Title: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Release Date: January 27, 2017
Studio: Screen Gems / Constantin Film / Davis Films
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Release Format: Theatrical
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter supposedly represents the final movie in this insufferable franchise. However, it sets itself up for another possible sequel so I’m not holding my breath. The film stars Milla Jovovich as the zombie hunting Alice, the resident Mary-Sue of the franchise (no pun intended). Ali Larter & Shawn Roberts play Claire Redfield and Albert Wesker, the only characters who actually exist in the games. Obviously, this means they’re relegated to the background and have nothing to do. Because as we all know, not a single character should upstage Alice, a character who has never appeared in the Resident Evil games. Paul W.S. Anderson can’t allow any other actor or actress to outshine his wife in any way. Just like he can’t allow a single Resident Evil movie to be good.
As you can probably tell, this series really angers me because I am a fan of the Resident Evil games. I absolutely adore this franchise, to the point where I’ve even played the bad games in the series. However, even the worst of the games are better than these movie adaptations. Resident Evil is my favorite gaming series of all time and these movies have made a complete mockery of them. I understand these were adaptations and in adaptations, changes have to be made. But the changes made in the films have been so unnecessary and baffling to me. The fact that in one weekend, this movie made more than Silence at the Box Office, scares me. If Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was allowed to beat out Scorsese, we’re failing guys.
Now, I’ll fight fair. If there’s one thing at least halfway decent in this film, it’s Ever Anderson as The Red Queen. She performs her part well and for a child actress, she was pretty good. It makes no sense being that she’s the third actress to play this role. I mean, my god, pick a little British girl and go with it. However, she still fit in the role just fine. Good job, Ever. I’m a fan of her mother, Milla Jovovich as well. I wish I could praise her performance for this film. But let’s be honest, all she has to do is narrow her eyes and look somewhat intimidating. That’s not a dig at the actress mind you, that’s just the extent to which her character, Alice, is written. There’s nothing to this character. This film actually attempts to give Alice a background and fails miserably.
Why does it fail miserably? Because the backstory given to her in this film makes absolutely no sense with the previous films. In fact, there’s a lot of that going on in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. I’m not joking when I say that I have never seen a movie with so many continuity issues in my life. For the record, I’ve seen Highlander II. Yes, I’m going there, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is worse than Highlander II. It’s worse than all the Highlander sequels. You see, the Highlander movies at least have the excuse that they were written by different people. You can understand why there are continuity errors. It’s still terrible but there’s an excuse for them. All the Resident Evil movies have been written by the same guy and they make even less sense with each passing film.
But the fact remains, this series makes money because it has its fanbase. Now, are you a fan of this movie series? Have you liked them up until now? If your answer was yes, normally, I would just shrug and say whatever. Have fun with your stupid movie franchise just keep it away from me. To each their own. I’m not going to do that this time. I’m not trying to prevent you from seeing this movie because I think it’s garbage. No, I’m trying to prevent you from seeing this movie because it treats all of you, the dedicated fans of this franchise, like idiots. Just to clarify, that isn’t how I see you. That is how this film sees you. That is how Paul W.S. Anderson’s writing sees you. It treats you like morons who will eat up anything with the Resident Evil title on it.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the worst film in this franchise by a landslide. Not a doubt in my mind.
That being said, here are some questions for Paul W.S. Anderson:
- Why was The Red Queen helping Alice in The Final Chapter when it was clearly trying to kill her in Retribution?
- How did The Red Queen go from wanting to stop the infection in the first film to wanting to spread the virus in Retribution to suddenly wanting to stop it again in The Final Chapter?
- Why is Wesker suddenly taking orders from Dr. Issacs? It was clearly the other way around in Resident Evil: Extinction so an explanation would be nice.
- Wesker’s job was to kill Alice in Washington? Then why did he bother saving her in Retribution and recruiting her for that “Last Stand” we never got to see? Why didn’t he just leave her in the facility to die? What was even the point of saving her if he had to kill her anyway?
