REVIEW -- Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is a 2016 science fiction action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It is the sequel to Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) and the sixth and final installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is loosely based on the Capcom survival horror video game series Resident Evil. The film stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken, William Levy and Iain Glen. In the film, Alice and her friends are betrayed by Albert Wesker, who gathers the entire forces of Umbrella into one final strike against the apocalypse survivors.

It was released on December 23, 2016 in Japan and on January 27, 2017 in the United States in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. The film received mixed reviews, although it was considered an improvement over previous installments, and has grossed $78 million worldwide.

Cast:

Milla Jovovich as Alice / Alicia Marcus
Ali Larter as Claire Redfield
Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker
Ruby Rose as Abigail
Eoin Macken as Doc
William Levy as Christian
Iain Glen as Dr. Alexander Isaacs
Lee Joon-gi as Commander Chu
Rola as Cobalt
Ever Gabo Anderson as Young Alicia / Red Queen
Fraser James as Razor
Jared Harris as Dr. Charles Ashford

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

Flashbacks reveal that Dr. James Marcus, the original founder of the Umbrella Corporation, had a daughter who was dying of premature aging. Desperate to save her, Marcus developed the T-virus as a way to cure all diseases on Earth. After having had his creation taken away from him, Marcus' business partner Dr. Alexander Isaacs (Iain Glen) tried to convince Marcus to use the T-virus for military purposes. When he refused, Isaacs ordered Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) to kill Marcus.

Picking up three weeks after the events in Resident Evil: Retribution, Alice (Milla Jovovich) awakens in the now-ruined White House, after being betrayed once again by Wesker. While searching for survivors, the Red Queen (Ever Gabo Anderson) appears and tells Alice that she must return to the Hive in Raccoon City within 48 hours, where the Umbrella Corporation has developed an airborne antivirus, which will kill every organism infected by the T-virus, before the remainder of humankind is wiped out. When asked why she's betraying her creators, the Red Queen simply says that she will tell Alice once she arrives at The Hive.

On her way to Raccoon City, Alice is captured by Isaacs, whose clone Alice previously killed, but she manages to escape his convoy. Alice later arrives in the now-destroyed Raccoon City and is captured by a group of survivors, consisting of Doc (Eoin Macken), Abigail (Ruby Rose), Christian (William Levy), Cobalt (Rola), Razor (Fraser James), and Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who is revealed to be alive after the attack on Arcadia. After learning that a group of armored vehicles and a horde of zombies is coming their way, the group prepares to make their last stand. They manage to defeat the enemy forces, although Cobalt is killed in the process. The group later realizes that a second horde is coming in their direction.

With no defenses left, Alice and the crew decide to get to the Hive entrance, located at the bottom of the atomic bomb crater which destroyed the city. However, Wesker, having taken control of the Hive, releases mutated guard dogs, killing Christian. Upon arriving at the Hive, the Red Queen appears again and explains the reason of her betrayal. It is revealed that someone uploaded a video recording of the Umbrella executives, including Isaacs, formulating a plan to release the T-virus on purpose in order to cleanse the world, save the rich and powerful with cryogenic capsules hidden in the Hive, and later rebuild the world in their image. The Red Queen, although programmed to never hurt an Umbrella employee, was also programmed to value human life, which is why she enlists Alice's help in order to stop Isaacs. The Red Queen also warns Alice about one of the group being a spy for Umbrella.

Entering the Hive, the group encounter several obstacles, and Abigail and Razor are killed. After planting bombs around the Hive, Alice confronts the real Isaacs, while she and Claire are captured by Wesker and Doc, Umbrella's spy. A cyrogenic capsule opens, revealing Alicia Marcus, Umbrella's co-leader and Marcus's daughter; Alice is a clone of Alicia. Isaacs plans to eliminate Alicia and gain full control of Umbrella, but Alicia "fires" Wesker, which signals the Red Queen to crush his legs with a security door. Doc tries to shoot Alice, but his gun is empty - as Alice had deduced his treachery earlier - and he is shot dead by Claire.

Encouraged by Alicia's words, Alice and Claire fight Isaacs, who is eventually killed by his own clone - the one Alice had encountered en route to the city - and Alice manages to release the antivirus, killing the undead. The bombs planted within the Hive explode, killing everyone inside, including Alicia and Wesker. Claire later wakes Alice, who survived as the antivirus killed the T-virus within Alice's body. The Red Queen gives Alice an upload of all Alicia's memories of childhood. Some time later, Alice travels to Manhattan, stating that the antivirus could take several years to reach all corners of the globe and until then, her mission isn't over, as a large creature pursues her.

