Resident Evil: Afterlife

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller
Director: Paul Anderson
Category: IIB

Resident Evil: Afterlife may be fun, but it's also dumb, lacking originality, plot, emotion and character development. There was a time when one could describe such a movie as a 'video game film' (which the Resident Evil series effectively is), but with increasing production values and sophistication in video games - which has led to video game sales outgrossing movies in the US and Britain for the past several years - it would be insulting to game-makers to do so.

Picking up where the last instalment left off, the film opens with Alice (Milla Jovovich) battling malevolent former employer Umbrella Corporation, which unleashed a virus that turned humans into flesh-eating zombies years ago. With most of the human population infected and the earth a dystopian wasteland, Alice has become increasingly isolated.

After a visually impressive explosive opener, Alice reunites with former cohort Claire Redfield (Ali Larter, reprising her role from the previous instalment) and they commandeer a plane to search for a mysterious place named Arcadia, which supposedly offers food and shelter to survivors.

Along the way, they make a stopover at a Los Angeles prison to rescue a group of survivors, with the crew recruiting the help of a mysterious prisoner, played by Wentworth Miller (of TV series Prison Break, above left), to find a way out.

Of course, zombies break in - and all hell breaks loose. From then, the film is essentially one giant action sequence filled with clich?d, unoriginal content that moviegoers have seen countless times.