I will freely admit I am a fan of the Resident Evil series of movies, games, novels, and comics. I have seen all of the films in theaters on opening weekend with the exception of the original, Resident Evil. I’ve played some of the games including the original (including the original Japanese version of the first game Biohazard.) I’ve read about half of the novels. And I am following the comic series being put out by Wildstorm. So I’m kinda into the whole franchise. (In fact, I would love to write a novel for the series once my writing gets a bit better.)

Needless to say, I saw ResidentEvil: Afterlife the weekend it opened, and since I review a lot of stuff I figured I would give my thoughts on it here. (Note: I do not intend to give out any spoilers for Resident Evil: Afterlife, but in talking about it I might end up giving out details about the earlier films that might spoil them if you have not seen them.)

Resident Evil: Afterlife is a direct follow up to Resident Evil: Extinction, and begins with an army of Alice clones kicking some serious ass at a secret Umbrella base in Japan. (There is a nice nod to the franchises original title in Japan during this.) During which the original Alice (played by Milla Jovovich) is stripped of all her “super powers”. After the destruction of the Umbrella’s “final” base, Alice goes on a journey to find her companions with whom she parted company at the end of Resident Evil: Extinction.

The film get’s pretty introspective at this point, but retreats back in the zombie and monster killing action fairly quickly as our hero, newly reunited with Clarie Redfield (played by Ali Larter), find her way to a group of survivor trapped in a prison in Los Angles. And it is a bloody and violent, yet predictable, toboggan ride through the end.

Don’t worry ladies there is some eye candy for you as well in this film. Wentworth Miller plays Clarie Redfield long lost brother, Chris, and Brois Kodjoe plays the athletic and handsome Luther. I think they do a nice job of balancing out the sexy between both the male and female characters.

Unfortunately, Resident Evil: Afterlife really bring nothing new to the table except 3D, which adds nothing special to the film, and a new breed of T-Virus mutants. And as my wife pointed out, this one felt more like a video game, that any of the other films in the series: solve a puzzle, fights some monsters, reveal a plot point, defeat a boss, move on to the next level, and repeat.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it. Milla Jovovich is hot. I love Alice’s “over the top” bad assery. And some of stunts and fight scenes were pretty impressive. But, in the end, it still felt like the sequel to a sequel to a sequel. I’m only going to give it three out of five snark bites.

So should you see it, well, if you a fan of the Resident Evil franchise, then yes. Otherwise, this might not be the film for you. If you do go remember stay through the first part of the credit for a glimpse into what’s instore in the next Resident Evil film.