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Through an impressively mediocre display butchering the classic video game series, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” sets out to close the story on the 15-year sci-fi/horror film franchise.
Similar to the previous films, heroine and apparent martial arts expert Alice must partner up with several death-impeding survivors and the obligatory character from the video game series. Together, they must infiltrate yet another underground facility where danger lurks around every corner.
Paul W.S. Andersen returns to the director’s chair, with wife Milla Jovovich to once again portray lead character Alice, who looks like she hasn’t aged a day since the beginning of the franchise in 2002.
The film opens up with a recap of what has already happened, which is suitable for anyone lucky enough to forget what has happened in the series. It’s through this mess of a plot that new viewers to the “Resident Evil” films would better be off watching “The Final Chapter” first, but a better recommendation would be to avoid the series entirely.
The world continues to be in shambles thanks to the Umbrella Corporation’s goal of systematically wiping out most of humanity through the T-Virus infecting the populace. The glimmer of hope shines when a cure happens to make an appearance, and it’s up to Alice to obtain the cure before humanity goes extinct.
Alice continues to remain a one-woman army capable of taking down enemies ranging from terrible CGI-monsters to kung-fu soldiers. It’s because her stone-cold expressions and terrible one-liners that will never make her a memorable heroine. Otherwise, “Resident Evil” provides a detriment on Jovovich’s career as being the only films she’s capable of starring in.
The supporting cast of survivors mainly serve as a cannon fodder to the dangers looming for the otherwise invulnerable heroine. Survivors like Abigail (Ruby Rose) and Doc (Eoin Macken) aren’t enough to provide any sort of backstory as most of the focus is on Alice.
Gaming and film fans will enjoy the return of Ali Carter as Claire Redfield (sporting her Revelations 2’s game design) and Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker, who’s now reduced to being a henchman to series veteran Dr. Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen). Isaacs’ return from his previous demise is due to Glen’s increasing star power role in the “Game of Thrones” TV series as Jorah Mormont, so it’s no surprise that his appearance will most likely guarantee more audience members wanting to see his attempts to perform martial arts.
Every hand-to-hand fight scene focuses primarily on shaky cam footage, thus creating several intercuts of different fight angles. This results in a confusing and nauseating mess of blurred action.
Since the film wants to remind the audience that it’s very much part of the horror genre, it must add jumpscares into the mix. While the jumpscares are surprising the first couple times, the next twelve became predictable. Whenever the sound goes down and Alice is alone in the dark, it’s a clear signal that a tinnitus-inducing noise will arrive to spook the audience.
The ending climax provides a few surprises that manages to wrap up most of the major plot details together while some minor areas are left open as plot holes — deliberately unexplored.
For all the terrible qualities that the film series has, perhaps the greatest achievement was lasting throughout the past 15 years despite every installment being an insult to both action films and video game adaptations.
The only redeeming quality of “Final Chapter” is that it finally ended the series. But, with news of the films becoming a billion-dollar franchise, there’s a possibility of spin-offs, a remake or a reboot being. If it’s any reconciliation, it’s best to watch these films as an unintended comedy. Be sure to have whiskey prepared.