It has the look and feel of a video game – that, of course, is where it came from – with not a great deal of dialogue you can make sense of. The opening gives us the back story in a matter of minutes and then it becomes a special effects extravaganza, with rapid fire edits reflecting sudden memory recall sequences. I am talking about Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, although one could be excused for asking “is it, indeed, the end?”.
This is, in fact, the sixth installment of the most successful video game film franchise in history. Among the returning headliners are Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) as Alice and Ali Larter (Pitch) as Claire Redfield, although it is very much the former’s vehicle. Shawn Roberts (Edge of Darkness) again plays Albert Wesker and Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) Dr. Alexander Isaacs, the villains of the piece. Newcomer Ruby Rose (Orange is the new Black) gets a gig on the “good” team. Writer, director, producer and franchise veteran Paul W.S. Anderson (The Three Musketeers) is still at the helm.
How Anderson got involved reads a bit like a Hollywood ending. Producer Jeremy Bolt, who has worked with Anderson for 25 years and on all the movies in the series, provides the detail. “Back in 2002, I went back to England and made a couple of small films and Paul holed up in his house in Venice Beach, where he played video games for one month. Out of the blue he called to say ‘I’ve been playing the game Resident Evil and we have got to get the film rights.” The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
In The Final Chapter, Alice returns to the iconic origins of the T-virus in Raccoon City, where she will attempt to stop – once and for all – the infection that is killing mankind. After a crushing defeat in Washington D.C. and the demise of her personal army in Resident Evil: Retribution, Alice is given one last chance to save humanity from the final step in the sinister Umbrella Corporation’s grand plan. Getting to Raccoon City is hard enough. Once there, Alice makes contact with a new group of survivors – one of the last holdouts against the zombie apocalypse. Among them is franchise-favorite, Claire Redfield. Alice ultimate encounter is with the megalomaniacal Dr. Isaacs.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is packed with carefully choreographed fight sequences, creature scares and the occasional appearance of the zombie army. The preview I saw had the volume turned up to the point that it was hurting my ears. More is not always best. As kick-ass, “give as good as she gets” talent, Milla Jovovich has still, well and truly, got it – and more than holds her own. Try as the evildoers might to bring her undone, not surprisingly she always finds a way to fight and scrap and scamper her way out of invidious situations.
But it seemed to me that the cast around her – the survivors – were simply disposable non-entities, who had very little to do or say. There was no substance amongst the lot of them. Quite frankly, I thought they could have been given roles of greater import … at least some of them. Although also single dimensional, Iain Glen appeared to relish his position as the harbinger of doom. One thing is for certain, his character won’t die wondering.
Whilst Resident Evil: The Final Chapter didn’t rock my boat, if you are looking for sci-fi, horror, action, violence and little else, this could bear consideration. Otherwise, move on. Rated MA, it scores a 5½ out of 10.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ruby Rose, Ali Larter
Release Date: 26 January 2017
Rating: MA 15+
Alex First
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television
