Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - review

2016 (UK / France / Germany / South Africa / Canada / Japan / Australia / USA)

2017 Sony Pictures Blu-ray R(Free)

Contains mild spoilers.

  

Well it's been a long ride for Alice (Milla Jovovich). Resuscitated with memory loss, attacked without mercy by the scourge of the undead and their corporate overlords, then over the decade hunted and beset by all the increasingly monstrous and depraved super mutants that director Paul W. S. Anderson could conceive. She's been shot, stabbed, sliced, diced and blown from the sky. She's been cloned, watched good friends die, learnt the dark secrets of her past and witnessed the world she knew torn a sunder. To say she's due a break is an understatement but with this instalment, it would appear Anderson might just be finally letting us, and her, enjoy some kind of rest to the madness.

Over the ten years and six chapters we've slowly but surely witnessed a profound cinematic transition to style over narrative, characters, or any real attempt at substance. It's as if someone gave control of the crazy dial to a young excitable boy and then kept ploughing him with coke long after he'd definitely had enough. From a gritty, claustrophobic and earnest debut, success turned into cash, then into budget, and finally unfettered approval to bring life to the most fantastical scenes and effects, and thus did story, congruence and any concerns for character arcs, in turn, fall to the way side. Part five was the epitome of action surplus; a cacophony of battles and over the top and never-ending lunacy that failed utterly to actually be engaging or rewarding precisely because of this deficit accrued. With The Final Chapter I'd argue that while the giddy young fella seems relieved from his sugar purgatory, this is for all intents and purposes the grand finale, and as such, why is there a want to temper things now. Whilst one can see a whisper of desire to return with Alice and the entourage to Racoon City, and to the intimacy and cinematic authenticity of where and when it all began, there's too much water under the bridge; too much superficial silliness to ever really think they could.

By now we understand that it's not the gold star action and cinematic wizardry that will let a Resident Evil film down but the downtime, the moments of peace between the double back flip, the Matrix style kung-fu, or the triple barrelled shot gun into the giant toothy flying mutant of doom (I think a Kipepeo). Yet I've seen The Final Chapter come in for a lot of criticism about how it's all been cut and spliced together. Ultimately I think it comes down to personal taste, as I didn't mind the frantic and chaotic shaky cam approach; in many ways recognising it as a nod to the perils and confusion of war. The fact that so much of it was shot in near darkness however, I did, especially as Anderson to his credit does manage to return the simple un-mutated zombie back to the forefront for a large swathe of the film, and it would have been nice if we could have really seen them in all their glory.

Another recurring problem I have by now, is Alice's invulnerability. I'm all for the epic hero, the Thor or Beowulf blessed by the Gods with incredible fortune as well as strength, but as all about her fall and as buildings tumble, one never get the feeling, not for one second, that's she's actually in any real danger. The problem with winning the no-win scenario, is how do you follow it but with an equally implausible one. It's the magicians conundrum. Day one it's escaping from a box, Day 100, it's escaping from a box suspended over the Grand Canyon, on fire with a rat in your underpants. Watching Alice, yet again dancing with the big Resident Evil brute +1, or the next CGI enhanced video game inspired super boss, there's nothing really new, never any real tension and no tangible threat. Yet again, dare I say, it's all a tad stale and insipid, and no, adding another rat or maybe a cat to the pants won't ever really fix the fundamental problem.

The Final Chapter isn't as bad Retribution but that would have been a hard thing to have accomplished. At least here there is a semblance of a narrative to make sense of the carnage, even it deviates on what we've been told before, and makes a mockery of all the heroes and villains that have come together to give her a final send-off, with what in effect are short meaningless cameos. Through in truth, if anyone is really watching Resident Evil for any semblance of a coherent narrative or intelligent by this point, they're way off the mark. With action this undeniably good I'd be hard pressed to say there isn't something of merit watching Milla's perfect death bringing choreography, or any of the big picture perfect explosions; and I did find some nostalgia in the final scenes despite them ending up an insulting mockery. So as I said, better than the last, but I had very low expectations - 4/10.

Steven@WTD.

Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles - review

2011 (Germany)

2012 Lions Gate Home Entertainment DVD R(2) 

Contains mild spoilers.

A cross between the character driven soap opera that is The Walking Dead, the prosaic long-winded survival yawn that was Autumn (Dead Men Walking) and the highly-stylised, highly-imaginative but audaciously preposterous Resident Evil franchise, Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles, is not for the faint of heart. By that, I don't mean it's a non-stop pulsating adrenalin fuelled roller coaster of terror, with excessive gore and sadistic shock; in fact quite the opposite. Writer and co-director Niki Drozdowski's zombie opus is so ambitiously and mundanely epic that unless you're the sort who's happy to sit down for the best part of two hours for full-on zombie survival indulgence; as Joe Averages bumble between fights, cheer each other up, and work out where to put the new sofa, then I could easily see you bailing out before it gets going (which it never really does). Make no mistake, this is a film for post-apocalyptic zombie lovers and absolutely no one else; and I mean no-one. Whilst at a stretch Zombie Flesh Eaters might pull some b-movie nostalgia strings on a date; though still risky, Extinction would be a guaranteed way to have the evening end with you as alone as star of show Tom Keller (Daniel Buder) also pondering how it all went so wrong.

