Resident Evil : Chapitre final

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter reprises Milla Jovovich as Alice in the fifth sequel of the franchise that Paul Anderson derived back in 2002. Ali Larter rejoins Milla along with Iain Glen to bring a ridicules plot to an end, hopefully. I couldn't stand the single camera action sequences, I felt like the camera was doing all the fighting and not the characters. Unlike the original where slow motion camera angles made the franchise famous, this one was made on the cheap. The franchise did become the single most successful horror movie series in history but this flick was less horror and more how did this whole storyline get started. You may skip this one but if you want t know the ending maybe check it out.

As a big fan of the Resident Evil films, I was looking forward to seeing this even though the series has slowly been going down hill for the last few movies.

Some good action here and there but I felt like the film never really gets going. It all seemed a bit "forced", for want of a better word. A disappointing end to the saga for me personally.

I really hope they don't make any more of them in the future.

So it's back to start and where it began, I'm not sure there was ever a cunning grand plan, for conjuring clones at behest, at their fancy, resurrecting, rebooting, digitised necromancy.

Raccoon City is where it's all at, it's where it all was and where it was begot, so down to The Hive is where everyone heads, trailed by thousands of diseased undead.

Cue more prequels, sequels and unequals.

You are probably not going to see this film for riveting story-lines and in depth character studies. The RE series has about action and fun sequences. Leaving aside all the ridiculous plot points and lazy screen writing, the editing of this movie is going to become legendary for it's awfulness.

I've never seen a full budgeted movie get hacked up so poorly that the expensive action scenes are pretty much butchered to the max. This movie needs to be studied in film school for how NOT to edit a movie. Every single action is shot with countless shakes, moves, and camera switches. A simple action of, say, putting away your knife, takes 3- 4 camera edits. I was counting them by 15 minutes in per shot. It was insane. A fight sequence will be nothing but a countless series of quick edits form close up, medium and far away shots mashed together so it's impossible to follow what's going on. Shaky cam is one thing, but this is shaky cam plus strobe effect editing. Every single punch or shot requires 4-6 edits and quick cuts. It will give you a headache to figure out what's happening in any fight or sequence. Even mundane actions like people standing on top of a building looking down takes 5-6 edits and quick cuts?

Bring the puke bag.

I guess they tried to film some neat locations and the costumes are pretty and sets, but you wont even notice with the multiple edits jarring your eyes.

Alice (Milla Jovovich) emerges from the ruins of Washington DC and is contacted by the Red Queen (Ever Anderson), who tells her of an antidote to the T-Virus that is located under Raccoon City. Alice has only 48 hours to find and release the antidote before the rest of humanity is wiped out by the Umbrella Corporation, whose plan is to repopulate the earth with the rich and the powerful, who are stored in cryogenic suspension in The Hive.

I've always been a staunch supporter of the Resident Evil films, finding them to be fun slices of slick action-packed horror, but that support ends with The Final Chapter. Once again directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, this supposed last instalment is an absolute mess, any potential for enjoyment hindered by an extremely slight plot, even by RE standards, and some of the worst direction and editing I have ever experienced.

As far as content goes, the film is business as usual, with big monsters, hordes of zombies, evil corporate types running the show, and Milla being bad-ass, but with the camera shaking all over the place and the majority of shots lasting for a fraction of a second, the action is virtually impossible to follow, making the film more likely to result in a headache than a thrill rush. And as if the wobbly cam/ADHD approach wasn't bad enough, much of film takes place in poorly lit locations, making it even harder to keep track of what is happening.

Despite being called The Final Chapter, the end of the film inevitably leaves things open for further adventures for Alice. If Anderson does intend to make more Resident Evil films, let us hope that he doesn't continue in the same style.