Cast:
Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory, Aryana Engineer, Johann
Urb; Direction: Paul Anderson; Screenplay: Paul Anderson; Producer: Paul Anderson, Jeremy Bolt,
Don Carmody; Editing: Niven Howie; Music: Tomandandy; Cinematographer:
Glen MacPherson Genre: Science fiction thriller; Running Time: 95 minutes; Distributor: Screen Gems; Location: Canada, USA, Russia
Technical Assessment : 3
Moral Assessment : 2.5
Rating : V18
Alice (Milla Jovovich) is captured by the Umbrella Corporation after the
battle led by former ally Jill (Guilory). She escapes with the help of Ada (Li
Bingbing) and Umbrella’s head Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) who tells her that
she has to save what is left of mankind from the Red Queen’s continued release
of the T-virus turning the entire world into zombies. As Alice encounters old
nemesis Rain (Rodriguez) as well as new monsters as she moves to destroy the
Umbrella Corporation’s base. In the
process, she also discovers that memories were implanted on her when she was
used as a human bait to measure the population’s response against the effects
of the T-virus. The memories were that
of a suburban mother to a deaf daughter whom she eventually took under her
protection despite being merely a clone human.
We were expecting a horror film—it was not. I was expecting a suspense
thriller, it was neither. Instead it felt like an hour of watching a demo of a
videogame. The storyline was so thin and
shallow they really had to bombard the film with fighting, explosions, and
blood splattering every five minutes to make it long enough to be classified as
a full length movie. The effects were
impressive but they overpowered the scenes as they called too much attention to
them rather than enhance and push the story forward. (Then again, where’s the story to push?) The scoring must have suited the whole
explosive action scene but with so many peppered within the film, it became
increasingly irritating. The acting was stiff and cold. The characters gave no semblance of humanity,
thus it was quite hard to identify or sympathize even during the time Alice
bonded with her supposed daughter. It
was an okay film overall but missing it would not have mattered also. Maybe the
film was meant for the videogame fans who would have been delighted seeing
their protagonists in 3D.
There was a gracious attempt to show “feminine genius” battling the evils
of the world and giving everything to save life. Alice’s desire to protect and save her pretend
daughter Becky, even after she learned that the latter is merely a clone human,
is beyond admirable. It would have made
a point for estimable maternal instinct. Unfortunately, the stiff performance, the
shallow storytelling and the emphasis on killing, gore and blood completely
drown these messages.
