fredag 7 april 2017

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Time flies by, faster than you expect. I was reminded by this, when i recently watched a tv show about classic video games, and the first Resident Evil game was mentioned. When i got my first Playstation kit, i had to make sure that i would buy Resident Evil, back in the late 90´s. This was at the time one of the best games i have ever played. It was dark, creepy, mysterious, and very well made with really good graphics. Capcom have proved themselves by making the greatest horror video game, and people went nuts about this title. It was very clear that the Resident Evil franchise would grow, and find even more video games nerds. The games continued to be released, and Resident Evil became a household name for years to come. Over the years, there are plenty of titles to choose between. One of my personal favourite games of Resident Evil is without a doubt Resident Evil 4. It looked different, but still managed to capture the world of Resident Evil, but in a different approach. After number of games in early 2000, director Paul W.S. Anderson was chosen to make a film based on the video games of Resident Evil. This was both taken with positive feedback, while some fans critisized the choice of the director. I personally think that the first film, released in the year 2002, had some positive surprises for fans to enjoy. But the most important issue on this film, is the main character Alice, who is played by Milla Jovovich. We have seen Milla done action films before, both in The Fifth Element and the Joan Arc film. She turned out to be a great choice as Alice, and she stayed as the character in plenty of more films based on the video games. It was clear that Milla Jovovich became a female action icon, through her character Alice. As the films went on, and tried to bring in different stories, and characters from the games, the audience seemed to enjoy themselves. But not the film critics, in fact almost every film was getting low ratings. Except for a few positive reviews, probably from film critics who did not take the films too serious. I have enjoyed all the films so far, for different reasons. But i still think the third film, called Resident Evil: Extinction is the best of the series. This film was also directed by another director, Russel Mulcahy ( the legendary director of cult film Highlander ). The desert theme, with the endless desert landscapes, turned out to be a really good idea. In early 2016, i remember reading about Milla Jovovich, where she told that the next Resident Evil film will be the last one. I did of course not believe that at first, but further along the way, it became clear she was telling the truth. So now we have the final film here, and this film franchise have been going on for 15 years ( a very long time ). Is this the worthy ending of Resident Evil we all wanted, or have director Paul W.S. Anderson failed to give us a solid final film ?

Alice ( Milla Jovovich ) awakens in the ruins of the White House. after being betrayed once again by Albert Wesker ( Shawn Roberts ). While searching for survivors, The Red Queen appear and tell Alice, that she must return to Racoon City within 48 hours. The Umbrella Corporation have created an airborne antivirus, wich will kill every organism infected by the T-virus. But she has to hurry, before all of mankind is wiped out. On her way to Racoon City, Alice is captured by Alexander Isaacs ( Iain Glen ), whose clone Alice have killed in the past. She manage to escape, and find her way to a completely destroyed Racoon City. Here, she meet a gang of survivors after the attack on Arcadia. Alexander is heading towards Racoon City, with an enormous army of flesh eating zombies. On Alice journey to find the antivirus, she is about to learn that she have not been informed with the whole truth. That there is another side of this story, that could make things even more complicated.

I think it was a good choice for Milla Jovovich to close the chapter of Resident Evil now. She have been in this film adaptation franchise since the very first film, and eventually you have to finish the series. This final film, simply called The Final Chapter, is pretty much what you would expect. You have bad dialogue, bad acting and a lot of violence ( this is a good thing ). As usual you have massive hoards of zombies, a lot of killing and fighting. And even if these films have not followed the games in any specific order ( only a few details ), the strength of Resident Evil film adaptations is Milla Jovovich. It is her you want to see kick zombie ass, and use all kinds of weapons. Without her performance as Alice, i am not sure if we would feel the same entertainment level as we do now. She is as usual the biggest reason why this last film works. Not because of her acting, it is her physical performance that lift this film. The action scenes function, if you enjoyed the previous films. You get plenty of the basic elements, including some different characters. So what is the major problem with this last film ? The editing is way too fast in the battle scenes. In previous film we have at least seen Alice attack at close range, here it is edited in such a fast way, you miss out the epic battles ( that could have made this film more epic ). There are some scenes that looks ok, but some of the action scenes are so fast edited, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. But we do have Shawn Roberts here, as the evil Albert Wesker, almost like Schwarzenegger´s Terminator, with bad dialogue, but fun to watch. I wonder if he decided to make this character as bad as possible ? Either way, Albert Wesker is once again a fun trip, even this time around. The story is not very good, but in a film like this we don´t really need a solid story. We want to see action and gore, and you can be sure to find it here as well. One thing i did enjoy, is the fact that Milla Jovovich still can kick so much ass, after all these years. We don´t get to see many women in these days, being a part of a whole films series, and she have done a great job with the Resident Evil films. Is this one of the better Resident Evil films ? No, but not the worst either, i think Retribution could be my less favourite. Could this last film have been made more epic ? Yes, i think director Paul W.S. Anderson should have skipped all the fast editing, and focused more on majestic close scenes. Still, let´s be happy that this could have been a lot worse as the ending. Thank you Milla for all your hard work, you did it. And this final film confirm my thoughts, never mess with Milla in the shopping mall, then your legs might break into pieces.

Rating: DDD

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