Rating: **
Release Date: 9/10/10
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Shawn Roberts,
cameos by Spencer Locke, Sienna Guillory
Silly and derivative. It's amazing that they keep pumping these movies out and that I still bother to see them. Milla Jovovich's action persona is fabulous, and it's unfortunate that she hasn't found a better vehicle to showcase her talents. I have to give credit to director Paul Anderson for carrying through with the teaser ending from "Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007), as the film opens up with an army of Alices assaulting an Umbrella lab in Tokyo. Somehow the original Alice (Milla Jovovich) manages to survive and heads for Alaska, hoping to find Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and her other friends from RE3. She finds Claire, and the two of them head down the Pacific coast in search of more survivors. They run into a small outpost of humans in Los Angeles, and the majority of the film deals with our merry band of misfits trying to escape and make it to sea. The film also introduces Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller), Claire's long lost special ops brother. Alice, Claire, and Chris ultimately end up at another Umbrella facility facing off against a mutated Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), and the film ends with yet another ridiculous and unsatisfying cliffhanger. If this movie makes money, I'm sure they'll make another one.
Of course the only reason to bother watching this drek is to see Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter kicking zombie butt and looking gorgeous while doing it. While the film has some nice female action moments and some good "girls with guns" compositions, the action scenes are dull, uninspired, and don't make much sense. The fight scenes are weak and the wirework is distracting, but Milla and Ali are in excellent form and manage to make it work. Ali Larter was the big surprise in this film, as she sees a lot more action this time around and really embraces Claire's tough chick persona. She's also fiercely beautiful and has an appropriately withering glare. Unfortunately, both Milla and Ali wear WAY too much makeup in the film, which is a constant visual distraction. Especially considering the filthy post-apocalyptic setting. The complete disregard for logic and physics makes watching the film a chore, even with such pretty eye candy on display. My suspension of disbelief only goes so far, even when girls with guns are involved. Overall, it's an instantly forgettable action outing with little entertainment value. It's consistently pretty to look at, but it's also consistently dumb.