Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
Written by: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter
Another early screening, another early review.
The Resident Evil series was never good, only occasionally approaching mediocre, and I love the films dearly for it. Each film up to this point had been somewhat pointless and mostly forgettable, but they've got a special place in my heart, partly because I first watched them with my dad when I was a kid, and partly for their 'so bad it's good' style. As such, it's unfortunate that this film abandons what kept the films in mediocre schlock territory for something slightly different, something that I imagine the filmmakers had hoped would make this film a little more, and end up failing miserably.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
The plot of the Resident Evil films has never been consistent. Motivations of characters change from film to film, ideas that are raised in some films are dropped in the next ones, characters are written in and out of the story based on the availability of the actors, and the effects of the all-important T-Virus, as well as the presence of a cure, changes depending on which film you're watching. The whole series is essentially jury-rigged, each story a Frankenstein's Monster of plot points, with the only aspect in any way somewhat coherently tying the series together being the zombies. The only reason to really watch these movies is to see a zombie shooting gallery, with a few new monsters now and then just to spice things up. This is why it's baffling that The Final Chapter goes so plot heavy.
The film opens the same way all of them do, with a long, bored narration from Alice (Jovovich), who explains the same information we already know ("everybody died... problem was, they didn't stay dead"). Also, while I'm on the topic, I don't understand why a film series needs to re-tell an audience who's likely already seen the previous films; I've heard "My name is Alice" so many times that just hearing the phrase makes my head hurt. Alice also establishes some heretofore unknown information about the founder of the Umbrella Corporation and his original reason for creating the T-Virus. The issue here is, the creator of the T-Virus is a completely different character from the one who was already established in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The series is prone to these kinds of retcons, but The Final Chapter makes so many that simply make no sense and even go against so many things established by the previous films that I was left wondering why Paul W.S. Anderson even bothered to go down this road. The thing that bothers me most about the plot, however, is what happens next.
The fifth, and, before this point, worst Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Retribution, ended on an exciting note, setting up a massive fight for survival, with a line of heroes as a last defense against the zombie horde, hinting at new monsters and a potentially cool shootout with a now powered up Alice. The Final Chapter not only skips over the fight completely, but also retcons Alice getting her powers back, instead reporting it as a betrayal by Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). The film trades a stupid but fun and chaotic battle for a slow open with a character change that makes no sense given the plot of the previous film. I know that this is Resident Evil, so there are those who will dispute the idea that I should care about the plot (Paul W.S. Anderson clearly doesn't), but I'm honestly just more annoyed that there's no apocalyptic zombie battle with psychic super powers. That's really all these films had going for them, and The Final Chapter drops it after five minutes to have this weak character study of Alice's identity, something I doubt anyone watching these films would care about. The film also adds a goal for Alice, to obtain a cure for the T-Virus created by the Umbrella Corp. (something that has been around since the second film, Apocalypse, but no-one seems to talk about).
The out-of-place plot re-introduces Dr. Isaacs, the main villain from the third Resident Evil film, Extinction, who was killed by a laser grid but revived here after it's revealed the earlier one was just a clone (this isn't actually the most ridiculous part of the plot, they've had cloning since Extinction). Instead of being a scientist working on finding a cure for the T-Virus, Dr. Isaacs is actually the CEO of Umbrella Corp., and has had the cure for a while. This is where the film takes a left turn and adds a strange Biblical spin to the movie, making Dr. Isaacs a religious fanatic who purposefully released the T-Virus to wipe out humanity as a second Noah's Flood. There's also a group of humanity's last survivors, including series regular Claire Redfield (Larter); these characters are here to be used as fodder during action scenes, as is tradition with zombie movies.
The action arises eventually, but when it does, it's a mess. In the five years since the previous film, Anderson has gotten considerably worse at shooting action scenes. He was never good, a bit like a poor man's version of a poor man's Zack Snyder, but I could comprehend about 50% of his action scenes, which is more than I can say for most action directors nowadays. His overstylised and overused slow motion is gone in this film, replaced by cut-to-pieces action sequences that are truly awful to watch. I know action movies have been declining lately because of their overuse of cuts, but this film took it to a new level, using as many as twenty-three cuts in the space of ten seconds in order to show Alice getting here fingers cut off, or seven shots to show a car fly through the air for five seconds.
Sometimes filmmakers take their series in different directions, try to make them more than what they have been in the past, offer new and exciting ideas to the story or even shoot in a more dynamic way to at least give the appearance of a fresh take, and sometimes filmmakers are even successful at it. This is not one of those times. I have enjoyed each one of the Resident Evil films, including their terrible effects, overdone action, and cheesy dialogue. The Final Chapter seemed to try to do more than its predecessors, and ended up doing less. I've been soft on every film in the series up until this point, but this last film has stripped the veneer, destroyed my rose-tinted glasses.
The Verdict: They saved the worst for last. If you've seen the previous five, you'll probably see this one, and if you haven't then you shouldn't start a film series with Part 6. Everything that I enjoyed about the schlocky Resident Evil series were missing from this film. I hate to say it, but I really hope that this is, in fact, the final chapter.
Rating: It hurts a little to do this, but 3/10
Published January 25th, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment