We have finally made it. I started this journey with 'Resident Evil' (2002) on April 8 and 2 months later I have made it to the end, It has been a ride with ups and downs and I have learned a lot about myself and the world through these films. I speak sarcastically of course. It has been an utter nightmare and I'm glad to put this series of films behind me forever. The film's story is exactly the same as it has been for the proceeding 5 films, but for anyone unaware the film follows Alice (Milla Jovovich) who is fighting to survive in a world destroyed by the Umbrella Corporations t-virus. This film sees Alice return to Raccoon City and the Hive after learning that there is an airborne anti-virus that will kill anything infected by the t-virus, allowing the final human survivors to start to build a new world. Teaming up with old and new friends, Alice's mission is to get the anti-virus, destroy Umbrella and put an end to the zombie infestation that has taken over the world.
I am going to struggle to write to much about this film without just repeating myself as it is pretty much exactly the same thing again. Out of all the films in the series, this is the most technically proficient. And a bloody good thing too seeing as it came out in 2016 if the special effects still looked as awful as they did in the original 2002 film it would be quite concerning. As it is the special effects look pretty decent. They are not stellar, at least not in the grand scheme of films, but for this series which has been plagued by terrible effects since its inception, I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, the action scenes are still edited as though they don't want anyone to see anything that is going on, and if that is their aim then they succeed. It takes on the mantra of 'if we just do a lot of close-ups and quick cuts we can trick the audience into thinking that something exciting is happening' without ever having anything exciting happen. The acting is also some of the worst from the whole series. Both Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter, who returns as Claire Redfield, both feel like they are just phoning it in. Neither has been great throughout the whole series, but in this film particular, they just don't seem to care one iota. The most fun performance in the film comes from Iain Glen as Dr. Isaacs. The character is a cliched big business villain who is evil for the sake of being evil. Although it isn't exactly a nuanced character it is a fun one and Glen seems to be having fun with it, even if he does have one of the worst final scenes of any 'major' villain I have ever seen.
To criticise the story of this film is quite an asinine task. The series as a whole has never cared too much about having a coherent narrative, instead just writing what they need for their action scenes to happen. That being said, the narrative of this final film is cack. Again, it is almost non-existent and the stuff that does exist is effectively just the same as all the other films that proceeded it. The film does try to pull some twists on you but they are executed terribly and become more funny than shocking. The film also introduces several new characters to absolutely no consequence at all. It is the final film of your large series of films, why are you trying to make people care about 4 or 5 new characters. Because of this, these characters are all completely one dimensional and uninteresting, and when they all inevitably were killed off I could have given less than a shit. What was most disappointing about this film is that it took away a lot of the stupid action that was the only reason I even slightly enjoyed previous films. There is only one scene in the film where I laughed at the pure silliness of it, which for a Resident Evil film is weak sauce. To be fair, that scene was great as it just turned the film into a spoof of itself. But on the whole, I found this film to be the most boring of the series, although it is effectively just constant action scenes. You can have all the action you want, but if Alice isn't doing ridiculous flips and killing zombies in fun and stupid ways I couldn't care less.
And there we have it. I have come to the end of my reviews on the 'Resident Evil' series and I couldn't be happier. I did not enjoy these films on the whole. They had there moments and when they became stupidly silly they were fun, but these moments were far too fleeting and there was no continuous of cohesive narrative to keep me interested. But I also didn't hate them. They weren't anger-inducing or anything like that, they were just bad, dumb films which I will forget about in a few months. I think know it is also a good time to say that if you enjoy this series and think these films are amazing that is great. Just because I don't like a series of films doesn't discredit anyone else enjoyment o it, and seeing as this is a series that got to 6 films it seems that there are a lot of people who do really enjoy them and that's cool. But they are not for me, and I can't for the life of me recommend them, except maybe the first one. I am just happy to put these films behind me and look forward to what else the world of films has to offer. What's that? There is a series of animated 'Resident Evil' films? Fucking shit...