Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) Movie Review

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is a 2016 action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. This is his final movie in the franchise and the sixth movie in the series as a whole, made precisely with the intention of it being the ending to the Alice Storyline. It stars Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, Rola, and William Levy. Made for only $40 million, this finale wasn't all that expensive but made more than its budget back around the world and grossed $314.1 million.

Alice lives in the hellish wasteland disposing of the dead when she is once again made aware of Albert Wesker's army going after her. The Red Queen comes back and explains to Alice that she is using her as a proxy to stop Umbrella's plans of world destruction. Now Alice has to end this apocalyptic nightmare in one last strike.

With an unrelenting pace and complete disregard for harmony or stability this last roller coaster reaches a very solid momentum when it comes to being a dynamic experience filled with kinetic energy and frenetic camera work. It's almost a formal fever dream as it uses rapid fire editing to completely disorient and numb your senses during most of the action or even very normal sequences and scenes. We have come a long way from the precise and almost clinical detail and construction of the very first movie, still somewhat faithful to the videogame logic and aiming for clarity, but here we have very fragmented space and zero regard for spatial clarity. The problem is that every new shot is redundant in what it adds or is completely aimless, feeling more like a delirious music video than anything else.

The characters are about as one-dimensional and straightforward as ever, having Milla Jovovich drive this series was a good call because I can't truly remember any other character, supporting or otherwise, as they are all empty action figures the director uses as playthings to his objectives. I am fine with that, but they do drag down the emotional investment one could have in the film. There's also a lot of wasted potential as this dirty and grim visual look to the movie to convey its post-apocalyptic world isn't very appealing when compared to the slick and stylish environments from other movies. Although, I do think the contrast between them is neat and adds something to the films overall.

Unfortunately, the production of the movie was plagued with two very horrifying accidents. Stunt-woman Olivia Jackson suffered severed injuries in an accident involving a camera crane, she sued and won but only after going through a great amount of serious medical issues. Not only that, but crew member Ricardo Cornelius was killed during another accident involving a military Hummer. It is a real shame those incidents occurred, especially when they could have easily been avoided.

Overall, this is a very entertaining movie when it comes to its special effects and fast pace, bringing all of the stimulating tricks and setting them up to their maximum effect, but it can sometimes be an overload of stuff going on and the actual storyline is weak and feeble. Not a horrible ending as it's tonally very much in line with the other movies but it's not the grandiose finale I would have hoped for.