This weekend saw only one large studio release with Resident Evil Afterlife. I'm not the biggest fan of the Resident Evil franchise finding the previous two sequels horrible. So is the fourth film another mess? Not really, it was actually one of the best films in the series. It doesn't hurt that Paul W.S. Anderson is back directing who is a master of set design and wrote all the films. While I did find myself rolling my eyes with key rip-off moments from The Matrix, Escape From New York and Aliens the action scenes were decent. One of the biggest issues was that the opening action scene was the big action scene something you'd expect at the end of the film and nothing after lived up to the level of action. Another key misfire in the franchise has been the unneeded "big boss" element. Beyond those problems it's what you'd expect from W.S. Anderson action flick strong on violence and weak on story/characters. It delivered on most of the action from the trailer so I did enjoy it on that level.
C+
