Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) Screen Gems/Sci-Fi-Action-Horror RT: 106 minutes Rated R (sequences of violence throughout) Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Screenplay: Paul W.S. Anderson Music: Paul Haslinger Cinematography: Glen MacPherson Release date: January 27, 2017 (US) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, William Levy, Rola, Ever Anderson, Mark Simpson, Lee Joon Gi. Box Office: $26.8M (US)/$312.2M (World)
Rating: ***
How can I knock a movie that features the still super-hot Milla Jovovich fighting hordes of zombies and other mutated creatures in a post-apocalyptic world? I could point out how silly and stupid it all is, but all that would say is that I’m missing the point of the Resident Evil movies. I could talk about my general dislike for movies adapted from video games (YES, YOU, Assassin’s Creed!) but I’ve done that is so many other reviews, it would just be redundant. Besides, I really don’t hate the Resident Evil movies. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it but I’m a fan of the series that started in 2002. Fifteen years later, it looks like the end has come with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Of course, any movie that bears the subtitle “The Final Chapter” must be taken with a grain of salt. If it does well enough, the producers will find a way to keep the ball rolling. In Hollywood, “final” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over.
Thankfully, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opens with a recap of the salient points of the previous five movies. That’s good because I opted not to rewatch the RE movies in preparation for this installment. At the end of the last movie, Alice agreed to team up with Umbrella and make a last stand for humanity after getting her superhuman abilities restored. We don’t get to see that epic battle. Instead, the new movie picks up with Alice rising from the destroyed ruins of Washington D.C. She was betrayed and left for dead. There is a consolation prize of sorts. The Red Queen (played by Ever Anderson, the real life daughter of Jovovich and director Anderson) tells her of a vial containing an airborne antidote for the T-virus. The problem is she’ll have to return to Raccoon City and break into The Hive (the secret underground facility where it all began) to retrieve it. She has 48 hours to release it or else the remainder of the humanity will be completely destroyed.
On her tail is the sinister head of Umbrella, Dr. Isaacs (Glen, Eye in the Sky), who keeps trying and failing to kill her. When Alice finally reaches her destination, she teams up with a band of survivors led by old friend Claire (Larter, Obsessed) to sneak into The Hive and obtain the cure for the T-virus that will also kill Alice if she succeeds in releasing it.
Take everything you know about what constitutes fine cinema and leave it at the theater door. You won’t need it where you’re going. Like its predecessors, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is cinematic junk food. You know it’s not good for you, it has no nutritional value, but you like it anyway. It has all the necessary ingredients. Jovovich is still a bad ass babe at 41. Alice may no longer have her superhuman abilities (continuity error?) but she still kicks serious ass. The movie has a goofy sensibility about it and is completely aware of how absurd it is. In the first 20 minutes, Alice battles a dragon in a Hummer filled with C-4. A few moments later, she takes out a few gun-wielding baddies while hanging upside down. Scenes like this are why Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is so much fun.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter has plenty of action and violence. Computerized contact lenses allow people to predict their opponents’ moves and the eventual outcomes of fights. As has become the norm, the action scenes tend to be a bit overedited. Also, it has a lot of CGI effects. The CGI isn’t too bad but it’s still CGI. The movie gets a bit tedious as it reaches the end but the climax is cool.
SPOILER ALERT! Alice finally learns about her background, her life before she woke up in the mansion in the first movie. If you think about it, it doesn’t come as a surprise. I kind of suspected it all along. This is the fourth RE movie directed by Anderson and he does a solid job. SPOILER ALERT #2! Yes, the door is left open for a seventh movie. Alice still has some work to do. That is, if this one makes money. Might I suggest a title: Resident Evil: A New Beginning? It has a nice ring to it, no?
