Who's In It: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Boris Kodjoe, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Spencer Locke, Sienna Guillory, Kacey Barnfield
The Basics: It's been four years since the zombie apocalypse first began and Alice (Milla Jovovich) is still battling the dastardly scientists of the Umbrella Corp. Using her army of clones, she destroys Umbrella's entire Tokyo operation, but loses her super powers. Now human, Alice pilots a two-seater across North America and records video blogs as she searches for her old pals, which brings her to a Los Angeles prison where she joins forces with yet another ragtag band of survivors and must battle the so-evil-he-wears-sunglasses-indoors Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts).
What's The Deal: After churning out four movies in the Resident Evil film franchise, Paul W.S. Anderson and Co. have officially run out of things to do. But while the story here feels a lot like what's come before (Alice joins a group of survivors, most of whom don't make it to the end, and then fights the big boss before an open-ended conclusion suggests there'll be yet another sequel in a few more years) and the cast often flounders on the edge of unintentional camp, Resident Evil: Afterlife does offer something new: 3D. Not just any old crappy post-converted 3D, either; the filmmakers used Avatar technology, which gives the film a crisp depth that makes the silly action watchable, whether it's two hot Alice clones diving out of windows or Ali Larter fighting a giant axe-wielding mutant in the shower. You didn't need Oscar-caliber stuff from a movie that revolves around Milla Jovovich killing zombies in a skintight body suit, did you?
Things Paul W.S. Anderson Throws At The Audience In 3D: Raindrops, blood spurts, ninja stars, exploding heads, shards of glass, a giant axe, zombie Dobermans with heads that split open, loose change, bullets, bullets in slo-mo, everything in slo-mo. Basically, Anderson slows down every awesome action sequence he comes up with, sticking to the film making school of thought that everything looks cooler in slo-mo.
The Few And Far Between Moments Of Subtle Self-Awareness: Lest you think everyone involved is taking this silly zombie movie completely seriously, Anderson inserts a number of sly winks at his audience. There's Alice's penchant for loading her shotgun with quarters so that baddies literally explode into showers of coins. And the more obvious ribs at Los Angeles, where most of the action takes place and zombies have overrun the populace, leaving only an actress (Kacey Barnfield), an NBA star (Boris Kodjoe), an oily movie producer (Kim Coates), and the producer's intern (Norman Yeung) among the survivors. The best acknowledgment that these folks know what kind of movie they're in comes as a character returns from assumed death at the hands of zombies and triumphantly yells, "Star power, bitches!"
Stay For The Credits Or You'll Miss: The brief appearance of Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory, reprising her role from Resident Evil: Apocalypse), who incidentally was the original female protagonist of the Capcom video game on which the franchise is based.