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Film: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Year: 2016
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen and Ali Larter
Review:
This film begins giving us the back-story of everything that has happened so far, narrated by Milla Jovovich. The Umbrella Corporation was started by two scientists; they are played by Mark Simpson and Iain Glen. The T-Virus was created to help Simpson’s daughter, who is played by Jovovich and director/writer Paul W.S. Anderson’s daughter Ever Anderson. Anderson has a condition where she ages prematurely and it is said that by the time she is 25, she will look to be 90. The T-Virus was used to help her and it then had a lot of other practical applications.
The problem though was that when people started to die and become zombies, Simpson wanted to shut down its use. Glen on the other hand could see what it could be used for and the amount of money it was bringing in. Glen meets with Simpson and when they can’t agree, he has Shawn Roberts kill Simpson by suffocating with him a plastic bag. Glen then assumes guardianship over Anderson and takes full control of Umbrella. He also uploads memories and likeness of Anderson into the Umbrella network to be the basis of the Red Queen.
We then pick-up where the last film left off, with Jovovich escaping from an underground bunker in Washington D.C and she informs us that it was a trap that was placed by Roberts. She goes to drink from the pool in the National Mall and a large, overweight, water logged zombie springs out and attacks her. She fights it off and sees that it is trapped with barbwire wrapped around its leg. She then goes inside of a building. She awakens a giant flying monster that chases her to a military hummer. It attacks her and she has to pin it against a wall with the vehicle. She kills it with a claymore mine. She then notices something flying above her. It is made of metal and then she hears a mechanical noise.
She seeks it out to find an Umbrella command center. The screens turn on and Anderson talks with Jovovich. She needs her help and tells her about an airborne anti-virus that will wipe out everything infected by the T-Virus. Jovovich is leery, after everything that Anderson had done to her in the past. It appears the Hive in Raccoon City is where it is kept and the Hive is back up and running.
Jovovich goes back up topside and looks for a vehicle to get her there. She finds a motorcycle, but it is an ambush. She no longer has her powers that she did in previous films thanks to Roberts, but she is still strong and fast. She tries to use the motorcycle, but it is locked by a keypad. It electrocutes and knocks her out when she tries.
When she comes to, she is in some kind of moving tank. There are people inside that are locked up like she is. She wants to know what is going on, but they try to tell her to be quiet or he will come down. The man they speak of is Glen. He asks her what Anderson told her as she hints she knows of the cure. When Jovovich won’t talk, she is pushed out the back, where her hands are cuffed and there is an army of zombies chasing them. There is a tank running parallel to them as well.
Jovovich does get free and cuts the hand of Glen to get the motorcycle turned back on. She uses it to flee and get to Raccoon City ahead of them. She is caught in another trap and wakes up to a group at the top of a building. This is the Raccoon City survivors. One of them is played by William Levy and he doesn’t like that she is being kept alive. It turns out that Claire Redfield, played by Ali Larter is in charge. She is happy to see Jovovich.
She then tells the group about what is coming and what is in the Hive, about how it could end all of this. Larter has Eoin Macken, who is their make-shift doctor, Fraser James, Ruby Rose and Rola to help defend their fortress from this army of zombies. But can they hold them off and get to the anti-virus before Umbrella wipes out the last stands of humans? Or will Glen enact his master plan? We also learn that there has been an informant in Raccoon City. Who in Larter’s group is the rat?
Paul W.S. Anderson did have an interesting way to possible end this series and tie up all of the loose ends. That is the first thing I wanted to talk about, because I liked it. It can be tricky to continue to make films in a series when you are basing it on the success of the last one, but still trying to keep them fresh by introducing something new to the story. For the most part, I think that he has successfully been able to do that without discounting what has happened in a previous film. Something else that works very well for each film in the series is having Jovovich introduce everything that has happened. If someone decided to jump into any film in the series, you don’t have all the facts or information, but you’re given enough to get you up to speed. I thought the acting in this one was good, the monsters and zombies looked great. There is a lot of action. I also liked the official origin of the T-Virus and why it was created.
I did have some issues with this film though. The first being that I hate that this series uses clones so much and I feel like it is a cop-out sometimes. This film is stating that Glen that became Tyrant in Extinction was a clone of the real one and was doing experiments in the desert. Now I love the idea of Glen cloning himself a lot to do a lot of different research. I also didn’t like the idea of Glen being the co-owner of Umbrella. As I think more deeply about it, it could work. What hung me up though was that Roberts was bossing the Glen in the desert around and in this film Glen is bossing him around. The only logical thing was the Glen in the desert didn’t know that he was cloned from the owner of the company he is working for. I didn’t mind that there was an airborne antivirus, but I didn’t like how it is used. I don’t feel like it would work as it did.
Now with that said, this film is pretty solid. I feel like it is better than some of the later installments, but it doesn’t compare to the original or the first sequel. The acting is good and the monsters/zombies look great. I had some issues with the story, but it does well at bringing everything full circle and gives a great place to end the series. There are some minor issues with the story that bother me including clones, changing who is the boss compared to who and how the anti-virus works. I would recommend this film if you are out to watch the whole series to completion or you could jump just into this one as it will get you up to speed what you need to know to enjoy this one. If you are only going to watch one, I would recommend the first or second one personally.
My Rating: 6 out of 10