I think I've seen a Resident Evil movie before, but I'm not sure it would really matter based on watching Resident Evil: Afterlife. Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, the former Umbrella Corporation officer who has been infected with the T-Virus, become superhuman, and now tracks Umbrella CEO Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). Alice is joined by Claire (Heroes' Ali Larter) and a host of other Los Angeles survivors, but the focus is mostly on Alice while everything continues to fall apart... harder.

The effects are pretty sweet: it's part horror, part sci-fi, and part action, but it's pretty clear when the filmmakers (led by director Paul W.S. Anderson) made something 3D even in the standard view. Guns fire madly, blades flash through the air, blood spatters, and zombies get dismembered. Even alien/zombie dogs get in on the crazy special effects action, but you'll have to see it to believe it.

In the meantime, Alice, Claire, and Chris Redfield (Prison Break's Wentworth Miller) march toward their "final" showdown with Wesker, who has been keeping people on ice, so to speak, because he's trying to get more and more powerful by harnessing the T-Virus. This is pretty standard fare from a sci-fi standpoint: just like with Frankenstein or gene splicing, Wesker thinks he can control the mutation and therefore the power, but playing God with science never seems to work well, regardless of how it's portrayed.

In the end, before another cliffhanger, we're left with the message that yes, there is a place which is uninfected, and yes, there is hope. It proves reasonably shortlived, but it's still interesting that Alice, after all she's been through, sees her purpose as two-fold: to end the problem AND to provide hope for those who are struggling, like the human "sheep" she rescues from Wesker. We're often in that position, too: we have an obligation to be part of the short-term, long-term, and final struggle with evil, but the victory is ultimately God's. In the meantime, we are encouraged to share the hope we have; in fact, to always be prepared to give a reason.

We're called to share that hope, even in the face of ultimate terror, because we know God reigns.