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Let's face it, the Resident Evil film series has been on a rocky road since about the third installment, and there is no comparing it to the magnificent CG films that have been produced. If anything, the movie series suffered the same fate that the video game series has. Up to now, previous Resident Evil games have been nothing less off a disappointment, bar Resident Evil 7 which is great. Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil 6, and some might say that even Resident Evil: Revelations 2, was just not up to standard.
The latest movie in the series, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, marks the end of the series, well the story of Alice as we know it. The movie makes for a great action film, but its cliché dialogue and cheesy set pieces left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I am glad it was the last one, truly.
Characters just failed to leave an impression on me, besides Ruby Rose, who I love from Orange is the New Black, and Milla Jovovich, as they all were as mundane as stereotypical action movie characters can get. William Levy who plays Christian, is your run-of-the-mill muscle head who does not trust anyone, and then suddenly changes his view on Alice after making sure the audience hears about his trust issues a few dozen times. Claire Redfield played by Ali Larter, holds up a good role until the end, where she slowly becomes that useless partner to Alice. For every great character on screen, there was another handful ruining the dialogue for them at the same time.
Hats off to the editing team for putting together a few great pieces, but after you have seen a clip reverse in motion with a screeching sound effect, or go silent before having the seventh jump scare shoved down your throat, it become tedious. The action scenes started off fantastic, but near the end you just want the camera to stay still for a mere twenty seconds so you could actually see what is going on. Too much flash can be a bad thing in this case. It was like I had a strong antibiotic with wine, the world never stopped moving, and the film, not once, gave me an opportunity to care for any of the characters, even with its few emotional scenes here and there. Hell, even the opening credits have a loud heavy metal tune going. I felt like I was thrown into a mosh pit.
With all the negativity aside, I had to appreciate the few Resident Evil elements that came through at times. Creatures like the Popokarimu, Cerberus dogs, and the odd bioweapon here and there, gave the film reason to be called Resident Evil. Heavy emphasis on the T-Virus also pays homage to the series, with Albert Wesker being as annoying as he is in the game, all while protecting the cure to save everyone.
It was mainly the poor execution and plot holes that left me with no hope for the film series. With a slap-together ending that leaves more questions than answers, it was just no good at all. I got the feeling that the film series was so broken from the past entries, that there was no way they could ever come back from it, so they just made do with what they had. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is not a bad film, it is just a bad Resident Evil movie.
However, my colleague Han Cilliers thinks otherwise. When I asked her what she thought about the movie, she told me: “Every Resident Evil movie that has come after the first one was never as good, that being said, I've seen all the movies and still enjoyed every one. The final chapter that we saw last night delivered the signature bad-ass action, cheesy scares and Milla's awesomeness.”
Han's friend attend the event with her, and we got him to try the PSVR with Resident Evil 7, he isn't a gamer and has never held a console controller. He was amazed by the experience and said that if this is what gaming is then he would turn gamer overnight. All we can say is – try the PSVR, you won't understand why people are so taken with it until you try.
Which is your favorite Resident Evil movie and why? Let us know in the comment section below.
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