Director:
Russell Mulcahy
Cast:
Milla Jovovich ... Alice
Oded Fehr ... Carlos Olivera
Ali Larter ... Claire Redfield
Iain Glen ... Dr. Isaacs
Summary:
Alice is still around, roaming the deserted badlands of a world overrun by zombies. She eventually meets up with a nomadic hodge podge pack of travelers going place to place with Dr. Isaacs in the group. She tells them of a journal speaking of a peaceful civilization free from zombies in Alaska. Maybe they will want to go!
Meanwhile, Umbrella corporation has dirty tricks up their sleeves, with zombie experiments and Alice cloning (just go with it).
Review:
Here are my quick reviews of the first two:
Resident Evil was a decent time at the movies. It's a brainless, gory bit of escapist fun with bad CGI effects, but maintained my interest and attention enough to be worth watching.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse was so bad, that the title doesn't bring justice to the plague that infected my senses. One of the WORST movies of that year. I hated it.
My only desire for this third installment was for it to be better than the second one. And it was. So, yay.
After saying that, it's still not a good movie. Most of the action sequences are so quickly cut that I literally COULD NOT see what was going on. This was most annoying when Alice fights 4 zombie-dogs when tied up. Half the time I was just plain lost. Add to that an unconvincing and uninteresting group of nomadic survivors who get virtually NO dramatic importance. Ashanti is pretty fine, and as Betti it ALMOST seems like she might last more than 15 minutes, but 11 minutes into this theory she literally KILLS HERSELF for no discernible reason. I had to laugh, because all the mad crows that got infected from eating undead flesh looked less convincing than those in Hitchcock's The Birds from 40 years ago. Swarms of fluttery black masses scatter across the screen in a confusing jumble of undiscernable mess. Kinda takes away the coolness of that concept.
Meanwhile, I have to wonder why this group that started with 50 that tells Alice "our numbers decrease as we go to different places" are being HESITANT about heading up to Alaska. I mean, what are they doing now? Getting killed one by one anyways, right? They literally have NOTHING TO LOSE. Yet, there has to be a democratic voting system set forth to make sure they want to do it. Of course, after that they make a stupid decision and get destroyed from 30 down to 10 people in a rapidly fantastic act of desperation. See the movie and enjoy it.
Over at the Umbrella corporation, new faces show up that consist of a cast of "actors" who don't know how to deliver a line that isn't as flat as Brad Pitt's Fight Club abs. Also, there's not so much an "homage" to Romero's Day of the Dead as a rip-off with a learning zombie that can use rudimentary skills and presents the seed of humanity behind his eyes. But this only lasts a couple minutes.
When it tries to be cool, it becomes corny (smoking a joint for a final farewell to Hell). It is corny even when it's NOT being cool. Also, it exudes incompetence on almost as many levels as any Uwe Boll venture.
This would be more aptly titled if it was Resident Evil: It's Stinkin'.
GRADE: D-
TRIVIA:
The Wilhelm Scream is used at one point in the movie. Although it's been 3 weeks since I watched it, so I forget where. I think it had something to do with someone being thrown against a car or something.
Reviewed 10/14/07