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Resident Evil: The Final Chapter movie review, Alice goes down the zombie hole

Ranjan Crasta | Updated on: 3 February 2017, 13:56 IST

Since the first Resident Evil movie, 15 (yes, 15!) years ago, the formula has not changed. Paul Anderson directs, Milla Jovovich refuses to age, zombies and zombie monsters are kicked, punched, shot and blown up, and Jovovich's character Alice leads a ragtag bunch of survivors to almost certain doom on a mission to thwart the evil Umbrella Corporation.

You'd imagine this sort of formula would have run its course three movies in. However, with the franchise becoming the most successful movie series based on a video game, the same formula has been applied to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the sixth and supposedly last of the Resident Evil movies.

The result is pretty much what you'd expect - another iteration of Alice's zombie house of pain. However, for a finale trying to tie up all the loose ends from the previous movies, The Final Chapter does a decent job. Albeit with some rapid plot escalation.

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While the series so far has chronicled Alice's multiple failed attempts to find safe haven from the T virus zombie outbreak, the final movie is about ending the virus once and for all.

The Red Queen, Umbrella Corp's evil AI system has had a change of heart and wants to help Alice save the world, and so it alerts our hero to the solution: an airborne antivirus capable of destroying anything infected by the T virus. The location of the antivirus? The epicenter of the zombie outbreak and the place where it all began - Umbrella Corp's underground base, the Hive.

Alice takes off on a mad dash to retrieve the virus, battling her nemesis from movies gone by, Dr Isaacs (Iain Glen), and reuniting with series BFF Claire (Ali Larter) along the way.

Is the series really ending, and does that mean the horcrux of Jovovich's career has finally been destroyed?

There are the inevitable zombie destroying sequences, non-zombie hand-to-hand fights, gratuitous explosions, some biblical references and clone shenanigans galore, while dialogue is almost always reserved solely to further the series' resolution rather than for actual communication.

Will Alice save the world? Is the world that's left even worth saving? Will Ruby Rose ever breakout of the androgynous tomboy sidekick role? Is the series actually coming to an end, and does that mean director Paul Anderson has finally destroyed the horcrux that sustains Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter's careers? All of these are questions that The Final Chapter will answer.

While your life will be no richer for having seen The Final Chapter, go see it if you've seen the previous movies and, like in any relationship that has run its course, want closure. It will, at the very least, provide that.

Rating: 2.5/5

First published: 3 February 2017, 13:56 IST