Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Dir: Paul W.S. Anderson
2016
*
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is, as its title suggests, the last film of the Resident Evil film series. What a sad ending it is. Apart from a nice little twist that reveals the truth behind Milla Jovovich’s Alice, it’s a cliché-ridden action-headache from start to finish. It’s not the easiest series to remember to be honest, every sequel I’ve sat down to watch has required a re-watch of the previous but even then they don’t really follow each other like most series do. It is one of the few reasons I’ve liked the franchise if I’m being honest and some of the previous films have been very inventive and nothing like their predecessors but Resident Evil: The Final Chapter feels like a greatest hits of every clichéd scene from every generic action-horror ever made. Resident Evil is now the highest grossing horror franchise of all time, making more than a billion dollars since the first film in 2002. That is absurd! 95% of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was filmed on an unsteadied hand-held camera and looks every bit as crap as that may sound. The film is riddled with the most nauseating bursts of quickly edited recaps (usually when Alice was knocked unconscious and was dreaming – which happens a lot in the film) that were so painful to watch they made my eyes hurt. The supporting cast could have been replaced by cardboard cut-outs, they would have had the same effect and it would have saved Paul W. S. Anderson a bit of money. The characters are given absolutely zero development and are there purely to be killed off. Nothing wrong with that, but it is also more effective if we either have emotional investment in said character or if they are killed in spectacular fashion. Neither is true here. It is so forgettable, that I will be surprised if it gets the criticism it deserves. People will (maybe already have) forget just how bad it is and the franchise itself will soon be forgotten. The most successful horror franchise, based on one of the most popular video games ever made, will be forgotten due to being forgettable. It’s ridiculous. To think, that a crew member died and a stunt woman was so severely injured she had to have her arm amputated, just to make this sorry excuse of a film. There’s no passion, no enthusiasm, it is clear that Paul W. S. Anderson wanted to put his baby to bed but why not do so in style, go out with a bang as it were, instead of making the most generic zombie film ever made. It’s barely a zombie film, it’s not much of a horror, it’s a boring action film and there is very little for even fans of the franchise to enjoy. Only Ali Larter returns from previous films and nothing is said of the survivors we last saw in Resident Evil: Retribution, which is supposed to have taken place just three weeks before the beginning of The Final Chapter. It’s a lazy last-minute cash-in, it made money but the least amount of the franchise thus far. Time to call it a day for sure but as patchy as the series has been, I think it (and the fans) deserved a bit more of a grand finale, rather than the anti-climax given here.