Whether you or I like it or not, the post-conversion of The Matrix to 3D for future rerelease in theaters and on Blu-ray is inevitable. Take a moment and come to terms with that. The reason that’s inevitable is because until they do, lesser action films with a Sci-Fi slant are going to continue to release in 3D and feel like pale imitations of the Wachowski’s masterpiece. Case in point: Resident Evil: Afterlife which has plenty of slow-motion, freezing, and stuntwork to satisfy the action junkies thirst, but absolutely and unquestionably fails in every other area. Its ability to tell a unique story or even a story at all doesn’t exist and actually serves as a solid piece of evidence that Paul W.S. Anderson gets worse at directing and writing with each successive film.
It’s been three films since the Umbrella Corporation unleashed the T-Virus that killed off most of the world’s population and then revived them as hideous monsters, leaving Alice (Milla Jovovich) to kick, shoot, slash, stab, smash, crush, and blast her way through the countless hordes of the undead. It’s been two films since the franchise started including huge monsters that the Umbrella Corporation made while trying to recreate Alice, who somehow was made stronger and faster by the virus. It’s been one film since Alice found a similarly hot female friend (Ali Larter) to help her battle the undead throngs in a desert, but this time there were huge flocks of undead birds (Hitchcock, feel robbed?). And now Alice is attempting to find an elusive safe haven in the rising seas of the undead, Arcadia. To get there she reunites with an amnesiac Claire, lands a plane on a giant prison, meets a few more surviving humans (it’s amazing how often she encounters new cells of the living and yet how they’re always so surprised) just in time to help them escape from the beastly, mutated undead who’ve burrowed into the prison and away to Arcadia – only to discover it isn’t quite the paradise its repetitive radio signal makes it out to be.
You’re buying this for 3D, and it genuinely makes good use of that feature. The scenes where it freezes and rotates around the field of action look quite beautiful in hi-def. In motion, the added dimension isn’t quite as breathtaking, but it definitely adds an interesting dynamic to the horror action sequences. After all, monsters being able to actually jump out of the screen at the audience is what horror fans have wanted ever since they got a taste (albeit a really poor one) when the Friday the 13th saga took that misguided step with its third part. In a film like Afterlife that’s much faster paced and with bullets and brains flying left and right where the 3D technology actually adds to the imagery instead of detracting from it in a blue and red haze, you realize what the benefit of 3D on an action film really could be. However, when the action of the first 10-minutes of the film subsides and you get over the thrill of 3D, you settle in and wait for something like a story to arise. But it never does. In this case, the 3D is more a band-aid to patch up the gaping bloody hole where the plot, which was ripped out of the film’s chest by Anderson’s desire to make a superficial subpar thrill ride, should be.
Beyond the 3D enhancement the picture is quite great looking in hi-def, the slow-motion and freezes are spectacular to marvel at. Anderson has always been able to apply a nice gloss to his films, but his cinematography and direction ruin any moments of visual splendor that some shots should have. The audio might just be the most satisfying part with the typical grinding soundtrack and a good use of surround sound.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The disc has both the 2D and 3D versions in hi-def, and once you’ve watched your version of choice you can move on to watching it with the picture-in-picture commentary with Anderson (exclusive to the Blu-ray version), outtakes, deleted scenes, and quite a few (I counted 8) production featurettes about the making of the film, a look at the upcoming sequel, and the audio commentary that also appears on the DVD. Of all of these, the Blu-ray exclusive commentary is the only thing really worth going through, and it easily is the best way to watch the film (because the film itself is quite awful – even if it’s the best in the series since the original).
"Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D" is on sale December 28, 2010 and is rated R. Action, Horror. Directed by Paul WS Anderson. Written by Paul W.S. Anderson. Starring Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Milla Jovovich, Wentworth Miller.
