Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Year: 2017
Genre: Action
Directed: Paul W.S. Anderson
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, William Levy, Rola, Ever Anderson, Mark Simpson, Milton Schorr, Joon-Gi Lee
Production: Screen Gems

Resident Evil (2002-2017) as a film series feels often times like a morose, little rubiks cube. Every time one installment succeeds in building a singularly satisfying story thread, it sputters out and crashes against the realities of its budget. If there happens to be enough gore to appease genre fans, there isn't enough frights, if there's passable character development, there's sloppy editing - and so on, and so on. What results are often singular movies that fail to be in any sense passable but still manage in some form or another to be entertaining.

Pictured: The newest crop of dead meat.

The Final Chapter is certainly no exception to Resident Evil's dubious track record. In a pass/fail sense, the film fails to offer fresh thrills or frights, competent directing, real looking monsters or characters worth rooting for. Instead it offers up the same grimy fretwork fans expect, except shot like the cameraman was in the throws of an epileptic seizure. Haphazardly stapling it all together, is the singular Milla Jovovich whose performance is the only consistently passable linchpin holding this entire series together. Unfortunately after fifteen years in the role of Alice, Jovovich's character has been diluted to that of a Xena-like mannequin with a steely glare and a unique ability to grunt "why should I trust you?"

Thing is, if taken in piecemeal, there are small segments of Final Chapter that aren't rotten to the zombiefied core. Immediately standing out is a show-stopping action set-piece involving a motorcycle, a tank and an army of the undead. The entire sequence, which had Jovovich and reoccurring baddy Dr. Isaacs (Glen) trading fists, conjured up faint memories of the bizarro 80's disaster Warrior of the Lost World (1983). Considering this entire series is a quilt of faded versions of better movies, it's surprising to see ideas lifted from bad movies suddenly made better.

Warrior of the Lost World (1983)

That along with a progression of plot reveals in the last half-hour, make The Final Chapter among the best Resident Evil has to offer. Fans of the long decaying sextet will no doubt rejoice that the movie (despite its loose connection to the game series), finally delivers on all its long-gestating mythology. I'm just glad it's over period.

Final Grade: F