Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) (DVD film review).
As the 2016 film title says, ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ is the sixth and final film in the franchise. Interestingly, the recap at the beginning will bring you up to speed and you can follow what is going on without the previous five films, although in this instance, I have seen them. I also worked out some of the connections here than I had previously and then found I hadn’t got it quite right at the end.
The Red Queen AI (actress Ever Anderson) at the Umbrella Hive is disturbed at what it has discovered but because she is programmed not to attack Umbrella staff, she needs Alice (actor Milla Jovovitch) to come to her at Raccoon City. There is a cure for the T-virus and she needs Alice to release it for her. That’s not so easy as she has to overcome the machinations of Dr. Alexander Issacs (actor Iain Glen) who is bringing a horde of creatures with him. With Alice there, they haven’t got a chance. More so, as she gets to the outskirts of Racoon City and meets the resistance and quickly gets them ready to take on Issacs horde before they move onto the Hive. Any more than that is spoiler.
Although the dialogue is sparse and many of the cast are no more than cannon-fodder, the action level will keep your attention and you end up wondering how Alice and Issacs and keep going like they do. The stakes are that high.
There are plenty of extras. In 4 minutes, ‘Explore The Hive’ looks at this story and has director Paul Anderson explaining how they rebuilt the Hive from the first film from the original plans but made it more disused. The 6 minute ‘The Bad Ass Trinity & The Women Of Resident Evil’, as the name suggests, looks specifically at the lady cast.
The second disc has four features. ‘Directing The Final Chapter’ has nearly 5 minutes with director Paul Anderson about his work with comments from the cast. ‘Rola As Cobalt’ is 3½ minutes about the character. ‘From Saints To Sinners’ nearly 8½ minutes examining the characters again. Finally, 9 minutes of ‘From Script To Screen: The Making Of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’ explains there’s more than green screen for the actors this time and 5000 edit decisions.
The advance bumf tends to suggest you get a few more features with the blu-ray version. As Alice is frequent to quote, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’ With this as the final film in the franchise, it appears so.
GF Willmetts
May 2017
(region b/blu-ray: pub: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 1 blu-ray disk 106 minute film with extras. Price: £14.99 (UK). ASIN:7
cast: Milla Jovovitch, Iain Glen, William Levy, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, Rola and Ever Anderson
check out website: www.sonypictures.co.uk