This is the story of surviving when pretty much everyone has either died or turned. And I'd add we're not talking The Walking Dead; we're talking a total world-wide pathogen and extinction level event, 0.00001%, I Am Legend, hope you're an introvert and comfortable with your own company level shit. An engineered virus developed by Toonsman Industries (anagram of Monsanto) called Ranch Hand has gone rogue evolving past it's shut-off inhibitors and jumped species, turning all but the very few immune into vacant shells of their former selves and hungry for human flesh. Things aren't good; I'd even say things are positively very bad; though fortunately Tom has a few things going for him. One he's ex-special forces, two he used to play at an abandoned, though well-fortified army base that's nearby, as a child, and he knows it intimately, and three he had his wits enough about him to get there unscathed, armed with a gun, satellite phone and laptop. His good fortune also continues as rather then ending things rather than face a lifetime alone, he decides to see it out, and is rewarded on day 14 on a run to get supplies, having already acquired food, water and generator, to find three  survivors one of whom is a hot-chick (Luise Bähr as Lisa Sattler), and one of whom is an American NSA agent with a contact who knows a bit more about what's going on.

Extinction isn't the awful story of being forced to scavenge and scrap over the few scant provisions that are left, of hiding silently for weeks in small claustrophobic holes, and learning to collect rain water in your underpants. Everyone's dead so there's food, there's tins, water, chocolate bars, there's police stations with guns; there's everything you really need to live quite the comfortable, if rustic life, especially as said, if you happen to occupy a remote double fenced and expansive army base. It's also all easy to get because the walker zombies don't actually come out at night; well they do, but they're in sleep mode and easily navigated around.

Extinction has a single pace that is measured and methodical. The four survivors eventually becomes five, then seven, there's some internal conflict, then they're forced to leave, then there's a rescue, some fights, a damn, then a final castle siege. Extinction could be labelled pedestrian, measured, dare I say tedious, but one thing it can't be called it empty, and certainly not badly paced. The reason it's full and not merely a two hour character drama, and also the narrative reason for the group to eventually do something other than cook, jog and think about home improvements is the walker zombies aren't the only threat. Owing something to both Resident Evil's fetish for mutation and Left for Dead's penchant for mixing it up, the walker gang are soon joined by runners, jumpers, then later blind-shriekers and even a big daddy boss. 

Rather than being incoherent and breaking the finely woven world Drozdowski has forged, the additional and increasingly audacious zombie shake up somehow not only slots right in, but feels necessary and inevitable. Each mutation while raising an eyebrow, especially the screamer, is also taken so matter of fact by the now tight-knit survivor group that one can't help going along with it. The action sequences are handled in a similar way. Being chased by twenty runners? Just phone ahead to get people to open the gate, no need to panic. And that lack of threat or urgency transfers to the viewer with a film that while constantly interesting, enthralling almost, maybe could never really be accused of ever exciting. 

Extinction is an A to B movie; there's no narrative circles or satisfying conclusions. It's a budget German Lord of the Rings without Sauron or anyone owning a ring; it's the Walking Dead-lite, yet as said I found the thing all rather charming and engaging, even if it never particularly raised my heart rate. It's also worth noting that the cinematography, shot composition, scripting, and performances are quite faultless and from a directing and production point of view, as a budget movie with big desires it's quite the accomplishment. A hard one to score; 6/10 and do watch; yet on your own.

Steven@WTD.

Premutos - The Fallen Angel (Lord of the Living Dead) - review

1997 (Germany)

2011 Another World Entertainment DVD R(2)

Contains spoilers.

In the beginning, before Lucifer fell from God's grace there was another. Premutos - The first fallen angel, the ruler of life and death, the bringer of disease, hate and sin, and an all-round general douche-bag with a lot of daddy issues. Now Premutos has a plan to make Earth quite the most unpleasant place to bring children up in and he's decided the best way of achieving his goals is, like God, by gifting the world a son to bridge the gap and pave the way.

Premutos - The Fallen Angel is German splatter director and writer Olaf Ittenbach's low budget ode to Jackson's Dead Alive (Braindead). It has humour, a convoluted hokey story, exaggerated and eccentric characters, outlandish special effects and an unhealthy obsession with getting what's inside a person to the outside as graphically as possible. In the first ten minutes we witness blood vomiting, arms being ripped off, a spade being pummelled into a person's face, people being burnt alive, head explosions and enough innards to last a (relatively healthy) person a lifetime. From start to finish this is not a film for the squeamish; death, especially when there's axes, shotguns, ricocheting bullets, tanks, etc. is never going to be pretty but Ittenbach's gory insistence to leave nothing to the imagination makes this one of those films that you'll know is going to be for you or not before the title music has finished. This being said, this isn't slow and seductive Fulci torture porn; it's high octane Jackson head pop and move on. The camera rarely lingers as there's always another limb to see being severed, and it also helps to hide the obvious budgetary constraints when putting something together quite this lavish and ambitious.

It's Germany, it's modern dayish and the eve of Walter's (Christopher Stacey) birthday bash. His son, and who we discover to be also Premutos's little bit of Earthly flesh and bone, through the use of many, many flashbacks, Matthias (played by Olaf Ittenbach) gets into a bit of scrape at football practice resulting in his purple-helmeted Spartan of love needing hospital attention. His dad meanwhile engaged with planting his annual birthday tree, finds and digs up an old hidden treasure trove of phials, and the Premutos guidebook to resurrecting fallen angles and bringing on the zombie apocalypse. Anyway, the lad's throbbing beef probe meets Premutos's ancient zombie balm, a weird group of party guests begin to celebrate and the stage is set for the arrival of the other risen lord, his delinquent army of the dead and the z-mix buffet of running, screaming, death and carnage.

