[Reader disclaimer: spoilers will be discussed].
If you're a gamer, I'm sure you're all too painfully aware of the game-to-film curse that somehow manages to take our most beloved video game franchises and suck them dry, returning to us on-screen as shadows of their former selves. Hollywood likes to regurgitate their cookie-cutter stories with everything and video game adaptations always seem to fall victim to it.
One video game franchise in particular was for a while considered to be a game-to-film success story, said franchise being my childhood love: Resident Evil (1996 - present). Paul W.S. Anderson came forward in 2002 with the first Resident Evil movie starring Mila Jovovich as the titular 'Alice' (a character, I should note, that never features in the video games) and managed to garner $130 million at the box office. It wasn't the perfect video game adaptation, but it showed promise, and most of us were just happy to have something that wasn't complete garbage (looking at you, Super Mario Bros).
After that, Anderson spawned numerous sequels, which...well, they weren't as great: six films were made in total but even Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) only managed to score a measly 38% on Rotten Tomatoes. The general consensus amongst long-time fans is that the downfall of Anderson's zombie-filled empire came with the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), the fourth instalment of the franchise. However, it is my opinion that this film is perhaps the only instalment that authentically reflects the true, campy yet delightfully violent nature of the original video games.
Firstly, let's look at references. The script for Afterlife began in 2008 but there are some undeniable influences from the Resident Evil 5 (2009) game that was released a year later, namely the inclusion of the "majini" as well as other Easter eggs, such as the P30 injector.
"Majini", for those of you that aren't familiar, are a type of undead that retain some intellect and have distinctive mandibles that open up like a fleshy mouth-flower, much like the Demogorgon from Stranger Things (2016 - present) or the Reaper vampires from Blade II (2002). They were first introduced in-game with Resident Evil 4 (2005), where arthropods named "plagas" infected an indeterminate region of Spain, turning their victims into madmen with terrifying (albeit impressively flexible) mouths: the inclusion of this in Afterlife is never explained but it was a treat to see the filmmakers not only move away from the T-virus storyline and include variation but also reference things from the newer games.
Secondly, the characters. As with the majini, we are (finally) introduced to Chris Redfield (played by Wentworth Miller), one of the two playable characters from the first ever game in 1996. Incidentally, Chris is never featured in the sequels, but his appearance in Afterlife brings such a wave of nostalgia to the viewer, especially when we're also given a scene where he and his sister, Claire (played by Ali Larter) are reunited: this is a nod to the game franchise's ongoing plot-line of Claire and Chris spending most of their time searching for each other.
Albert Wesker (played by Shawn Roberts) is also given more screen-time in Afterlife: he was initially introduced in Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) but thankfully plays a larger role in the fourth instalment. Wesker is, first and foremost, one of the most prolific antagonists of RE and it was quite shocking that he was shelved up until the fourth film.
And then there's my favourite character: the Majini Executioner. When I was rewatching the film, I assumed this hulking behemoth of undead flesh was the Axeman (as listed on Afterlife's IMDB page), a side character from the Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 (2004) spinoff game. Then I realised that it was the Executioner, introduced in Resident Evil 5.
Despite the Executioner lacking a backstory as in-depth and brutal as the Axeman, this character makes for one of the greatest secondary antagonists of any RE film, in my opinion. From his intimidating silence to his over-sized meat tenderiser of a weapon (which distinctly reminds me of the Champion's Cudgel from The Elder Scrolls series), the Executioner scene in Afterlife epitomises everything great about the franchise: gratuitous violence, bad-ass character design and a soundtrack that slaps. It genuinely feels like you're watching a mini-boss fight scene and it's fun as hell.
Lastly, the tone of Afterlife is, in my opinion, what truly grounds it as the most authentic-feeling film. Scenes like the Executioner fight as well as the rooftop explosion feel like we're in a video game, the latter demonstrated by camera movements and choreography you'd typically see in a third-person shooter as the player takes down waves of enemies. One of the best scenes of the film is where the Redfield siblings battle Wesker on the Arcadia ship, an almost shot-for-shot remake of a cutscene from Resident Evil 5 (in which Chris and Sheva Alomar fight Wesker as well, see the video above for the comparison shots).
Afterlife's dialogue is questionable. I don't think I could ever truly defend the film's writing because, for the most part, it's mediocre and downright laughable. But it doesn't detract from the action: in fact, it sort of supports the campy, ridiculously theatrical tone that we see evident in pretty much every single RE game prior to the release of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), which took a more serious and realistic approach. If anything, Afterlife would've been out of place for the film franchise had it taken itself seriously and tried to mimic the tone of its contemporaries, such as 28 Days Later (2002) or I Am Legend (2007).
All in all, Resident Evil: Afterlife achieves what I believe none of the other instalments do, and that is authentically capturing both the tonal and visual elements of the original franchise in a way that stands as a great example of what Resident Evil is all about. Fun, gore and some funky looking zombies.
- K
[Editor's note: video credit goes to Hero on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_gTzYCxeg]
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