Angeles, the so-called epic story extends itself from the previous ‘Extinction.’

Alice( Milla) is the rescuer who braves through infected areas in the hope of finding the living. But before that she has to go through the loops designed by helmer/co-scripter Paul Anderson. In the opening sequence we are transported to Tokyo’s Shibuya shopping district where the camera zooms in on to a woman, standing still as a statue.

Seconds pass by and a man comes close peering in curiosity and before he knows it he is under attack and infected. Alice battles the deadly
Umbrella corporation,  has a huge fight with Albert Wesker, loses her super-human T cells and gets back to searching for survivors. She uses
her clones, telekinetic powers and awesome weapons to great effect.

It’s all so frivolous , full of artifice and damnably unexciting that you might just find yourself dozing-off as the narrative plays on.

Milla is flatteringly outfitted and suits the action heroine role to a T but her performance and zombie-like demeanour is so disengaging
that her appropriate get-up and looks fail to matter much.

Ali Larter seems to have got her big break with this one. After her Bollywood tryst with Salman( a disaster called Marigold) she seems to have hit
the big time in Hollywood at least. It's also a strange kind of coincidence that her big film releases on the same day and date as
that of her ex-co-star Salman(Dabaang).

But that information certainly doesn't make this film more interesting.  James Cameron’s fusion
system technology has been used almost ruthlessly and the 3D is quite a visual high but the adrenaline rush that usually accompanies  an
action-heavy sci-fi  venture is missing.

The story is pathetic, there’s a distinct lack of  connectedness between sequences, the narrative is ploddy and the repetitive done-to-death matrix like stunts  reiterates the lack of creative depth in this $ 60 million enterprise.

To tell you the truth this one is a cop-out!