One thing  Olaf Ittenbach can't be accused of is playing it safe. What Premutos lacks in spit and polish it more than makes up for in ambition and scope. Whether India 1023, Germany 1942, Bavaria 1293, Scotland, Stalingrad or even Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, Ittenbach isn't afraid to throw his narrative off the linear path and each new setting is tackled with genuine respect and attention to detail. Ok, with such budgetary deficiencies there's always an extra to point at or a prop to laugh at, but one can tell that there has been a real attempt to make each scene unique, and yet authentic and plausible in the grander scope of the story . Yes the narrative is convoluted, and does linger and stutter on occasion; overall though what Ittenbach is trying to sell us as the reason for all the mayhem and bloodshed is coherent and interesting.

The recurrent theme through the ages is the eventual transformation of Matthias (or whatever his name is in each epoch), son of man into the son of Premutos. Each awakening is guttural and disturbing, never more so when Matthias himself writhes and contorts into his new form suddenly entwined with barbed wire and pierced with rods and blades. It's truly grotesque, as is his new found appearance; but putting aside for one minute whether his new state is zombie or some transcendent between state, it's his ability to now tap into his father's powers over life and death that's of most interest to us zombie fans.

The zombies of Premutos are Romero slow, actually they're slower; they're cumbersome, they're meandering and whilst they do make a right mess once they get hold of their next meal, they're actually a bit rubbish about actually getting it. It's headshots, mostly, as they go over should they take enough damage to other areas, though it's a bit inconsistent and vague. There's no virus, we never see any of the ones being eaten actually rise again, as they're mostly just eaten. Also the forces of Premutos must be quite something as the dead to arrive in quite the number, given for what I assumed was a quite the small town And while we're talking unrealistic numbers I'll briefly mention the infinity-guns that seemingly never need to be reloaded… Appearance wise they're adequately done. The actors mostly hold it together though there's never a need to try too hard as they're likely to not be on screen very long as Ittenbach like's to get through them at quite the pace.

Premutos - The Fallen Angel is the sort of film I never like to knock. Undoubtedly amateurish and a bit rubbish in all areas it's also ambitious, coherent, imaginative, expansive and generally entertaining. There has been a real effort at a dark, gritty old fashioned zombie splatter-fest and it delivers; from start to finish the gore is disturbing and disgusting, the story unfolds reasonably naturally, the characters and acting are euro-eccentric but never dull and the ending is outlandish and satisfying. My only real complaint is it does overstay it's welcome a tad. The final barn siege scene is twice as long as needed and whilst I was enjoying the copious carnage I quite often found my mind wandering after the third or fourth (or seventh or eighth) similar zombie gut wrench in a row. A proper daft old zombie splatter like Dead Alive but without quite the same level of humour, polish or pizzazz - 6/10.

Steven@WTD.

Resident Evil: Retribution - review

2012 (Germany / USA / Canada / France)

2013 Sony Pictures Home Ent Blu-ray R(B/2)

Contains mild spoilers.

Twenty Five minutes in, watching Alice (Milla Jovovich) in full black leather glory leap, spin, slash, kick and shoot her way, with sumptuous control and style through one group of slobbering flesh eaters to another, to only finally come up against the equally resplendent Ada (Bingbing Li) ready for another whirlwind CG cat-fight, it came to me director / writer Paul W.S. Anderson had finally, metaphorically and literally lost the plot. One very much for style over substance I'd noticed a general decline in actual coherent content as the budget rose and technology caught up with his flamboyant far reaching designs, and with Resident Evil: Retribution, he's finally reached a new high (or low depending on where we start) in cinematic superfluous superficial silliness. There's no attempt any more to try and provide any rational reason for the series of high octane combat sand box set ups, no attempt whatsoever to reign things in, and totally no remorse for any of it.

This is where I'd normally talk about the story but honestly I could put it all down on the back of a postage stamp. Alice, captured after the fight at the end of Resident Evil: Afterlife gets some help and escapes. That's it. Ok, I'm being a little trite, but if I embellish, adding her escape involves traversing and fighting through a series of connected virtual cityscapes with a vindictive computer AI throwing increasingly absurd and implausible bioengineered opponents at her, it doesn't make it sound any more rich in narrative. Don't get me wrong, it looks spectacular; with grand sweeping virtual camera pans and some jaw dropping virtual sets and ideas, it's just the endless grind of combat and gratuitous drive for the most extravagant of set pieces on the biggest baddest scale, it just all ends up coming across flat, and dare I say all too precariously close to feeling like a series of rehashed scenes all done before.

The problem with with this all action approach is there's no longer any real emotional engagement, character depth or sense of danger. Watching the now seemingly invincible Alice plough through a set of zombies, a pair of executioners and even a gargantuan Uber-Licker one never feels she's ever really in any trouble and the experience feels sterile and even mundane. I'm not sure who's to blame; but whether it's Jovovich or Anderson finally tiring of their cash cow there's a very humdrum and by the book feel to the film as if (re)producing a series of sterile high staged action scenes with CG abandon would be good enough.

