Armond White: RE Afterlife is superior to Inception & Av
Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:01 pm
http://www.nypress.com/article-21623-ba ... arama.html
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Runtime: 97 min.
Sometimes directors grab an opportunity just to stretch their filmmaking muscles. That explains both Mark Romanekגs new venture, Never Let Me Go, and why Paul W.S. Anderson has essayed Resident Evil: Afterlife, his second movie in the Resident Evil series, which he initiated with the fantastically swift, streamlined and compelling original film in 2002.
In Afterlife, Anderson confirms his astonishing gift for imagery and frighteningly good action craft. Despite the grim, pessimistic CapCom video game premise where Alice (Milla Jovovich) fights a constantly mutating, globe-threatening virusגlike Ripley always battling those aliensגAnderson finds ways to depict apocalyptic scenarios that actually suggest foresight. They have a stylish, sharp-witted sense of the future and a dreamy, exciting faith in human resilience embodied in Jovovichגs lithe, resourceful, strikingly lovely Alice, as well as a group of survivors that include actors Boris Kodjoe and Ali Larter.
If critics and fanboys werenגt suckers for simplistic nihilism and high-pressure marketing, Afterlife would be universally acclaimed as a visionary feat, superior to Inception and Avatar on every level. Just look at how Anderson activates his canvas in the plane crash sequence. First, the shock of the crash is solarized in a wide shot, then he cuts to the interior where the imagery is frozen yet the camera pans left, moving through suspended time, characters and objects, all composed in perfect pop-art balance like a James Rosenquist panorama, and then the camera pivotsגand in 3-D.
Anderson redeems that techno-gimmick which James Cameron foolishly hawks as a gateway to new perception because he realizes itגs just a play thing, not a New Age talisman. Anderson toys with 3-D for artistic caprice, constantly shifting levels, distance, perspective, layers. Heגs a clear-eyed visionary who expiates videogame cynicism, insisting on imaginative potential. When Alice is resurrected from her android state (גThank you for making me humanג), it confirms Andersonגs ingenuity as a life force.
Afterlife opens with deceptively dark movie homages to Demyגs Umbrellas of Cherbourg, plus teasing riffs on Hitchcockגs The Birds, Terminator, even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when Jovovich and Larter team up to facedown a terrifying male behemothגitגs a stunning bad bitcharama. Anderson never got the respect he deserved for his great Death Race. But now that opportunityגs knocked again, he knocks it into the stratosphere.
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Runtime: 97 min.
Sometimes directors grab an opportunity just to stretch their filmmaking muscles. That explains both Mark Romanekגs new venture, Never Let Me Go, and why Paul W.S. Anderson has essayed Resident Evil: Afterlife, his second movie in the Resident Evil series, which he initiated with the fantastically swift, streamlined and compelling original film in 2002.
In Afterlife, Anderson confirms his astonishing gift for imagery and frighteningly good action craft. Despite the grim, pessimistic CapCom video game premise where Alice (Milla Jovovich) fights a constantly mutating, globe-threatening virusגlike Ripley always battling those aliensגAnderson finds ways to depict apocalyptic scenarios that actually suggest foresight. They have a stylish, sharp-witted sense of the future and a dreamy, exciting faith in human resilience embodied in Jovovichגs lithe, resourceful, strikingly lovely Alice, as well as a group of survivors that include actors Boris Kodjoe and Ali Larter.
If critics and fanboys werenגt suckers for simplistic nihilism and high-pressure marketing, Afterlife would be universally acclaimed as a visionary feat, superior to Inception and Avatar on every level. Just look at how Anderson activates his canvas in the plane crash sequence. First, the shock of the crash is solarized in a wide shot, then he cuts to the interior where the imagery is frozen yet the camera pans left, moving through suspended time, characters and objects, all composed in perfect pop-art balance like a James Rosenquist panorama, and then the camera pivotsגand in 3-D.
Anderson redeems that techno-gimmick which James Cameron foolishly hawks as a gateway to new perception because he realizes itגs just a play thing, not a New Age talisman. Anderson toys with 3-D for artistic caprice, constantly shifting levels, distance, perspective, layers. Heגs a clear-eyed visionary who expiates videogame cynicism, insisting on imaginative potential. When Alice is resurrected from her android state (גThank you for making me humanג), it confirms Andersonגs ingenuity as a life force.
Afterlife opens with deceptively dark movie homages to Demyגs Umbrellas of Cherbourg, plus teasing riffs on Hitchcockגs The Birds, Terminator, even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when Jovovich and Larter team up to facedown a terrifying male behemothגitגs a stunning bad bitcharama. Anderson never got the respect he deserved for his great Death Race. But now that opportunityגs knocked again, he knocks it into the stratosphere.
.....plus cameron didn't use it for more than just a play thing either. It's not like he made some great amazing art piece, he made an action film with blue people.