Despite the subtitle, it’s not really a prequel. Ingeniously presented as a cheesy wedding video, complete with menu and photo montage, the film documents the nuptials of Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo (Diego Martín), and the subsequent country-club reception that gives new meaning to "blow-out."
At some point deep into the dance-party portion of the night, a dog bite on an uncle's hand turns the man into a flesh eater. This initial scene of chaos is followed by a stylistic change on the part of writer/director Paco Plaza that caught me off-guard, and our newlyweds become separated in the fray.
Plaza rather wryly turns Genesis into a self-parody, retaining the gory mess of its predecessors while refusing merely to duplicate their antics in a different location. This means Clara is allowed to turn bridezilla and scream, "This is my day!" while chain-sawing an undead guest in perfect vertical halves.
The result is like the wedding cake our lovers never get to eat: a delight to look at, even better to taste ... but not to the point of overindulgence; Plaza keeps this affair to 80 minutes, end credits included. The DVD extras contain many deleted scenes that would have weighted down the confection. Three cheers for [REC] 3 deviating from the formula just enough to do something different. —Rod Lott
