It’s been almost 24 hours since I watched the last instalment in the Resident Evil live action film series, The Final Chapter, and I still cannot stop rolling my eyes.
I’m really glad it’s the final chapter.
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The movie picks up after 2012’s Retribution. If you haven’t seen the previous entries, then you’re going to be a bit lost.
Our heroine, Alice (played by Milla Jovovich), emerges from the remnants of a destroyed White House and starts fighting infected and monsters as she stumbles around. Thereafter she’s contacted by the Red Queen, an AI that controls Umbrella’s secret Raccoon City facility (The Hive), and is tasked with taking down the evil corporation — it forces the franchise to come full circle.
From there, chaos ensues with all of the fighting and over-the-top action the series has been known for.
Resident Evil: The Final chapter will hopefully be just that — the last movie in a long series well past its prime
And don’t even get me started on the constant clones that are used as a deus ex machina for the plot. It’s as if writer/producer/director Paul W. S. Anderson remembered that Umbrella can make clones of people and decided to throw them all over for convenient plot points. In fact, there are a lot of things that miss the mark or are ill-conceived by the writer. I could almost imagine Jovovich giggling as she tried to get through several lines of serious dialogue.
It ultimately boils down to a shallow storyline with a lazy pay-off and elements thrown in to make this final entry seem intriguing.
Well, at least that’s what I think happened because watching The Final Chapter is like sticking your head into a box of lit fireworks. Every few seconds you’ll be treated to over-the-top explosions that rattle your ear drums. I’m not sure that Anderson actually knows what pacing is.
If that’s not enough, the editor had a lot of fun mashing together as many different takes for every moment as possible. The camera work is incredibly choppy and with the constant splicing, it makes the action incredibly difficult to follow.
I understand what they were trying to do, but it just didn’t come out as expected.
Even with all of the negatives, The Final Chapter is still an okay entry in the series that may leave more of a lasting impression than Resident Evil: Extinction or Resident Evil: Afterlife. Except for the characters. Besides Alice and Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), I couldn’t have cared less about Red Shirt #3 or #4. Heck, even Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) was a complete letdown in this film (then again, so was he in the Resident Evil 5 video game).
Being a Resident Evil title, the movie is full of fantastic visuals and sets (try and spot Cape Town in it). The monsters still shined through, though I do wish there were more of them besides the generic zombie type and a few others.
Verdict: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is a sub-par action movie that will leave non-Resident Evil fans scratching their heads. Go watch it for the popcorn, stay for a nice nap. At least Anderson and Jovovich won’t be making another one of these… I hope.
Score: 4.5/10
