When I hear comments from others that say Resident Evil: Afterlife is just "rehashing the same Zombie formula" or "we are getting the same ole  s h i t....", I have to laugh. Are these same people expecting them to reinvent the genre? Zombie flicks really only have one type of blueprint to follow, which EVERY film maker has followed for the last 30 years or whenever the first Zombie flick came out. I go into these types of movies knowing full well what formula and story beats they are going to follow. So, my problem isn't with that. My problem usually gets hung up on dialogue and special FX and Afterlife does suffer in both categories here.

First off, I think this film highlights why Paul W. S. Anderson is universally despised the world over. His unrelenting reliance on using The Matrix Bullet Time FX was a bit hard to swallow at times. Sure, there were scenes that looked good, but you can't help but want to slap him for aping a style that has been done to death. But because it did look good in spots I can be a little more forgiving.

But what I can't and won't forgive is the blatant mimicry of Agent Smith by Shawn Roberts. His laughable acting of Hugo Weaving's Matrix role was just too much to stomach. I wanted Alice (Milla Jovovich) or anyone for that matter to kill him, not because he was a threat to their characters but because I couldn't stand watching him butcher any scenes he was in. That's really the only problem I had with the movie, apart from bad dialogue in places. But I did like the story and enjoyed the movie for what it should be...escapist fun.

Props for bringing in Wentworth Miller. Not sure if anyone got the inside joke when we are first introduced to his character where is is locked up and he says "I know a way out of here". I'm a huge fan of Prison Break and immediately started laughing. It was....awesome to say the least. Kudos for bringing back Ali Larter from Resident Evil: Extinction and for adding Boris Kodjoe into the mix.

This is definitely a Rent for sure. Mindless fun.

Now that I am all caught up, I am looking forward to seeing Re5ident Evil: Retribution 3D and where they go with the series.