Comic-Con 2010: Resident Evil: Afterlife Panel

Resident Evil: Afterlife will be blowing up 3D screens this Fall, and fans of the horror/action franchise will be psyched to see it back in theaters. Hall H at Comic-Con 2010 was ready to get a look at the “revolutionary” 3D footage from film.

Besides the footage, a panel with Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller and director Paul WS Anderson is enough to get fanboys at the ‘Con excited.

PANEL

The panel has begun for the fourth installment of Resident Evil and the direct and three stars have been introduced.

We begin with the premiere of the trailer in 3D and it is very similar to the previous trailer. Fans of the most recent RE game, will be happy to know that Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) looks and fights in the same was he he does in the game.

• Milla describes Alice as being more human and more determined at taking down Umbrella.
• Ali Larter is ecstatic about the film being in 3D and Paul W.S. Anderson being back in the director’s chair.
• Wentworth comes in as the new guy on the block, joining the franchise. He explains taking on the role was a little daunting at first joining such a popular franchise.
• Milla jumps in and explains how she can’t wait for us to see the crazy stuff the did for the film.
• For shooting in 3D, it changed everything for how Anderson approached shooting the film. From how they move the camera, how they design the sets and to how they edit in post, he explains how 3D will become the new benchmark and how it’s revolutionized the industry.

FOOTAGE

After some questions for the cast from the moderator, we move into our first piece of new footage. It features the full action sequence where they fight the The Executioner, a very recognizable (and very large) character from the video game Resident Evil 5.

• It wasn’t very impresive. It looked too fake and felt very staged.
• Most of it was in slow-motion, but it was too slow for an already slow action sequence.

AUDIENCE Q&A

• The first question resulted in a funny story: Milla pointed the gun right at the lens and when she shot the weapon, she blew the screen to pieces. She blames Paul for telling her to keep aiming the gun closer to the camera.
• What made Anderson want to come back to do Resident Evil 4? He wanted to make a conceptual jump, something bigger and better. He says the 3D is part of that and he wanted a larger bigger budget. They shot in Tokyo, Alaska, Long Beach, Canada and Hollywood. He felt he was the filmmaker best suited to bring that to the screen.
• What made Anderson take so many elements from the Resident Evil 5 video game? He played the game and loved it (as did I when I wrote that RE4 should take from this game back when they announced it). He wanted to take some of the enemies and wanted to make sure to utilized Wesker, a fan-favorite character. Also of course, they wanted to add Chris Redfield and include a lot of the stylized action sequences from the game.
• Will Jill Valentine be in the film? Stay tuned.
• Will they make a fifth film? After this, they’ll take it from there and see.
• A dressed up Trekkie with a neck brace and broken arm. He got Milla to say her famous “Multi-pass” line from The Fifth Element. (crowd laughter).
• Wentworth Miller never played the game but was asked about his research and what elements he wanted to take to honor and incorporate into the character. He read a lot of blogs and fansites to learn about the character and what people say about him. He also read about his backstory and of course, wanted to bring something from himself and also, make the character work for the film universe developed by Paul W.S. Anderson. He’s greatful to work with Ali Larter to work on the relationship between their sibling characters because that brings out an important (and softer) side of Chris.
• So far, it’s been Milla showing the most enthusiasm and really keeping the panel as fun as possible for the crowd.  She’s very confident and knowledgeable about the characters, history, weapons, etc.

And that’s it for the panel. No additional new scenes to show us and not much excitement.

Resident Evil: Afterlife also stars Sienna Guillory & Shawn Roberts who were not present at the panel.