Anderson does try, with arguably the best set of sequences of the film; a genuinely engaging ground zero scenario played out with 'real' people in suburbia and it is one ray of hope in the wash of tedium that the series can be saved. Jovovich is now mum and wife and not the uber-fighting killing machine we're accustomed to, and the siege of their little safe world is the one heart pumping moment where there's real dread and anxiety. Her movements to desperately make sense of the whirlwind she finds herself in all the time keeping her little girl safe, with palpably intimidating and chilling, real traditional zombies smashing their way through her living room, is moving and utterly absorbing. Ok it's not Alice's memory, it's those of a clone grown to research and showcase Umbrella's biological weaponry, so it's not a real part of her story any more, but it demonstrates that should Anderson ever feel the need to return Resident Evil to its roots he could do so quite admirably.

By now, five films in, we understand that alongside your more identifiable fast moving Boyle-esque flesh eaters there will be an assortment of other undead / mutant proponents Alice and crew will have to fight. Majini zombies (the ones with the parasitical face thingie) are back along with the executioners I mentioned, but all new are a rather macabre army, literally, of machine gun toting, rocket launching and chain sawing Las Plagas aka Red Army zombies who pack a real mean punch and look like something that could have crawled straight out of Outpost. As said, the connected biodome / narrative of Retribution grants Anderson licence to finally play as much as he likes, so each area is filled with the rafters with all the zombie types the series and games are known for. Yes, it's probably closer to the games, but call me old fashioned, I liked it all better when the main enemy simply wanted to rip into a bit of flesh and hang out in number.

An undoubted CG showcase, cinematically Resident Evil: Retribution is off the scale with lavish effects, perfect make-up and spectacular fighting choreography, but big dial up to eleven effects alone just won't cut it. With a woefully superficial story the whole film comes across as a lazy half-arsed way to include all the daft over scripted fights he could think of, and while the story has never been central to Resident Evil at least with the previous films it tried. The action itself it so sterile to be uninteresting and tedious, and with no real danger, or cause for any of, the audience is utterly unable to engage or care with what's happening. Arguably the worst of the five, Retribution is not style over substance, but style instead of, with a narrative so contrived and perfunctory to be an insult to the viewer, 3/10.

Steven@WTD

Siege of the Dead (Rammbock) - review

2010 (Germany)

2010 Revolver Entertainment DVD R(2)

Contains mild spoilers.

Siege of the Dead or Rammbock as it was released in Germany and the US as, is pretty much as gritty, unpretentious and unremitting as you'll get.

Michael (Michael Fuith) has returned to Berlin to hand his keys back in person to his long term love who recently told him she's moving on. Finding her out, and barricading himself in her flat with a violent ravenous plumber banging at the door he looks out the window at a city falling apart under the weight of a virulent infection turning everyone into rampaging murderers. Trapped with no food, no escape, no water, no salvation from the TV or radio and a consuming concern for Gabi's (Anka Graczyk) safety, the film begins with Michael in quite the dire straits.

First time director Marvin Kren's aim for Siege of the Dead was for a modern zombie survival tale taking inspiration from 28 Days Later and Colin. He wanted a tight claustrophobic horror experience focused on tension, atmosphere and the survivors reaction to the situation over out and out jumps, gore or unrealistic heroism. Michael is the unlikely hero; he starts in denial believing order will soon be restored, he runs and hides when presented with any kind of danger and the companion he finds himself locked away with, the plumbers assistant Harper (Theo Trebs) is not much better.

In many respects it's yet another ground zero, derivative survival zombie story. A few disparate people manage to survive the initial tidal wave of attacks, they barricade themselves away from the bulk of the problem, and desperately try to come to terms with what's happened, while coming up with a plan they can all agree on as their next move. Yet, having Michael and Harper and those few remaining survivors locked in their own apartments so ordinary, with unlikeable traits and weaknesses, and setting the whole drama in a single intimate set of apartments, somehow makes it all the more believable, amplifying the tension and stress, and making the external threat feel so much more visceral and un-ordinary. Michael and Harper don't fight the horde with improvised weaponry and new found strength, their relentless move from room to room, is more forced, than by design, and the great unrelenting game of chase and hide is savagely honest and pathetically real. 

If you've seen 28 days later, which of course you have, you'll know what to expect from the infected-but-very-much-not-dead rabid running flesh munchers causing all the trouble. White eyed, foaming mouthed and savagely primed to chase down any sound or movement, they react as if they're permanently adrenalized. Through an automated radio announcement we learn the infection is spread through saliva and blood, the pathogen that's transferred only affects the brain and full breakdown is ultimately triggered by getting overly stressed and not remaining calm. It's a nice little twist having stress, anxiety and anger being the trigger to awaken the primal id and detach morality and restraint. It's also not the only twist either, with Kren having the confidence to give the zombies a weakness to flashing bright lights brought on with now having oversensitive retinas; again it's a nice touch which doesn't feel forced or implausible.

You'll notice I never mention the need to die, though I'm starting to chill as to whether the deadness I feel is a zombie requisite trait necessarily needs to be physical or could just as acceptably be the death of the super-ego, self, soul, will or whatever you want to call it. Suffice it to say, they're nasty little buggers, they swarm in groups, never seem to sleep and they give the survivors a lot of trouble in a zombie kind of way. Having them as recently changed norms, albeit with snarly faces and white contacts also allows this amateur budget affair to not worry too much about how they look with their behaviour being the focus of what's important. That's not to say it all doesn't look good; the rabid infected appear plausibly unpleasant, move with uniform rapidity  and when they do land a good munch the subdued blood and flesh ripping is quite realistic and unnerving.

