Resident Evil: Afterlife :: SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board

No thread...surprising...

Well, where to start?  What to say?

First of all, I love the video games, and really liked the first movie even.  It was well done, had a cool look and a good feel to it.  I was disappointed the direction the 2nd in the installment, Apocalypse, took.  Just too goofy with Alice fighting the big Nemesis thing...almost like Power Rangers or the like.  And then, we got the weak effort of Extinction, which to me, was a real clusterfuck of dull scenes tied poorly together, in what looked to be a cool flick, based on early trailers.

So, I actually skipped Afterlife at the theater for the first time in RE history, and from what I hear, I probably shouldn't have, as the 3D effects were supposed to rock.

The movie itself sure didn't, though, and has to be the weakest, most pathetic, lamest joke of a movie with a $60 Million budget I've ever seen.  I mean, c'mon guys...I understand we're skewing young here, but this is just downright embarrassing.

The first half hour was so bad, I literally stopped watching, as I just couldn't believe this is what the franchise had come to.  Almost no dialogue at all, and completely over the top, ridiculous, downright foolish action taking place where Alice, wearing high heels, takes out at least 100 heavily armed soldiers with the ease of opening up a fucking can of soup.

Maybe the effects themselves were cool, but for me, everything was so far over the top, it all came off as a joke.  There's no tension.  No scares.  AND NO FUCKING ZOMBIES EVEN!!!!  HUH?  Very few zombies overall, actually, when you get right down to it.

OK, so, I decided I had to give it another chance and at least get through the entire movie, so back I went.  As a movie, it did get better, but that's only because we at least got some actual characters, dialogue, and a semblance of plot.

The plot and story here are downright pathetic, and almost completely nonexistent.

What story and plot there is is all copied from other movies, down to the T in T Virus.

There are ZERO surprises.  There are ZERO twists that are successful.  It's obvious which characters are going to turn out to be dicks, which will live, and which will die. It's even obvious exactly when and how a character will die.

What really pissed me off, though, was the plotting...the sequence of events and when exactly they occurred.  Just completely ludicrous and juvenile.  Everything happens when and how it does for 1 reason and 1 reason only...to move the paper thin story to the next chapter.  I'd love to go into detail here, but there's really no point.

This is an example of piss poor and lazy writing.  It's appalling that the movie did $296 Million WW, and another $17 Million in DVD sales (and that's not inclduing Blu Ray).  Just literally appalling and sending a really bad message out there to other film makers that it's more than OK to make shit like this, cause the dumbass movie goers are going to eat it up just like a starving zombie, munching on a few brains.

I'd like to include this as 1 of the worst movies I've ever seen, but I really can't, as there are some cool action scenes and a shitload of gore, stunts, and FX work.

Story-wise though, yeah, it's up there, and it sucks.