- So Alice has to find the Anti-Virus and shatter it on the ground to stop the apocalypse? Why did no one ever think to do that before? The T-Virus was an airborne toxin in the first film. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that the Anti-Virus would be an airborne toxin as well?
- Dr. Marcus created the T-Virus? Didn’t you already establish in Resident Evil: Apocalypse that Dr. Ashford created the Virus?
- Dr. Marcus modeled The Red Queen after his daughter? Again, didn’t Resident Evil: Apocalypse make it abundantly clear that Dr. Ashford modeled The Red Queen after his daughter, Angela?
- What happened to Jill, Ada, Leon, Chris, K-Mart, Angela, and Becky??? Any explanation at all? Did they die? Are they living on the same happy farm that my parents sent my dog to when I was 9? Nothing??? No? Okay then.
My friends, these are just a handful of the continuity errors in this film. There’s a truckload more that I can’t reveal in this review due to The Nerd Stash’s policy on spoilers.
The characters… what characters? The only one who gets any sort of intrigue is Alice. But the entire backstory given to her, as we’ve established, makes no sense with what’s come before. Claire Redfield could have been swapped out with any another Resident Evil game character and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Her entire appearance here is pointless outside of fan service and, to be honest, it can’t even get that right. The rest of the characters are canon fodder. There’s no attention paid to them at all. You don’t care if one of them dies and, at times, it’s hard to even notice who dies because the editing in this movie is so sporadic and terrible.
There were several points in this film where I couldn’t tell who died. I had to wait until the next scene for Paul W.S. Anderson to spastically cut back and forth between each character, just so I could know who died. This is quite literally one of the worst edited movies ever made. The action scenes are so terribly choreographed and edited together that it’s almost impossible to tell who’s getting shot, who’s getting hit or even whose fighting. The film just drags and drags along until it can get to the next action set piece but none of the action set pieces are good. Is it awesome seeing Milla Jovovich do action? Of course it is, but I can just watch The Fifth Element to see that.
The acting? What acting? Milla Jovovich clearly gives it her all but her character is such a mishmash of nonsense by the time this film ends, it’s hard to appreciate the performance she’s giving. There’s this moment towards the end where you’re supposed to feel sympathy and compassion for Alice and I felt nothing. Not because of Milla Jovovich, but because the story did nothing to earn that sympathy or compassion. It treated its audience like idiots and by that point, it was way past gaining my respect. It was too little too late.
The look of this film is so murky, dreary and ugly. The shaky cam and poor lighting don’t help it either. There are so many scenes in this movie shot in the dark and every scene like that is loud and horrible. That’s another thing; this film has some of the most obnoxious sound design ever put in a movie. Once the “story” starts with Alice crawling out of the bunker, we are treated to what feels like a never-ending barrage of jump scares. Needless to say, within 15 minutes of this movie beginning, I hated life and had a migraine. Not a good combination.
Now, I don’t want to hate Paul W.S. Anderson. I don’t want to hate these movies. Do you honestly think that I want to hate adaptations of my favorite video game franchise? No, I don’t and I don’t want to hate Anderson. Paul W.S. Anderson made Mortal Kombat, which I liked. He made Event Horizon, which I also liked. I see him in interviews and panels and all I can think is, “This guy seems really passionate. He really seems to know what he’s talking about.” I just wish that once that passion showed in these movies. For six movies, that passion was never present and the fact that he threw all of this insulting dreck at the audience at the last minute, just angers me more. So, he makes movies with his wife. Is there a reason he can’t make a good movie with his wife?
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is officially the worst video game based film I’ve ever seen. I made a list for that and now I wish I’d waited. Every second of this movie was insufferable. The plot made no sense the entire way through. The characters were disposable. The special effects were garbage. The action set pieces were horribly setup and executed. The sound design was beyond obnoxious and the film looked hideous. This is an ugly looking movie. This is the worst film I have seen in a very long time. I would give Independence Day: Resurgence an Oscar before considering this a worthwhile film. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter… all I can say is “Good Riddance!”
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