Siege of the Dead is actually quite a short feature at just over an hour, but I have no complaints as it's obvious Kren sacrificed length to keep the action moving and not allowing the narrative pace to languish. I'm not one that feels a feature has to be a certain length and many a film I've reviewed have been guilty of the opposite, dragging their heels and it's refreshing to watch something with the confidence to move as it wants. It also never feels like anything is missing and the ending is brutally succinct and satisfying. Acting wise, despite it's low budget, Fuith and Trebs give authoritative yet subdued performances that match the grey lens Kren chooses to portray the apartments and Berlin in its apocalyptic fall. Kren also pitches the contrast between resignation and despair and the intense need to get active and think quickly almost to perfection. The story isn't particular new or invigorating, the characters do nothing to stand out, but Siege of the Dead is quite the satisfying tight little zombie survival story and definitely one I'd recommend, if you have a spare hour, 6/10.

Steven@WTD.

Resident Evil: Afterlife - review

2010 (Germany / France / USA / Canada)

2012 Sony Pictures Home Ent. Resident Evil 1-4 Collection. Blu-ray R(All)

Contains spoilers.

Now I've unapologetically given this series a lot of slack. In fact I'd go one further and say that I've been positively enthusiastic about the previous three entries, acknowledging their place in the zombie story and praising Director/Writer Paul W. S. Anderson's lavish reliance on larger than life effects and often over stylised production. Often lambasted by the zombie crowd for being too shallow and Hollywood, I've personally found them, as long as you don't take it seriously, fun, dramatic and flicks you want to whoop at, and throw your pop corn in the air to.

The Resident Evil series has always acknowledged its video game roots with daft boss fights and ridiculous zombie-hybrid mutations, but at heart it's still been unashamedly about zombies. Whether it was the tight claustrophobic first entry, the escape from the city survival second, or post-apocalyptic expansive mad-max third, the main protagonist, albeit increasingly less now I think about it, has always really been our gnarly flesh eating friends. Here we are with the fourth effort and all this seems to have been forgotten. It's thirty minutes till we even see a zombie and fifty before our first encounter and even this is one of the evolved Las Plagas parasite, video game ones. In fact other than the roof top fight and escape I don't think our straightforward, no nonsense undead really make an appearance, other than as background noise. Instead Alice (Milla Jovovich), Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and brother Chris (Wentworth Miller) are generally pitted against the faceless uniform soldiers of the Umbrella Corp and their boss Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). In many respects these soldiers have replaced the role of the zombies for Afterlife as mindless do as they're told automaton cannon fodder. The problem is they neither as interesting or as good at providing tension.The whole first sequence which should be a cinematic tour de force as Alice and her army of clones storms the Tokyo umbrella research base ends up dare I say, feeling a little flat and that's the problem that follows the film through to the finale.

There isn't much plot, then again there never really is. Alice, brings the fight to Wesker then goes looking for the Alaskan paradise mentioned at the end of Extinction. Unable to find it she bumps into some survivors holed up in a Los Angeles prison, discovers the real location of Arcadia (the haven), lets all the non-main characters die and gets into a few boss fights. Oh, and on the way she loses her superhuman jedi powers, yet still manages to survive a nasty plane crash unscathed. It's all a little tame and empty and that wouldn't normally really matter too much, I mean I enjoyed the last three. The problem as we've said is that it seems to be missing something...

Let's look at the zombies; though there's not a lot to say. The actual zombies are as we've seen in previous instalments; they're fast, hungry and driven by instinct, and they like to hang out in as large a group as possible. What we see far more of in Afterlife though is the majini game enemies, who if I recall my Resident Evil game knowledge are humans with their minds and bodies parasitically controlled. In the games I'm pretty sure the parasite only appears once their host is shot in the head (up till then the host is alive). Those on display here look more dead to begin with, so perhaps they're some new zombie-mutations Anderson made up; still it's all pretty daft stuff and I'm beyond thinking think too much about it at this stage. The other big zombie Anderson decided to bring to the party is the Executioner Majini who's straight out the game. Whilst all this pays great homage to the games I'm not quite sure this far into a film series that's already gone significantly off on its own it all quite works and comes across as a little implausible and silly. As I've said I've always taken the boss fights and fantasy of the films with a grain of salt and treated them as something to smile through after an hour or so of great zombie fighting and tension. Afterlife seems to be big daft boss fight after big daft boss fight without any of great zombie story stuff and it misses it. Ok, there's fifteen minutes or so, in the prison where it all seems to start working again but it's all over before it really begins with Anderson preferring to move on to something bigger and more ambitious at the first opportunity. As for the big finale against Wesker, Anderson manages to reach even new heights of absurdity, even for Resident Evil, takings things off the scale, giving him vampire like speed and agility and filming a sequence that would feel right at home in The Matrix. It's all too much.

Definitely the weakest in the series, Afterlife is the perfect example of style over substance. Anderson seems to have lost the essence of what makes a good Resident Evil film crafting a series of high intensity highly scripted action sequences and forgetting to include much narrative or any of the zombie survival story I like. It's not all bad and Afterlife is still big and bold like its predecessors with expansive panning shots, crazy-scale numbers of zombies on screen and great choreography, and you can't help but be impressed at times. It's just all too shallow and derivative though and never really captures the feelings of tension or excitement we've seen before. Disappointing, 5/10.

Steven@WTD.

Doom - review

2005 (UK / Czech Republic / Germany / USA)

2009 Universal Pictures Blu-ray R(All)

Contains spoilers.

Yes you read right, fucking Doom. The Karl Urban, The Rock video game to movie sci-fi horror action spectacular you probably once watched after a lot to drink round a mates and you don't remember much, if anything of.

