Post by BloodyMonkeyZ on Jul 6, 2013 8:27:06 GMT -6
The fourth installment of the Resident Evil film franchise chooses to walk a fine line between new film content and gaming content. In the theaters this one jumped on the 3D bandwagon. Alas the DVD I hold in my hands to review is 2D so I can't comment directly on the 3D quality.
I am going to make some assumptions as I start this review. #1 if you are interested in this movie you plan on buying or renting it regardless of what I say and most likely already know everything about it. #2 You like zombie flicks. #3 You enjoy seeing beautiful women kicking ass (and zombie ass is as good an ass to see kicked as any.)
This review will be a tad more spoiler centric than normal. But can there really be spoilers here? Basically Milla Jovovich fights zombies. Milla lives, zombies die. I find it hard to believe you didn't already know that though.
So on to the movie itself. The start of this isn't totally clear (until I listened to the commentary), but we are back in time at the start of the first movie. But in Japan as the outbreak, well, breaks out. And after those 2 minutes we are now back in "current" time after the end of the Extinction film.
Chairman Wesker has a massive Umbrella Corp base beneath Tokyo. Believing himself to be safe and secure, well that is until Alice shows up. I have to pause a moment and say that I have an issue with Umbrella Corp's security concept. After a known breach into the lobby section a guard detail is sent to the elevator where the intruders must be entering from. I had a thought already about this, but as it plays out the elevator is empty and Alice drops from a duct behind the troops to do a number on them. (A few minutes later Wesker will order the security detail to lock down the elevator. Hello, idiot. Why didn't they lock down the elevator as soon as the lobby was compromised? Wouldn't have mattered as there are other ways in, but it would have made more sense. Back to the battle though.) As the battle unfolds, Alice takes out a number of guards only to be taken down herself. Well that was short lived. Oh wait, suddenly there are 3 more Alices (or would that be Alici?) who avenge their fallen sister. Oh right, clones up the wazoo as seen in the previous film. So we now have a multitude of multiple Milla madness as the massacre ensues. Luckily there are a lot of these as they aren't as top notch as the original. As the Tokyo facility falls, Wesker escapes only to discover that the one true Alice (is there such a thing?) is on his ship. The struggle between them is anti-climactic as he jabs her with a needle that removes all her powers and abilities. Yes, Alice has lost her muchness. Just before killing her though the ship crashes and blows up. Thus ends the zombie free prologue of sorts to this movie. And there have been several n nitpicks I have as of this point in the film. The most notable being that apparently catastrophic explosions really aren't that big of a deal. Wesker has now blown up twice and Alice once.
Moving along though, the meat of this movie involves Alice and Claire arriving at a prison. The group of survivors housed within the prison is an eclectic group (aren't all survivor groups though?) The prison is surrounded by a massive horde of zombies. But the standard zombie fare isn't even remotely what makes this movie interesting. As a teaser, we see a massive figure walking along a deserted street dragging a huge hammer. Wonder whose side he will be on. Back to the prison. The safe and secure prison is suddenly violated by zombies that can burrow through stone and have a wicked Predatoresque tentacly thingy that sprouts from their faces. They use them to grab the face of a victim and, well I guess they suck face. These new zombies really step things up. A new twist taken from the video game to spice up the films. There are all the usual bits within the prison as they get to know each other and work out escaping. A huge failure, HUGE in my eyes, come from the executioner (big guy with the hammer.) the zombies are at the gate and he is there as well. With his big hammer tapping on the gate. He taps and taps and taps weakening it. What is wrong with the idiot? You got a big honkin hammer, the way you use it is by swinging it. Get some momentum and one blow would rend that gate from the walls. Yes, yes, I know that spoils some of the way the plot is playing out, but hindering someone in order to let the plot go the way you want is bad storytelling.
Leaping a bit again, after they escape to the ship which loiters on the water, we see the endgame. Ultimately it boils down to a fight between Alice and Agent Smith. I mean Neo. I mean Wesker. Sorry. Wesker has the fashion sense of Neo and the mannerisms and speech patterns of Agent Smith (even down to the neck cracking.)
Analyzing some points. Wesker actually makes quite a good villain. His inability to die is actually nice while also frustrating. Alice is, well Alice. I didn't like the opening with the clones. Interestingly, in the commentary the director claimed that having Wesker remove Alice's abilities was a way to ramp her down a bit. Because there was no sense of danger seen to matter to her. She could overcome any odds. And yet the opening scene seems to be done by a filmmaker who is embracing exactly that idea. Danger to Alice? Hell no, this is just a clone. More where that came from. See, here come more now. And while Wesker took her muchness (sorry, can't think of a better way to refer to it than the Hatter's words) it didn't really have any effect on her. Hell, a minute after taking it away from her, she walks away from an exploding plane. And then the moves she throws down as she battles hordes of zombies and the massive mallet wielding monster and the wicked Wesker. Well, they certainly don't seem to be down any from what she did before.
Did I have any issues with this movie. Yes indeed I did. But I have an innate ability to nitpick the crap out of any movie. I haven't seen a movie in ages that is 100%. There are two times that I nitpick a movie. If it is utter crap or if I enjoyed it. Part of my twisted inner sensibilities involve getting enjoyment from nitpicking something I enjoy. And I did enjoy this movie. There are a number of things I would have done differently. Things I would have tweaked that would have made this movie that much better. But I also know that some of the things I notice and talk about other people never even see (the sniper at the start who after getting massive feedback in his earpiece removes it then asks through the communication link if the guy is ok. Hey dumbass, how will you be able to hear his reply after taking the earpiece out. huh?)
