Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)

“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Ruby Rose, William Levy, and Iain Glen.  Released on January 27, 2017, the film has Alice facing a final showdown against the Umbrella Corporation.

The film is directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, who also directed films such as Mortal Kombat, Soldier, Resident Evil, and Death Race.  It is the sixth and final installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is based on the video game series of the same name by Capcom.  I just want everyone to know that I am feeling much better as of this writing, so it’s time for me to catch up on a few movies that I had been missing, starting with another video game based film.  I haven’t played much of the Resident Evil games nor have I followed the film series itself.  The only films I saw from the franchise were Resident Evil: Afterlife and Resident Evil: Retribution, which were also directed by Anderson.  With that said, I will be reviewing it as its own film.  

Milla Jovovich reprised her role once again as Alice as she continues to search for not only a solution to end a zombie invasion, but also answers to her origins.  All I can say about her is that her bite is worse than her bark.  She did a pretty nice job portraying a character who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty, and by dirty, I mean very bloody.  The story picks up three weeks after the events of Retribution, and once it starts, the action starts with it.  Assuming that you watched the other films, it doesn’t take too much time explaining what was going on leading up to this event.  It just tells you briefly how the world became infected by the T-virus, and then it goes from there.  That is one of the things that I like from this film, along with the designs of the creatures.  Those things are nightmare-inducing with a capital N.  Unfortunately, those things aren’t enough to prevent this film from getting infected.  Once again, Alice is joined by another group of survivors who will risk their own lives to help her fight off a never-ending swarm of flesh-eating monsters.  Geez Louise, when are they going to figure out that Alice is like a big magnet that attracts death everywhere she goes?  It doesn’t help that they all play their roles as victims to every death trap that they come across throughout this entire film instead of portraying characters that we should care for.  When one of them gets killed off, I just shrugged it off and never looked back.  That’s a pretty bad sign when it comes to the characters.  While I do appreciate the fact that they offered a brief introduction to the events of the film series, I happened to find the story a bit underwhelming.  I usually thought that finales are supposed to end the franchises with a big bang, but here, it just played off like any other installment in the franchise.  The only difference is that they have “The Final Chapter” in the title.  But the fun doesn’t stop there.  What really dropped the ball on this one is how they edit the action sequences.  I can tell that this film has some pretty nice action, especially the hand-to-hand combat, but the editing is so dang choppy that it makes the sequences seem less exciting than usual.  The film also had a few strobing lights that might cause an eyesore for some people.

Overall, the best way I can describe this sci-fi horror sequel is a highly-energetic five-year-old who consumed too much candy before bedtime and starts playing with flashlights in the dark for more than an hour.  “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is an underwhelming, choppy conclusion to the 15-year-old video game based film series.  Filled with weak storytelling, one dimensional side characters, and some of the most irritating editing I’ve ever witnessed in film, this finale had the right idea of ending it here before it does even more damage.  Fans of the Resident Evil films and/or games will probably enjoy this one for what it is.  If you’re new to the film series, this one isn’t a good place to start.  I suggest you start with the first installment and work your way to the top.  I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody else nor to those who just doesn’t like zombie movies.

D