Resident Evil: Afterlife Thoughts From Comic-Con
The Kidd here, and it looks like this is the last of the reports coming in from Comic-Con from that crazy Saturday slate in Hall H. Razor has got the report on the RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE panel, and he must be a fan of the series, because he sounds extremely positive about what he saw, in addition to Paul W.S. Anderson’s return behind the camera for the franchise. This feels like a giant 3-D cash grab to me, as the RESIDENT EVIL films have been far from great… really, really far. I’d say it’s still a distant drive for them to get to good even. But some people apparently really like them, and I think t’s nostalgia for the video game series. I might get suckered into checking this one out though just for Milla Jovovich. I checked out A PERFECT GETAWAY on DVD in the past couple days, and the trailer for STONE makes her look really strong in it, so… maybe she could carry this thing to respectability. Maybe.
Anyway, here’s Razor from Hall H with his thoughts on RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE…
The director and main cast of Resident Evil: Afterlife showed up to Comic Con to show off their new trailer, which comes out September 10. Big deal, right? We don’t need a detailed review, we’ve seen it. Well, sort of. This time they brought it in 3D, and it was awesome!
Director Paul W.S. Anderson says he wasn’t too impressed with 3D technology until Avatar, and then it was on! The technology used to create that movie is what he used for this. And, it showed. The images are crisp and clear.
What’s also clear is Anderson’s love of the game, which is the inspiration for these films, and his inspiration for wanting to do them. Although it’s been a while since the last one (this is the fourth in the series) he says because of the 3D aspect, it was like shooting his first movie. In fact, he says if he could he would start the franchise over. He also says one film at a time. But if there were to be a fifth one, he’s got an idea of who he’d like to bring in. Leon, anyone?
Larter and Jovovich, who play Claire and Alice respectively, say the technique for fighting was different because of the 3D aspect. No longer can you throw a punch and be three feet away. The punches are now apparently a little too close for comfort. Milla tells a story of a scene where Anderson wanted her to keep getting closer to the camera while pointing and firing a gun towards it. The result? She blew up the camera. A costly scene, no doubt.
One of the topics that kept coming up were the stunts. All involved agreed that they were some of the best yet, and they all seemed to gush when talking about them. But are the stunts the only thing to attract us? What’s going to make someone buy that ticket? Jovovich talks about character, and specifically hers. She says Alice has developed. “She’s more human and loving.” She also feels like she could go back to the beginning of the series because she gets her character more.
Milla Jovovich does have a way of creating memorable characters. The proof happened during a Q&A with the cast. One audience member asked her to say, “multipass,” a reference to her character from The Fifth Element. “Mooltipass,” she said as she reflected, saying she hadn’t said that in a decade.
The real draw to this new RESIDENT EVIL is the “shot in 3-D” aspect. This isn’t post-conversion or any conversion at all. They invested the money to make this film in the truest 3-D possible, using the Fusion system that James Cameron utilized on AVATAR, and, for all the issues I have developed with that film over time, the look isn’t one of them. We may be moving towards a point where RESIDENT EVIL actually helps to save the 3-D format due to the damage substandard product has done to it thus far. How sad is that?
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