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Resident Evil Saves The Best For Last With ‘The Final Chapter’ (Movie Review)

I honestly never saw this happening.  Today I walked out of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter with a giddy smile on my face rather than one of disgust and regret.  After covering Resident Evil: Afterlife a few weeks back here on 4K Ultra HD and rewatching Retribution I wasn’t sure about my decision to check out The Final Chapter.  I debated waiting for the inevitable home media release, but Jordan Grout kind of gave me the courage needed to check it out.  I even spent the eight bucks and change to see it in 3-D.  The latter wasn’t worth it, but the decision to check out The Final Chapter so was.  I had the time of my life.  Okay, I’m exaggerating.  How about this?  I had the best experience in a theater this dreaded month of January.  Is that better?  Who would have ever thunk it?  I am finally able to give a Resident Evil film a score of 3.  I’ll be darn as its the last one too.

So as I was just saying Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is final installment in the series once agin written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.  This makes it the sixth film overall in the franchise, which is loosely based on the Capcom zombie game of the same name.  Returning to this entry are the familiar faces of Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts and Iain Glen with additional players Eoin Macken, William Levy and Ruby Rose, who seems to be everywhere this year.  Just like in every other Resident Evil movie Alice and her friends attempt to stop the Umbrella corporation from ruining the world, but with an added caveat. This film actually has a working narrative and purposeful plot, and more importantly a conclusion.  How I love to be wrong about flicks.  A pleasant surprise is much welcomed everyday in my life.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter picks up after the events in Retribution.  I hesitate to use the word immediately though.  You see in Retribution we see our heroes along with Albert Wesker (Roberts) gearing up for one hell of a battle near the White House and surrounding Washington D.C. locales.  It was billed as humanity’s final stand against the undead forces.  Well when we finally reunite with Alice (Jovovich) we learn that we missed the battle in its entirety and the only person to seemingly survive beneath the rumble of Washington D.C. is our heroine Alice.  The Red Queen summons Alice once again, but this time Alice knows better and has some serious trust issue with her.  However, she also wants her revenge and the chance to stop the T-virus once and for all.  I’m not going to go into any backstories on the T-virus, the Red Queen and what they all are.  You’re reading this review of the sixth films so you all should be acclimated by now.

So in order for Alice to stop the Umbrella Corporation once and for all we must go back to the beginning here, which is a good thing considering that the first film was always my favorite.  It’s like The Force Awakens to New Hope.  You picking up what I’m dropping here?  Sometimes you just got to go back to the basics and experiment with what originally worked and jazz it up a bit.  There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you do it effectively, but I digress.  So yeah it’s back to the underground Hive in Raccoon City, where Alice and the other survivors of the apocalypse race against time to not miss their one, final opportunity to end it all and save the world.  However, they do so with the masterminds of the Umbrella Corporation hot on their trail in step with one of the largest forces of undead armies in tow.

Now here’s the kicker and I know I’m going to be crucified for saying this, but the action was very reminiscent of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road.  No I am not saying it is as good as that, but I am saying it’s very action packed and therefore highly thrilling.  Very little dialogue is exchanged throughout and instead we’re treated to one high octane thrill ride after another.  Thank you for that Paul W.S. Anderson.  After the past two entries I’m very appreciative of that.  Furthermore, save for a few moments here or there, the actors, including Milla, seem to take their roles very seriously.  They weren’t just always firing heir guns like they were in a bad video game, but instead they were very purposeful blasts.  That’s important as most of these entries felt like just a series of stitched up bad dialogue and nonsensical violence just for the sake of.  Thankfully that’s not the case here.  There’s a sense of purpose, urgency and for the first time in a long time a cohesive plot, something really not seen since the first movie.  Like I said I never expected that again from a Resident Evil film.  Score!

Despite some bad looking explosion effects here or there, the action and fight choreography keeps me on my toes here.  It’s thrilling, engaging and non-stop.  Now I did say we go back to the basics here as we return to the beginning of it all.  Longtime fans of the series will recognize not only some familiar faces, but also some familiar traps and even callbacks to them.  Take for instance that hallway from the first film with those gridded lasers that traverse down it.  Well it’s back here with a vengeance.  Yes, I believe inanimate hallways with gridded lasers can enact vengeance too.  Ha ha.  You get the point I’m trying to make.  There’s always an anti-virus to everything. Hint..hint.

Somehow, some way and for some some reason why Paul W.S. Anderson saved the best for last with appropriately titled The Final Chapter.  Of course that’s not to say Sony can’t always change their mind and reboot the franchise or even restart in another twenty years to rejuvenate Mills’s career, but for the first time in a long time we have a sense of closure here.  Best of all too pretty much everything is finally explained.  It feels like the end of it all and I’m perfectly fine going out on a high here just like Peyton Manning did.  “We’re all going to die here.”

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FILM SCORE

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