Sean Anderson
partners with his mom's husband on a mission to find his grandfather,
who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.
17-year-old
Sean Anderson receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island
where no island should exist. Unable to stop tracking the signal, he
sets out with a small group on a journey to the mysterious island - a
place few people have ever seen or lived to tell about. What they find
is an island of stunning beauty, strange and threatening life forms,
volcanoes, mountains of gold and more than one astonishing secret.
In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its
victims into the Undead, Alice (Jovovich), continues on her journey to
find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the
Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected
help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the
Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is
overrun by thousands of Undead - and Alice and her comrades are about to
step into a deadly trap.
Case in point: after the opening shootout in an underground, Japanese facility operated by the Umbrella Corporation--the baddies who created the T-Virus and Alice's former employers--Afterlife quickly dispenses with the more interesting developments from the end of the last film and puts our heroine back on the trail of Claire (Ali Larter) and the remaining survivors from the last installment. With most of the Earth's population decimated by the zombie plague, survivors have been following an automated beacon to Alaska, where they're promised food, shelter, and most importantly, no zombies. Unfortunately, the life Alice is able to find at the site is a feral, dirty Claire, whose memories have been wiped thanks to an insect-like device embedded in her chest.
From there, Afterlife follows the duo as the look for the source of the beacon and any other survivors from the remaining group, ultimately ending up on the roof of a high-rise prison in L.A. where a band of Hollywood stereotypes have taken refuge from the horde of zombies below. I won't bother with their names because most of them are dead before you can commit their names to memory. One, however, is played by Prison Break's Wentworth Miller in a turn so mind-bogglingly contrived within a plot full of goofy contrivances, that for a moment I was convinced the script had finally resorted to going through the motions of checking off a list of character names and references from the games.
In fact, I'm increasingly coming to believe that the series has become an expensive fan-service delivery system, made almost exclusively for those who've played the games. Elements from the most recent titles in the "survival horror" game series are dropped into the story without rhyme or reason, but boy do they look cool. Why is there is hooded, nearly invulnerable mute giant with an axe trying to kill Alice, Claire, and the survivors? I can tell you he appeared in Resident Evil numbers 4 and 5, but I'd be hard-pressed to explain what the hell he's doing in this movie, and I'm pretty sure a short scene post-credits will leave most members of the audience scratching their heads.
One thing is abundantly clear within moments of FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE starting and that's that Tsui Hark clearly understands how to employ this added third dimension to invigorate action sequences and bring depth to his imagery. Throughout the film, Hark makes wonderful use of the depth of field afforded to him by 3D and for perhaps the first time since this latest wave of interest in the technology, it genuinely adds to the viewing experience. As one might imagine there are frequent incidents when blades, arrows, knives and swords protrude violently out of the screen, as well as everything from giant logs to ribbons and even, in one instance, Gwai Lun Mei's spit. But these kinds of cheap parlour tricks can be witnessed in any American horror sequel these days. What Tsui gives us are sword fights from the background right into the foreground of the frame. We are treated to skirmishes between finely skilled martial artists as they duck between elaborate networks of beams and pillars, or we plummet deep into mountain valleys on the tail feathers of a predatory eagle. Suffice to say, 3D has almost never convinced me as a legitimate addition to the cinematic paint box, but Tsui Hark may well have provided the best arguement yet for its existence.
While the film may succeed in at least this element of its technical construction, how does it fair as a piece of drama? Or less demandingly, as a martial arts spectacular? The film opens strongly, with Jet Li's Zhao Huai'an introduced as a crusading warrior, fighting for justice against the corrupt eunuchs who terrorise the country without adequate governance during the Ming Dynasty. The fearful Western Bureau, led by Commander Yu Huatian (Chen Kun), is tearing the land apart in search of Su (Mavis Fan), a palace maid whom the Emperor has impregnated and must now be executed to preserve the bloodline.
Su is discovered, but before she can be executed, is rescued by a mysterious warrior claiming to be Zhao Huai'an. After their escape, Su's saviour reveals herself to be Ling Lanqiu (Zhou Xun), though she keeps any further information to herself. In order to leave the region, the women must pass through the remote desert and rest at Dragon Gate Inn. Commander Yu knows this too and sends his best men to cut them off. On arrival at the inn, however, they must batten down the hatches and sit out an approaching storm, along with a gang of dangerous and hostile tribesmen, under the command of their princess (a stunning Gwai Lun Mei). While Ling and Su lurk in the caves under the inn, two travelling warriors arrive, Gu Shaotang (Li Yuchun) and White Blade - who bares an uncanny resemblance to Commander Yu (and is also played by Chen Kun).
While this might seem like an impossibly complex network of characters and an overly elaborate set-up, everything falls into place with remarkable ease and clarity. There are heroes and villains, mysterious wild cards and right smack in the middle is a mongol horde of half-drunk barbarians determined to get mixed up in everyone else's business. Of course, no one turns out to be who they claim to be and the second half of the film is as much a series of reveals, explanations and doublecrosses as it is an escalating series of duels and skirmishes, amidst an oppressive, computer-generated sandstorm, which is as integral to the plot as it is rote and cliched.