In 2026 archaeologists discovered portal to an ancient Mars city in the Nevada desert and the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) set up a research base to investigate. It's now 2046 and after an emergency broadcast, and level 5 quarantine lock down the RRTS Hellfighters (Rapid Response Tactical Squad) headed by Gunnery Sergeant Asher "Sarge" Mahonin  (The Rock) are dispatched to secure the site, extract the 85 or so research staff and retrieve specific UAC files.

The team sweeps the empty archaeology wing moving onto genetics and alien weaponry, while the sister of Staff Sergeant John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban), Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike) tells him they've reopened the 'dig' site and have found humanoid remains with the added twist of a 24th chromosome making them like us but super strong, super agile and faster healers.

I think we can all see where this is going as it's being spoon fed to us like we're even stupider than the premise.

Venturing further in the team first makes contact with missing chief scientist Dr. Todd Carmack (Robert Russell), named after the guy who wrote and designed the original game (John Carmack). Deranged and clutching a severed arm he is taken to sick bay and the rest of the team moves on. Here, and finally why the reason this film is on my blog they find the rest of Dr. Carmack's team who are now, dun dun dun! Zombies.

Well, they're called zombies in the original game, and it says on Wikipedia they're zombies so they're zombies right? When Corporal Eric "Goat" Fantom (Ben Daniels) got attacked by an imp (alien humanoid monster thing) it fired a parasite into him. Unable to save him in the med lab he clearly dies only to later reanimate. That's a zombie in my book. Ok, after reanimation they mutate into imps and these imps are clearly 'living' again, but there is a short period, demonstrated when 'Goat' pulls himself out of his corpse bag and charges the window, frantic, aggressive very much like a zombie, until his head is bashed in and he falls to ground. It's argued that during this stage he was still aware enough to kill himself though, which isn't strictly zombie... anyway... Later with the quarantine broken and the threat also back on Earth there are several scenes that are clearly zombie tradition inspired, with hordes grouped feeding on bodies; though they don't always need to be put down with a head-shot... Anyway, I'm done debating, if John Carmack says they're zombies, they're zombies. Maybe just alien-mutating-parasitic-host-zombies...

The rest of the film is aliens, deaths, shooting, covert experimentation, more shooting, more deaths and a boss fight. It's high octane stuff, tense and atmospheric, and as daft as you'd expect. For a video game film it's actually one of the best efforts I've seen and despite generally average reviews I felt it did what it set out to do probably as well as it could. The acting especially from the lead cast was authentic and convincing, it was well directed and the pace fluid and tense. Oh, we must mention the fps sequence to honour it's video game roots. It's daft, it's long and as an old Doom player I loved it.

Go in with a clear mind as to what you're going to get you'll enjoy yourself. Ok, there's nothing really original or ground breaking, but it didn't set out to achieve any of this. What you have is a good fun action sci-fi horror film with zombies that doesn't require much brains, 7/10.

Steven@WTD.

Resident Evil: Extinction - review

2007 (France / Australia / Germany / UK / USA)

2012 Sony Pictures Home Ent. Resident Evil 1-4 Collection. Blu-ray R(All)

Contains spoilers.

Well, here we go again. In the opening scene Alice (Milla Jovovich) wakes dazed, confused and once again dressed like the day she was born. Adorning her trademark red dress and black boots that are carefully laid out for, she finds herself in familiar territory faced with deadly obstacles from the past. Successfully past the crisscross laser room of doom with the reflexes of a cat, everything seems normal she's in control and ready to kick ass, then bang! She's dead. Enter two scientists and her body is tossed out onto a pile of identical doubles in the middle of a fenced up desert compound with instructions from head Umbrella scientist and all round general bad guy responsible for the previous instalments Nemesis program Dr. Sam Isaacs (Iain Glen) to take a blood sample so they can go again.

Yes we're back in writer and producer Paul W. S. Anderson's pop-corn, adrenalin fuelled mind full of zombies, apocalyptic-viruses, secret corporations, mutation and mayhem for a third instalment.

It's now five years since the t-virus outbreak and the Earth is dead, mankind are on the verge of extinction, what rag tag people that have managed to stay alive are surviving on the edge, moving from place to place seeking whatever scant resources they can. Even the Umbrella organisation, headed by Albert Wesker (taken directly from the video game franchise and played by Jason O'Mara) are struggling with dwindling food supplies and are pinning all their hopes on the good Dr. Isaacs to find a solution. However with the failure of his plan to domesticate the zombies; captured in a brilliant scene paying obvious homage to Bub from Day of the Dead, all his attention has returned to the aforementioned Project Alice.

Meanwhile the undead are everywhere; they've assumed total control of every built up area and despite five years show no sign of weakening and fading away. One such group of survivors on the verge of death from a t-virus Alfred Hitchcock-esque birds attack, and coincidently containing previous heroes Claire Redfield (Ali Larter),  Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. Wayne (Mike Epps) are saved by the now evolved tremendous psychic ability of Alice but in doing so she gives away her position to Umbrella.

Directed by Russell Mulcahy, Resident Evil: Extinction is once again highly stylised and full of spectacular and relentless action and combat sequences. Gone is the now claustrophobic feel of the first two films, the first in the tight confines of the Umbrella compound, the second in Raccoon City. Resident Evil: Extinction has our heroes traversing the vast expanses of the Mojave and Vegas now half returned to the sands of the desert. It oozes atmospheric and evokes the feeling of expanse found in films such as Mad Max.

