Resident Evil: The Final Chapter 4K Ultra HD Review

THE MOVIE — 2½/5

The sixth and “final” (yeah right, China will say otherwise) entry into the vaunted Resident Evil franchise has the advantage of being better than Sony’s other horror franchise, Underworld. That’s not saying much…

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter finds Alice (MILLA JOVOVICH) roaming the badlands that is the United States. Thanks to the T-Virus, the worldwide population has dwindled to mere thousands. After battling more beasts and the undead, Alice receives a message from the Red Queen (EVER ANDERSON), that there is a cure for the T-Virus and she wants Alice to infiltrate the Hive in Raccoon City, retrieve said cure and distribute into the air. Obviously given the history between Alice and the Red Queen, there’s a lack of trust but she eventually agrees to make the long trek to Raccoon City.

Along the way, she encounters Umbrella Corporation goons and eventually captured by Dr. Isaacs (IAIN GLENN) whom she thought she had killed but realizes it was his clone (of course it was). Alice refuses to divulge the info given to her by the Red Queen and for her efforts, gets tossed outside, and tethered to the back with an onslaught of zombies chasing after the tank. She manages to escape and makes haste toward Raccoon City.

Upon arrival, she’s, once again, knocked down and out and comes to at gunpoint from a survival group, one of its members being Claire Redfield (ALI LARTER). With a new crop of red meat for the baddies, they gather their resources for the coming onslaught of deadites as well as zombie pooches as they attempt to make way into the Hive, which is being manned by Mr. Anderson clone, Albert Wesker (SHAWN ROBERTS).

Another thing Resident Evil: The Final Chapter had over Underworld: Blood Wars, I will say at least I could actually see what the hell was going on, though that’s offset with Paul W.S. Anderson’s frenetic and quick-cut direction. And that’s the biggest fault with this entry. Sure, the plot is rather thin and characters even thinner (really couldn’t give to shits about any of the good guys as they were there to provide some bloodshed) and the villains were rather lousy, even the usually reliable Iain Glenn while Shawn Roberts’ does a fine job doing a poor imitation of The Matrix’s Anderson…

For her part, and unlike her Underworld counterpart, Milla Jovovich seemed to be trying, maybe because she has respect for the source material — albeit, from I read, Anderson as a writer did not — and while I don’t think Jovovich is by no stretch a very good actress, she purports herself well enough with some half-decent stunts (when the camera was stable anyway).

Anderson marks his fourth time in the director’s chair (handing Apocalypse and Extinction off to others) and one only needs to have a brief glance at his filmography to realize he’s not exactly a quality director (or writer for that matter) with perhaps only two films being of any value (Event Horizon, Soldier and maybe Death Race). With The Final Chapter, this might be his worst effort confusing chopping editing with suspense-filled thrills. All that said, I can’t get all that worked up. Sure it’s bad but as someone who found the previous entries to be (at best) okay, this one was more forgettable-bad.

Personally, I hope they just let the franchise die but Resident Evil: The Final Chapter will no doubt get at least one more considering its massive $285 million overseas haul ($160M from China alone). Money and China talks.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4¼/5

Released as part of the Resident Evil: Limited Edition Collection, the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs are housed in a digipak packaging with cardboard on the front and back and plastic hubs inside.

DISC ONE (4K ULTRA HD):
Maximum Carnage: Best Kills (4:32) – Looks at the various deaths, stunts, violence across the franchise, with most focus on this film, and includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.

Creature Chronology (6:02) is on the various creatures/monsters in the franchise and their video game origins.

Trailers (9:07):

• Theatrical Trailer 1 (2:25)
• Theatrical Trailer 2 (2:32)
• International Teaser (1:44)
• International Trailer (2:25)

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):
Retaliation Mode (2:16:42) plays with the movie with stoppage by Anderson and Milla Jovovich as they discuss various scenes and also includes some behind-the-scenes video.

Stunts & Weaponry (9:03) looks at the variety of weapons and stunt work done on the film with behind-the-scenes footage and on-set interviews.

Explore the Hive (4:18) looks at the set design, revisiting some parts from the first film.

The Bad Ass Trinity & the Women of Resident Evil (6:32) examines the legacy of the ladies featured throughout the franchise with specific focus on The Final Chapter (Ali Larter, Ruby Rose).

With these featurettes, it’s just under 20-minutes worth of material, most of it ho-hum, unfortunately. Although I doubt this is really the last one, it still would’ve been nice to include a more comprehensive documentary on the franchise.

VIDEO – 4¾/5

AUDIO – 4¾/5

The disc comes equipped with a Dolby Atmos track and as with the majority of these Resident Evil flicks, it sounds great with the numerous action sequences, including the opening title, where every channel is fully utilized. What few quieter, more dialogue driven, scenes there were, also was respectable, dialogue make the way through the center channel was clean and some ambient noises coming from the front and rear speakers with good clarity.

OVERALL – 4/5

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in all likelihood will not the “final” movie of this flailing franchise and this entry just wasn’t good but not quite awful either, rather forgettable more than anything.