The Verdict:

Alice in... Wonderland?

What can I say about this other than this film is a mess... or rather a complete clusterfuck. Granted, there's some great action sequences to hold your interest from start to finish, but overall, this has to be the weakest outing in this entire franchise to date. That's saying a lot as I NEVER liked that original Resident Evil film and I'm still baffled to this day how did that original film spawn full backing for multiple sequels to this point.

Anyone expecting the cast members from the previous films will be sorely disappointed as the only returning characters are Dr. Isaacs, Wesker, Alice, the Red Queen AI, and Claire Redfield. Good luck trying to figure out how all of that worked out behind the scenes. I was left scratching my head about Claire's inclusion but Leon, Chris, Ada, and the other misc. characters that joined up with Alice over the course of the last two films were nowhere to be found, while Wesker is reduced to being a mere errand boy for the duration of this entire film. It makes you wonder if Paul W.S. Anderson has even played a single one of these games... I seriously doubt it at this point as the closest he was to following RE lore as in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and that was off by a few points too. After that film, he's just been pulling the "cool bits" from random RE titles and adding it into the films, such as the entire fight choreography from RE5 between Chris and Sheva against Wesker for that confrontation between the Redfield siblings and Wesker in Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Actors from previous films: Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine), Li Bingbing (Ada Wong), Aryana Engineer (Becky), Spencer Locke (K-Mart), Michelle Rodriguez (Rain Ocampo), Wentworth Miller (Chris Redfield) and Johann Urb (Leon S. Kennedy) weren't invited to return for the last movie. On August 3, 2015, it was confirmed that Ali Larter would be back for the sequel in the role of Claire Redfield, and filming would begin in late August or early September.

The information above was found on the wikipedia page for this film and that's pretty fucked up that they didn't even bother to even recast those folks for continuity. The story just said, they aren't here - deal with it. Regardless, the best part of the film for me was seeing Ruby Rose die so I got my money's worth there. She is hands down one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood right now after that fucking Orange Is The New Black show on Netflix. Yeah, she's hot, but she's as talented as Megan Fox and the rest of those bimbos who have starred in Michael Bay's Transformers live-action films.

One thing I really have to point out about this film is the lack of sense of time here. Alice is prompted with 24 hours to save the world from the outbreak of the T-Virus forever, but that time seems to expire within like a faction of that. That entire last 5-7 minutes lasts longer than the entire supposed day she had prior leading up to that point. On top of that, how am I supposed to care about this ragtag crew of newcomer survivors when the film paints the picture that the bulk of those guys and girls are nameless losers anyway? Even Ray Charles could see the betrayal by Claire's supposed "fiancee" coming a mile away. He was the only one who manages to get out of the Hive's traps without a scratch? Bull-fucking-shit if you thought he was just that damn good.

Didn't we see this same sequence like 2-3 movies ago? Y'know, the EXACT same sequence
that Anderson ripped from the Resident Evil 4 video game?

While the bulk of this film is pretty much been-there, done-that, I did appreciate the somewhat closure to Alice's story. She was a character that was created specifically for these movies - and to give Milla Jonovich a steady income... I don't care what anyone else says but that's all what these films exist for. The whole thing comes full circle between Alice, the Red Queen AI, and the woman who she was cloned from Alicia Marcus with a touching moment where Alice is gifted with all of the memories that thought that she lost as well as having the future that Alicia would never have.

Watch it or Don't Bother?

There's no denying that Alice has her few standout bad ass moments though...

While the plot twist about Alice's origins was a nice twist, it was rather predictable in my humble opinion and really didn't add anything dynamic to this so-called finale of this journey for Alice. You could literally watch the original from 2002 and this film and completely omit everything in-between as the screenwriters literally did. That being said, you can totally skip this one for the most part. There's a few thrills to keep things interesting and VERY little fan service (the Hydra Shotgun was a nice touch though...) , but ultimately, this film feels lackluster compared to everything else to this point, especially in the last 20-30 minutes with not even the action sequences holding your interest for long. That being said, I can't recommend going out of your way to watch this one. Wait until it's dirt cheap in the Redbox machine or even better - just wait until it's on TV or Netflix in another few months.