Say what you will about Paul W. S. Anderson's approach to zombie cinema, especially when held up against more political, satirical, intelligent or funny endeavours, but it knows what it is trying to do and how to pack a punch. And while it may fail to compete with the highbrow and the lowbrow genre has to offer it excels in the pop-corn niche it has carved for itself. Anderson's zombies are relentless, quick and nasty, as is Alice's speed at dispatching them. Her constant spinning, shooting and leaping as she slashes monster after monster with unnerving control and poise is high octane stuff and if I'm honest brutally entertaining. With a big budget they also managed to capture some of the largest undead gatherings I've seen on film though I couldn't help but notice the uniformity of the zombies during several of the fight scenes as if there were only ten or so masked actors, all the same height and weight who needed do the job of fifty. Maybe I missed a point somewhere that they were zombie clones but I doubt it... But I'm nit picking.

Okay it has its daft zombie-mutant-super-monster hybrid boss fight again and the whole psychic stuff turning Alice into a bit of a Jedi is a bit daft but it's true to the video games and keeps the adrenalin pumping. I'm well aware it's not for everyone but I'm always happy for a bit of leave the brain behind entertainment now and again. Compared to the first two; it's definitely safe to say it's more of the same but that's not a bad thing in my book. Within it's own series though it has still managed to forge it's own distinct identity and voice and felt fresh. Films like this make me happy, 8/10.

Steven@WTD.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse - review

2004 (Germany / France / UK / Canada / USA)

2012 Sony Pictures Home Ent. Resident Evil 1-4 Collection. Blu-ray R(All)

Contains Spoilers

Whilst I felt I should come at the Paul W.S. Anderson's second instalment in the fun popcorn flick franchise expecting to be both dissatisfied with it as a coherent action movie and also with its zombie credentials, in truth I was actually looking forward to just being entertained with more of the same. For some reason the Resident Evil series whilst being a huge commercial success, has failed to gain the respect or acknowledgement from zombie film fans; maybe it's that old adage that makes niche and publicly successful mutually exclusive, or maybe I'm just easily satisfied. I mean the zombie genre if we're honest doesn't necessarily demand the highest levels of narrative control or strict serious portrayal of its subject matter, and quite frankly often and successfully plays with this fact. I've watched and enjoyed many a cult classic that under closer scrutiny fall apart, so why Resident Evil should be singularly picked apart so mercilessly is beyond me. I really didn't see much wrong with the first film. It remained true to its video-game roots as well as forging a new narrative branch of its own, its portrayal of zombies was authentic, brutal and didn't stray from established zombie canon, and I felt it satisfied my zombie itch as well as being a good fun kick-ass action film.

And more of the same I got. Directly following the events of Resident Evil Alice again played again Milla Jovovich and again naked to start with, wakes up in a secure Umbrella hospital in Raccoon City. Pulling out her wires and tubes she stumbles out into a city ravaged by the escape of the T-virus from the Hive alone and confused. It's all very apocalyptic, I Am Legend, and very reminiscent of 28 Days Later which was released a couple of years earlier. Slowly regaining her memories Alice learns that during her incarceration she has been experimented on and now possesses superhuman strength and agility; hold on I hear you say, isn't that like the first film and well yes it is but this time she's an even more kick-ass superhuman than before and is aware of the fact pretty much from the off.

On the other side of the city police officer Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) attempting to help evacuate the remaining survivors through an Umbrella checkpoint witnesses firsthand the mega-corporation's callous disregard of law and human rights as they close it off condemning those left inside to certain death. Seeking refuge in an abandoned church with Sergeant Peyton Wells (Razaaq Adoti) and news reporter Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt) we learn that as well as facing zombies they have to deal with overwhelming supermutants, but fortunately, and with a dramatic entrance, they have Alice on their side.

Alice and the gang soon get offered the chance of escape but only if they can locate and rescue the now isolated and trapped daughter Angela (Sophie Vavasseur) of Dr. Charles Ashford (Jared Harris) the Umbrella scientist responsible for T-virus, which was originally intended as a cure for her rare genetic illness. Ashford also extends the offer to Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and his team of Umbrella soldiers who have also been abandoned in the city after setting down to defend innocent citizens from the zombie onslaught and the two groups team up against all that Umbrella head honcho Timothy Cain (Thomas Kretschmann) can throw at them, which includes the latest subject in the Nemesis project.

With the virus out of control, the city designated for nuclear destruction and Alice on the loose Cain sees the perfect opportunity for a live combat experimentation. Taken straight from the video games Umbrella unleashes Nemesis project; a huge, hulking, monstrous humanoid born from perverted T-Virus experimentation uses powerful heavy weaponry and computer controlled guidance on Alice and the gang and in true video game style this even leads to highly styled, action packed and rather contrived boss-fight ending to the film.

 Yes it's all a bit far-fetched and unsubstantial, and you feel what narrative there is, is really there just to drive the many action sequences, but it's all relatively coherent does a good enough job to hold it all together. Gone is the tight claustrophobic feel of the first film; now replaced with the large urban sprawl of the city and a focus on big budget expansive scenes and action. Make no mistake Resident Evil: Apocalypse isn't a horror film and other than a few scenes in the school that you feel were put in for something to talk about; the film is unashamedly an action flick. There's explosions, gun fights, martial arts, helicopters, hordes of zombies getting shot and a big kick-ass climax and it all flies past at quite a pace, Anderson obviously reluctant to give anyone a chance to stop and question what exactly is taking place.

