SO last week the media fraternity got together for a little fun and games, thanks to Vodafone Fiji Ltd, who declared their interest that the event was strictly a “no-strings” attached kind of gathering but one to simply acknowledge the work of the media in the community.
The “Media Mayhem” event was held at Uprising Beach Resort where media representatives were slotted into team colours for impending games one would only see during family fun days and parties. Yes, there was the usual sack race, eating competition and water games. There was even a ninja race, crawling under zigzagged ropes just like how they do in the army.
Well, these games were set up to give the media family a taste of the Fiji rugby 7s team’s gold winning experience and training at the resort, where the national team normally bunked before a big game, although I doubt the sack race and donut eating competition were in their training schedule.
Anyway, with my blue wristband strapped on I figured I could do good by cheering on the team with water bottles on hand and screaming at the top of my lungs, “Go Blue go!” hoping it would give my teammates a jolt of energy to reach the finish line. I’d like to think it did because our Blue team eventually won the overall games.
Some of the winnings shared among the team members as a result of the collective effort were movie passes and I was fortunate to get hold of two. It could not have come at a better time especially when a couple of new hits were screening at the cinemas.
So on my day off a trip to the cinemas was overdue. The movie choice was a tussle between Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and XXX: Return of Xander Cage, the latter isn’t an X-rated film or anything like that in case you’re wondering — it’s just Vin Diesel in all his awesomeness!
Ok back to Resident Evil. Now this latest action-horror film is the sixth instalment in the series and reeks of The Walking Dead through and through. Zombies of all kinds — humans, dogs and flying creatures. I’m not a fan of The Walking Dead TV series, although it has a big following, and anything zombie-ish usually has me making all sorts of faces this way and that, faces children usually make when they don’t like something.
But somehow the Resident Evil sequels pretty much have those icky feelings under control. Maybe it’s because Alice (played by Milla Jovovich) does a pretty good job fighting off those zombies when she goes into overdrive with guns blazing and high-flying kicks and punches. I know it’s just a movie but it is just “tuwops” as they say.
The plot continues the usual way — Alice versus the fictional Umbrella Corporation, the main antagonist in the films responsible for the zombie apocalypse. Only this time, there’s an airborne anti-virus that was developed by the Umbrella Corp to kill every organism infected with the T-virus — the virus that turned people and creatures into zombies, and for those who follow Resident Evil closely would know Alice was also infected with the T-virus.
According to IMDb, the film opens with Alice explaining the origin of the T-virus. Dr James Marcus (played by Mark Simpson) wanted to create a cure for his daughter Alicia, who was suffering from progeria. Marcus created a cure within the Umbrella Corporation, but soon, he would be betrayed by his colleague Dr Alexander Isaacs (played by Iain Glen) after Marcus wanted to shut down the program after seeing the devastating effects of the virus. Isaacs has Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), the CEO of Umbrella, suffocate Marcus to death, and Isaacs would later become Alicia’s guardian and hold her share of the company.
Isaacs created the Red Queen in Alicia’s likeness and let the T-virus break out in Raccoon City, and within months, the entire planet would be infected over the next 10 years.
Alice meets the Red Queen, who by the way is Jovovich’s daughter in real life, in a building and is told that the airborne antivirus is located within The Hive of the Umbrella Corporation, and she has 48 hours to get there and unleash it, or else Umbrella will launch one last strike against the survivors.
There’s a lot of graphic images in case you’re planning to take the kids. One parent at the session I went to decided to bring their child along so you can imagine the squeals when the bloody scenes came on.
But Resident Evil is not everyone’s cup of tea and a couple of friends actually fell asleep at cinemas while watching it. They preferred to see the daredevil operative Xander Cage in action. Again, Vin Diesel in all his awesomeness.
And if none of these films suit your fancy, Fifty Shades Darker has also reached our cinemas. But that’s a review best kept for another day.
