Movie Review: ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ (2016)

Director: Paul WS Anderson

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Ruby Rose, William Levy

Plot: After the epic battle of the White House, Alice is on the clock to infiltrate the Hive, battle Wesker and Dr. Isaacs, and find the cure to the zombie virus.

Review: That was an epic endpoint to finish the penultimate movie in the series. The few survivors of the human race have collected at the White House and are preparing to make their last stand against the ultimate zombie horde. A battle for the ages was promised. All that was left was to press play.

Sadly, Anderson isn’t going to deliver on that promise. We open on Alice (Jovovich) lying amid the rubble of the White House, with the battle long over. Enemies and allies alike are gone, and we’re told that Wesker (Roberts) betrayed her. So… never mind?

After that soft reset, the new plot involves the original movie antagonist, spooky British hologram Red Queen, popping up and telling Alice that she has 48 hours to infiltrate the Hive, the setting of the original movie, and release an antivirus. You may have some questions, such as what happened to that deaf child Alice spent so much time saving in the previous movie. Forget about that. There was a bunch of villains who all left without killing Alice. Don’t worry. The millions of zombies that were just here? Nah.

Along the path to the Hive and the antivirus that would kill all of the zombies without any fuss, Alice has to face off against previous foe Isaacs (Glen). This is a very welcome return to the franchise, as his mad scientist routine was one of the absolute high points of the adventure. There is the usual nonsense Resident Evil likes to do, that being clones. There’s evil scientist Isaacs, but also a tank-riding warlord type roaming the wasteland. We get some Mad Max-style shenanigans when Isaacs’ apocalypse convoy clashes with a returning Claire Redfield (Larter) and her convoy. This mostly acts as filler before we get to the crater sitting above the Hive entrance, where Alice, Claire and a band of Red Shirts face traps, monsters and the final bosses.

We almost expected to see more of the previous cast members return along with Claire Redfield, leaving all the new teammates feeling like placeholders for more recognisable figures. There’s no discussion of Chris, Ada, Rain or the other allies who vanished between the movies. Unfortunately, this only goes as far as Claire and Isaacs, robbing this entry of the feeling of a true finale. Instead, it leans more into familiar set pieces. The classic digital diagrams that have delighted us throughout the series are always a joy, and we do get a full superpowered fight scene in the classic laser corridor. How it ends is with the reveal of an old lady, Alice, who Alice was cloned from, and the Red Queen being a brain scan of the old Alice when she was a child. Also, Iain Glen has special contact lenses or something that predicts fights so he can’t lose until Alice…tries harder, I guess.

We never mentioned this before, but the movies always open with a cyberpunk-style sequence with Alice explaining the plot directly to camera. In this one, they introduce the backstories of two girls we don’t yet know, but not the one who has disappeared from the story between scenes. This was all hard to follow (partly due to boredom), but it seems at least one of these kids was the one who turned out to be Alice. Once all that is resolved, they release an antivirus to kill the zombies, with Alice sacrificing herself for the greater good. Except don’t worry, she’s fine. It was a test to prove she was indeed the most badass of them all.

Yeah, this series has been going downhill since the third entry. The complete lack of stakes in the ‘final chapter’, so many established characters missing, the loose plot threads left blowing in the breeze… this is a series that slowly, slowly fades away at the end.

Rating: THREE out of TEN