Resident Evil : Afterlife

The Resident Evil film series returns, again. Somehow it's a franchise that just keeps going despite being slightly dodgy in terms of quality from the moment it started.

This fourth installment picks things up as the army of Alice (Milla Jovovich) clones glimpsed at the end of the last film attack Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo. Well, under Tokyo, yes it seems Umbrella has managed to build a massive underground lab/military base under central Tokyo with no-one knowing. Hmmm. That's just one of the many ludicrous things you just have to run with here.

After much shooting, punching and throwing of things into the screen (this is a 3d movie don't you know) Alice confronts Umbrella Director Wesker (who is comically evil just like his game counter part) who manages to inject her with a cure for the T-Virus making her human again (not that you'd notice as she continues to be supernaturally capable) which he obviously can't be bothered to do to the rest of the population.

Anyway, from here Alice teams up with a bunch of survivors, including a returning Ali Larter as Claire Renfield, so they can be picked off by the various nasty things until only a couple are left and it's time to face the end of film boss.

To be fair there are a few bits of decent characterisation (and someone has a thing against film studio execs) and a great (dare I say even post-modern) gag at the end of the film. But it is mostly nonsensical stitching together of daft action sequences where people have the time to setup traps and daring escapes whilst the monstrous horde waits politely it seems. Still the inevitable giant axe guy sequence is well presented.

So all sense of logic and reason has been almost entirely thrown out the door and the set pieces get dafter as more and more things from the game series are ticked off the list, but it's all still stupidly entertaining if you're in the right mood.