In the end I give this 4 stars. I enjoyed it (hell watched it 4 times in a row, the first time, then the commentary track time, then with my daughter, then she watched the commentary as well. She claims I have ruined her as she has an inner drive to watch the special features and the commentary track just like I do.)) and intend on watching it again at some point.
I am going to make some assumptions as I start this review. #1 if you are interested in this movie you plan on buying or renting it regardless of what I say and most likely already know everything about it. #2 You like zombie flicks. #3 You enjoy seeing beautiful women kicking ass (and zombie ass is as good an ass to see kicked as any.)
This review will be a tad more spoiler centric than normal. But can there really be spoilers here? Basically Milla Jovovich fights zombies. Milla lives, zombies die. I find it hard to believe you didn't already know that though.
So on to the movie itself. The start of this isn't totally clear (until I listened to the commentary), but we are back in time at the start of the first movie. But in Japan as the outbreak, well, breaks out. And after those 2 minutes we are now back in "current" time after the end of the Extinction film.
Chairman Wesker has a massive Umbrella Corp base beneath Tokyo. Believing himself to be safe and secure, well that is until Alice shows up. I have to pause a moment and say that I have an issue with Umbrella Corp's security concept. After a known breach into the lobby section a guard detail is sent to the elevator where the intruders must be entering from. I had a thought already about this, but as it plays out the elevator is empty and Alice drops from a duct behind the troops to do a number on them. (A few minutes later Wesker will order the security detail to lock down the elevator. Hello, idiot. Why didn't they lock down the elevator as soon as the lobby was compromised? Wouldn't have mattered as there are other ways in, but it would have made more sense. Back to the battle though.) As the battle unfolds, Alice takes out a number of guards only to be taken down herself. Well that was short lived. Oh wait, suddenly there are 3 more Alices (or would that be Alici?) who avenge their fallen sister. Oh right, clones up the wazoo as seen in the previous film. So we now have a multitude of multiple Milla madness as the massacre ensues. Luckily there are a lot of these as they aren't as top notch as the original. As the Tokyo facility falls, Wesker escapes only to discover that the one true Alice (is there such a thing?) is on his ship. The struggle between them is anti-climactic as he jabs her with a needle that removes all her powers and abilities. Yes, Alice has lost her muchness. Just before killing her though the ship crashes and blows up. Thus ends the zombie free prologue of sorts to this movie. And there have been several n nitpicks I have as of this point in the film. The most notable being that apparently catastrophic explosions really aren't that big of a deal. Wesker has now blown up twice and Alice once.
Moving along though, the meat of this movie involves Alice and Claire arriving at a prison. The group of survivors housed within the prison is an eclectic group (aren't all survivor groups though?) The prison is surrounded by a massive horde of zombies. But the standard zombie fare isn't even remotely what makes this movie interesting. As a teaser, we see a massive figure walking along a deserted street dragging a huge hammer. Wonder whose side he will be on. Back to the prison. The safe and secure prison is suddenly violated by zombies that can burrow through stone and have a wicked Predatoresque tentacly thingy that sprouts from their faces. They use them to grab the face of a victim and, well I guess they suck face. These new zombies really step things up. A new twist taken from the video game to spice up the films. There are all the usual bits within the prison as they get to know each other and work out escaping. A huge failure, HUGE in my eyes, come from the executioner (big guy with the hammer.) the zombies are at the gate and he is there as well. With his big hammer tapping on the gate. He taps and taps and taps weakening it. What is wrong with the idiot? You got a big honkin hammer, the way you use it is by swinging it. Get some momentum and one blow would rend that gate from the walls. Yes, yes, I know that spoils some of the way the plot is playing out, but hindering someone in order to let the plot go the way you want is bad storytelling.
Leaping a bit again, after they escape to the ship which loiters on the water, we see the endgame. Ultimately it boils down to a fight between Alice and Agent Smith. I mean Neo. I mean Wesker. Sorry. Wesker has the fashion sense of Neo and the mannerisms and speech patterns of Agent Smith (even down to the neck cracking.)
Analyzing some points. Wesker actually makes quite a good villain. His inability to die is actually nice while also frustrating. Alice is, well Alice. I didn't like the opening with the clones. Interestingly, in the commentary the director claimed that having Wesker remove Alice's abilities was a way to ramp her down a bit. Because there was no sense of danger seen to matter to her. She could overcome any odds. And yet the opening scene seems to be done by a filmmaker who is embracing exactly that idea. Danger to Alice? Hell no, this is just a clone. More where that came from. See, here come more now. And while Wesker took her muchness (sorry, can't think of a better way to refer to it than the Hatter's words) it didn't really have any effect on her. Hell, a minute after taking it away from her, she walks away from an exploding plane. And then the moves she throws down as she battles hordes of zombies and the massive mallet wielding monster and the wicked Wesker. Well, they certainly don't seem to be down any from what she did before.
Did I have any issues with this movie. Yes indeed I did. But I have an innate ability to nitpick the crap out of any movie. I haven't seen a movie in ages that is 100%. There are two times that I nitpick a movie. If it is utter crap or if I enjoyed it. Part of my twisted inner sensibilities involve getting enjoyment from nitpicking something I enjoy. And I did enjoy this movie. There are a number of things I would have done differently. Things I would have tweaked that would have made this movie that much better. But I also know that some of the things I notice and talk about other people never even see (the sniper at the start who after getting massive feedback in his earpiece removes it then asks through the communication link if the guy is ok. Hey dumbass, how will you be able to hear his reply after taking the earpiece out. huh?)
In the end I give this 4 stars. I enjoyed it (hell watched it 4 times in a row, the first time, then the commentary track time, then with my daughter, then she watched the commentary as well. She claims I have ruined her as she has an inner drive to watch the special features and the commentary track just like I do.)) and intend on watching it again at some point.