While still out to destroy the evil Umbrella Corporation, Alice joins a group of survivors living in a prison surrounded by the infected who also want to relocate to the mysterious but supposedly unharmed safe haven known only as Arcadia.
The money continues to roll in and so the films keep on coming.
So once again the vanity project is on show, this time in 3D. Apparently Paul W.S. Anderson decided to shoot in 3D after seeing footage of James Cameron’s “Avatar”, this means the film gets a shiny makeover with plenty of close ups and footage shot just for the use of the 3D effect which comes off as hokey, though not as hokey as the actual films script.
Whilst watching this film it’s easy to see that Paul W.S. Anderson was running out of ideas and it really does show in the films plot, or lack thereof. I could feel my brain dumbing down just wanting this, after a certain amount of time I just wanted to rip my eyeballs, I’m all for watching a film where I don’t have to think but there’s a limit to it and this passed it.
The plot is so disjointed and you begin to notice that the film series is starting to rely heavily on ‘eye candy’ for it’s audience members which shows you its target audience was a very specific one, plus the slow motion scenes just become seriously boring almost instantly. But in all honestly what more are you expecting from this film series by now?
I don’t know what more I can say about this, seriously I’d just avoid it like the plague. It has zero entertainment value and I don’t want to keep on beating a dead horse even though the studios obviously didn’t have a problem with this, even the cast of the film look shocked it’s still going but when you’re getting paid like they are I wouldn’t complain either.
“Resident Evil: Afterlife” is an abomination, AVOID!
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
During filming, Milla Jovovich accidentally shot out a $100,000 camera.
Claire Redfield wears a red vest, her primary outfit from her game appearances.
Wentworth Miller jokingly admits he was nervous about his character Chris Redfield being similar to his Prison Break (2005) character Michael Scoffield: in both cases, he is in a prison and his first lines are “I know a way out of here”.
The production was set to shoot on one of Toronto’s largest studios but the day before they were due to begin filming, it burned down.
Ali Larter missed seven episodes of her TV series Heroes (2006) in order to appear in the film.
The first scene is the beginning of the T-virus infection in Japan. It takes place years before the main plot of the film.
The weird creatures with the flower-like mouths are called majini. They are lifted directly from the video games.
The original plan was to have some brief flashback sequences which would elaborate on the back-story of Chris and Claire Redfield and reveal the ongoing search of the two siblings to find one another (well established stories from the video games). The idea was scrapped.
Although never mentioned explicitly in the final cut, the script clarifies that despite Wesker’s injection Alice’s blood system continues to fight off the antibodies.
The name of this movie “Afterlife” is the same working title that was used in the previous movie before it became “Extinction”.
With a gross of around $300 million worldwide, the film is the highest-grossing Canadian film and highest-grossing entry in the Resident Evil film series.
The first Resident Evil to actually shoot in all the locations depicted – Tokyo, Alaska and Los Angeles.
During the intro one of the snipers remarks “Biohazard terminated.” Biohazard is the title of the Resident Evil series in Japan.
The film was released on the same day as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) six years earlier.
The only entry in the series where Alice is not seen naked.
This is the first live-action movie based on a video game to be in 3-D.
The back-story reveals that the trip of Claire and K-Mart from Nevada to Alaska took a lot longer than they had anticipated. When Alice finds the abandoned chopper and reads the diary, there are notes written by K-Mart describing their course. They made many stops for refueling and new supplies and they eventually arrived at Alaska a few days before Alice.
The added size and weight of the 3D cameras meant the filmmakers were unable to use a Steadicam rig. Instead, the camera operator filmed the moving and tracking shots on a Segway.
The scarab device that are strapped to the survivors and the giant zombie Axeman are lifted from the video game Resident Evil 5 (2009).
Jensen Ackles was originally considered for the part of Leon S. Kennedy.
Boris Kodjoe trained for six weeks to perform his own stunts. During filming, he dislocated his knee performing one of these stunts.
Shawn Roberts originally was set to audition for the part of Chris Redfield before Wentworth Miller took the role. Roberts landed the part of Albert Wesker instead, played in Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) by Jason O’Mara.
Negotiations with Jensen Ackles to play Leon Kennedy fell through. The introduction of Leon Kennedy was finally realized in the next film and another actor was cast.
Milla Jovovich’s first Resident Evil movie since becoming a mother.
The opening scene in the movie is quite symbolic – all people are carrying umbrellas in the rain except the zombie girl. “Umbrella” is also the name of the corporation who is responsible for the creation and spread of the T-Virus, on which the main plot of the Resident Evil series is based.
This marks the fourth time Paul W.S. Anderson has written the script for a Resident Evil movie. He has written all of them since the first one. This also marks the second time Anderson has directed a Resident Evil movie, something no other director has done.
Filming in 3D added 20% to the budget.
In past Resident Evil movies Alice has yellow-blond hair with some of her natural brown color, but in this movie, Alice’s hair is not yellow-blond, but entirely brown-black.
The fact that Japan is one of the last areas on the planet to be infected provides a viable explanation as to why the main headquarters of Umbrella would take refuge in Tokyo.
In the movie, the BOW that wields a heavy ax is called the Axeman, but in Resident Evil 5 (VG), they’re called Executioners.
The first ‘Resident Evil’ film to be released in IMAX.
When Alice lands at the Alaskan airfield filled with planes, there was in reality only 7 planes in the shot. The rest were added in digitally.
The ship Arcadia was actually shot moored on the docks in Toronto. The docks were then all stripped out digitally.
The sequence in Tokyo after the helicopter crash was extended. According to the script, Alice would search through the debris and would discover the body of Albert Wesker. She would shoot him repeatedly to ensure he died. After Alice left, Wesker’s body would begin to regenerate and even start forming the majini mouth.
The plane Alice flies is a Russian-built Yakovlev Yak-52.
The only film in the series to feature Chris Redfield, a character from the video games.
Principal photography took place over a period of 55 days.
The first film in the series with main credits in the beginning displaying the names of cast and crew. The previous three films had only end credits.
Johnny Messner auditioned for the role of Chris Redfield.
This was the first film to feature Smith and Wesson’s new .460 Magnum revolver, which replaced the .454 Casul as the second most powerful production handgun in the world after the .500 Smith and Wesson Magnum.
The superspeed that Albert Wesker manifests as well as his grudge against Chris and Claire Redfield are elements from the video games. His climactic fight with the Redfield siblings is an almost shot-by-shot reenactment of a scene directly from the game.
The intention of writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson was that this would be the first film in the series to have an optimistic ending. The producers, however, wanted an intense cliffhanger as the ending. The director added the massive attack, leaving the film open ended.
Despite prominent billing for actress Spencer Locke, her screen time is very limited since she appears briefly at the end. Additionally, the character of K-Mart does not utter a single line of dialogue during the entire film (excluding archive footage from Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)).
First film where Chris and Jill are both present. However Chris and Jill never meet or share any scenes in the film, unlike the Resident Evil games where the two are very close. In fact the couple have worked together in Resident Evil (1996), Resident Evil: Revelations (2012) and Resident Evil 5 (2009).
Chris and Claire confronting Wesker is slightly reminiscence of Code Veronica. Coincidently Wesker first shows his superhuman powers in Code Veronica to Chris and Claire same as in this film Wesker first uses his powers on Chris and Claire in the films.
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