Now I enjoyed the first film and I can say I enjoyed this as well. It is what it is and pulls it off with style and aplomb. Jovovich shines in the role once again as the rest of the cast struggle to impose themselves, but there's no bad performances and her interactions with them feels genuine enough. There's also the question of whether it's really a zombie film. Unlike the first film where the main protagonist was most definitely the zombies throughout, this time the central battle is really Alice against Nemesis and the zombies take a bit of back-seat; it's more an action film with zombies more than a zombie film per se. This being said the pandemic is still very much real and the undead horde still play a very prominent part; there's gruesome deaths, dramatic expansive sequences in Raccoon City, lots of biting and head shots and they are still the ever present constant. It's still very much a zombie film in my book.

Just because one rarely sees an entry from the Resident Evil franchise in top zombie film lists doesn't mean one should ignore them; if you watch them for what you'll find they're competent, compelling and extremely well put together additions to the genre. Like it's predecessor Resident Evil: Apocalypse is fresh, fun and a great action pop-corn zombie flick; just don't think too hard, 7/10.

Steven@WTD.

Resident Evil - review

2002 (UK / France / Germany / USA)

2012 Sony Pictures Home Ent. Resident Evil 1-4 Collection. Blu-ray R(All)

Contains spoilers

Now if I've read the dedicated Resident Evil fans correctly, I've gone all about this the wrong way. You see I'd watched all the films either on or at least within a year or two of their initial release way before being introduced to the games. I've now played 4 and 5, in the wrong order I might add and I'm very much of the mind set they're two branches of the same tree, complimenting each other and idealistically twinned but not necessarily needing to follow exactly the same rules or tell the same stories. I mean from where I'm sitting the whole RE world is a bit far fetched and incoherent so what's in a bit of artistic licence. 

With this in mind I went back to Resident Evil (1) with some trepidation.  As well as having generally low expectations of it, just as a film, because I'm now more immersed in the gaming side of RE I expected to be outraged at writer and director Paul W. S. Anderson's total betrayal of its origins. However, now I've watched it again, whilst I'll happily acknowledge it's definitely a different take on the universe, I also think the film does work as a worthy tribute to the franchise and is a well written, well acted, bloody good claustrophobic sci-fi action zombie romp to boot.

Under Raccoon City the all powerful Umbrella Corporation conduct highly dangerous and hugely profitable top secret biological, chemical and genetic experimentation. The research facility known as the Hive is manned by 500 people and after the genetically engineered T-virus gets loose, the facility's artificial intelligence kicks in and controls the situation by killing all those contaminated and sealing itself off from the rest of the world.

So to the star of the show; Alice (Milla Jovovich) regains consciousness naked in the shower of a mansion above The Hive with no memory of who she is or what she's doing there. She stumbles into Matt (Eric Mabius) an investigative journalist who's trying to find evidence of The Umbrella Corporation's illegal and immoral work just as a crack group of commandos sent to investigate the situation storm the building.

Taking Alice and Matt with them they infiltrate The Hive, uncover fellow amnesiac Spence (James Purefoy) and explain they work for Umbrella and have been sent to investigate why the computer AI known as The Red Queen has killed everyone and how Alice and Spence have been gassed by the Red Queen causing them to forget they also worked for Umbrella as a married undercover couple protecting the mansion.

After a few mishaps getting past the AI's defences, the depleted group get themselves to the core of the Red Queen and successfully reboot her despite her warnings. With her defences down the depleted gang learn the hard way that she was the only thing protecting them from the effects the T-virus has had on the staff of the facility.

The T-virus is of course the zombie virus and the staff have all been infected. As we're introduced to Anderson's zombies we find they adhere to the established traditional western model; they're mindless and driven by impulse and a primal desire for the sustenance of human flesh, they require severe head trauma (read:  bullet to the noggin) to put them down permanently and they seem to prefer to roam in packs. As we've seen before the T-virus is transmitted through blood so a bite or a scratch and you're in trouble. What's interesting here though is that if treated quickly, I'm assuming before the victim dies, there's actually an anti-virus.

With the zombie threat released the film becomes a battle for survival with the group desperately trying to make their way out before the automatic defences kick in and the facility is locked down for good. On this journey Alice starts to regain her memories and the fact she's not a helpless pretty young thing but actually a kick-ass ultimate fighting champion. As she kicks, jumps, weaves, punches and shoots with pin point precision through many tight action-packed zombie sequences we realise the suspense and horror of the first half of the film has made way for something else but it's no big loss; Anderson seems at home with the high octane stuff and it's meticulously constructed and highly stylised.

Anderson has done a fantastic job of producing a coherent tight claustrophobic sci-fi experience full of suspense and great action scenes. The soldiers are a bit formulaic and there isn't much depth to the characters but there's enough there for the film to get by. From Alice waking alone and confused in an empty house her journey overcoming her amnesia is used to drive the narrative, and the film does a good job of aligning this with the pace of action. A slow intense start builds to a frenetic action based climax and whilst I didn't particularly care for the super-mutant that's pitted against the survivors I didn't actively dislike it and it produced a fist-thumping good ending.

As I've said before I think Anderson has done a good job of paying homage to the franchise as well as crafting a solid zombie survival story that stands up against the genre. I don't see Resident Evil on many top zombie film lists and this is a pity as there's really nothing really very wrong with it. Strong, stylish and a little different, 8/10.

Steven@WTD.