[REVIEW] Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Brandon's Take

Fuck yes! After years of waiting (4 years to be exact) we finally have the 6th and possibly final Resident Evil movie! I have had high hopes since learning about this film as all of the previous movies have been entertaining, to say the least. Also, let’s keep in mind the RE series is one of the only (and longest running) series of movies with a badass FEMALE lead.

View fullsize

We missed this oh so much!

RE: The Final Chapter does an excellent job opening up with the classic refresher to bring you up to date, but this one is even longer and more thorough, which is very helpful to those new to the series, or maybe didn’t see the last one (go watch it dick). After learning of a possible cure for the T-Virus, Alice is back and ready to take out Umbrella once and for all. 

View fullsize

Hell yes.

This film did a great job of being intense AF with very little breaks to regain yourself (very similar to RE 1). It is action packed, has scary parts, intro’s new adversaries and zombie types, and brings back some old friends. 

Final verdict: Overall, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was a amazing for us RE fans and just a good movie to people unfamiliar with the series (I took my mom who normally doesn’t like scary movies and only saw RE 1, but she loved it). Thank you RE team for making my dreams come true and giving me some closure on an amazing series.

Rating: 5 out of 5 gasoline zombie bombs.

Shawn's Take

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the most Resident Evil movie that ever Resident Evil’d. It comes complete with a rewritten backstory and characters (as the series is known to do from time to time) in order to fit the narrative of the film, or just because “Fuck it.”

View fullsize

There's only budget for 2 of us to come back... sorry!

The movie opens with some flashbacks, explaining to the audience how this zombie apocalypse came about. It’s revealed that the T-virus (which turns dead humans into zombies) was created by Dr. James Marcus, the founder of the evil Umbrella Corp. Marcus developed the T-virus as a means to save his daughter, who was dying of premature aging. With the exception of a few minor details (the creator’s name was Charles Ashford, and he was only an Umbrella Researcher), the backstory remains the same as the one explained in Apocalypse… until the next scene.

View fullsize

Evil... yet, devilisouly handsome.

The flashbacks then reveal that Marcus’ business partner, Dr. Isaacs (the amazingly maniacal Iain Glen aka Jorah Mormont) betrays Marcus in order to use the T-virus for military purposes. He has Albert Wesker murder Marcus Godfather-style, with a plastic bag. All of this happens well before the original T-virus outbreak in the first Resident Evil.

This is a cool backstory except that this completely contradicts the story told in the second film. Marcus (aka Charles Ashford) is 100% alive in Apocalypse. In fact, he spends the entire movie trying to help Alice find his daughter and get the hell out of Raccoon City. He only dies at the end of Apocalypse when Umbrella lackey Major Cain (not Isaacs or Wesker) shoots him the head.

I want to point out that this did not deter me from enjoying the movie at all. The Resident Evil series is still fun even with no continuity or fucks given. Paul W. S. Anderson could be cast out to sea, and a cruise liner of fucks would come by to rescue him and his response would be “Meh. I’m good. Let’s bring back Mike Epps!”

View fullsize

Lovely!

Alice then wakes up three weeks after the end the events of the previous film, after what I imagine was an epic Umbrella Humans v. Umbrella Mutants battle at the White House. But you don’t get to see that. Everybody who survived the last film is dead (RIP Leon, Ada, little girl and Jill… again), so it’s up to Alice to escape Washington and find some more survivors to die under her “protection.”

The Red Queen (Umbrella’s morally ambiguous security system) informs Alice that there is an airborne anti-virus at the Hive in Raccoon City, which can completely destroy every organism infected with the T-virus. However, the Red Queen tells Alice she only has 48 hours until zombies will overrun wipe out what’s left of the human race.

On the way to Raccoon City, Alice is captured by Dr. Isaacs. Turns out she only killed his clone in the third film (what a Shyamalan twist!). Isaacs and his goons have taken refuge in ultra tanks, where they use live prisoners to lure hundreds of thousands of zombies to Raccoon City.

Badass Alice escapes Isaacs and makes it to Raccoon City. There, she meets a group of survivors, which includes Doc, Abigail, Razor, Christian and (surprise!) Claire Redfield, who survived the attack on Arcadia from the fourth film. Alice informs the survivors that Isaacs is bringing hordes of zombies to Raccoon City, she aids the survivors in a last stand. They defeat Isaacs’ forces and his zombie pets using a glorious fucking GASOLINE WATERFALL and make a beeline for the Hive (get it?), where Wesker is waiting for them.

Upon arriving at the Hive, the Red Queen explains to Alice why she betrayed her creators at Umbrella. It seems that the original Dr. Isaacs was a crazy, religious zealot, who believed the only way to preserve human extinction was to unleash the T-virus. All while allowing only a few rich assholes, who are cyro frozen until this shit storm passes, to inherit the Earth (sounds all too real these days, hmm?). And while the Red Queen cannot harm an Umbrella Employee, she was also programmed to preserve human life.

As you would expect, Wesker sends more mutants to whittle down the survivors leading to the ultimate standoff between Alice and Isaacs. There are a few twists and turns in between, but I don’t want to spoil the fun, I already did enough of that earlier in the review.

Final Verdict: Have you seen the Resident Evil films? Do you enjoy them? Then go see this one. It’s a crazy, bloody mess of fun… You know what? Even if you’ve never seen any of them, go see it. In fact, it might be even better if you know nothing of the backstory and just roll into the theater stoned as hell.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Forgotten Jill Valentines (RIP)

View fullsize

Gone but not forgotten