The human race is facing extinction. The only one who can save the last remnants of humanity is Alice. She must venture back to where it all began, Racoon City. There she will have to fight in order to end the plague of undead and bring humans back to the top of the food chain. Time is running out. Will Alice be able to defeat the hordes of zombies as well as some of the most powerful foes she has ever faced?

Before I begin, I have to address the elephant in the room. For those who know and love the Resident Evil franchise, you must be familiar with the origin story of Umbrella Corporation and the T-virus. In the second film, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, we meet Dr. Ashwood who created the T-Virus to save his daughter, Angela, from a degenerative disease. The film even spends quite a bit of time on Alice and company trying to rescue Angela. Now, in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the origin story has completely changed. It is still a father who is trying to save his daughter from a rare disease, but the names and time frame have been altered. Even the disease affecting the daughter is different than what we learned in the second film. While I prefer origin story in this film to what we saw in Apocalypse, it seems insane that the filmmakers would make this film as if the second one didn’t exist. Did they expect fans not to notice? That, and the addition of a strange biblical aspect to Dr. Isaacs’ motivation (which was never mentioned in the previous films), left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, we can get into the rest of the film. I love the Resident Evil franchise. The first three films are fantastic. The fourth film is a little all over the place, but still a fun story with lots of excitement. The franchise lost me a little bit once the fifth film, Resident Evil: Retribution, came out. That installment didn’t really have a clear story line, virtually no character development for the new characters, and it felt more like a video game than a film. The Final Chapter started out feeling more like Retribution. I don’t even remember if there was any real dialogue in the first twenty minutes of the film. Aside from learning the new origin story of the T-virus, the beginning was primarily filled with random scenes of Alice fighting the undead and a giant flying creature. Once we got past that and learned Alice’s new mission the story began to take shape. It’s a simple story with a clear goal in mind, but it was filled with action, excitement, and intrigue. The only other issue I encountered with regards to the plot was yet another problem that was also present in Retribution. There was little to no character development with regards to the new group of survivors Alice encounters. Much like in Retribution, the new characters are really only in the film to act as cannon fodder and to make Alice (and the audience) sad when a human dies. It is difficult to feel anything when a character dies if all you really know about them is their name.

When it comes to the acting we all know and love Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, The Fifth Element) as Alice. Jovovich gave another convincing performance as the constant warrior and martyr of humanity. The real standout performance was that of Iain Glen (Resident Evil: Extinction, Game of Thrones) as Dr. Isaacs. Glen played such an amazing villain. Not only did Glen portray Dr. Isaacs as a man who believes he is righteous in the path he has chosen, but he also showed the audience the doctor’s complete lack of conscious. I was ecstatic the filmmakers brought him back as the ultimate evil for Alice to face at the end of the franchise.

The CGI effects in the Resident Evil films always impress me. They are able to create unique monsters, futuristic technology, and entire cityscapes without it looking laughable. The creature design in this film was very fun. They clearly chose to go bigger and more unique for a lot of the T-virus monsters which added to the scares and thrills. Even the large CGI zombie hordes looked well done. While I knew the things on the screen were all done by computers, there was never a moment where I was consciously thinking that it was computer generated or that it was done poorly.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was a fitting end to the franchise filled with action, intrigue, and of course zombies. Sadly it is a flawed film, primarily due to the sudden change in origin stories and the lack of character development. As I said earlier, I preferred the origin story created in The Final Chapter. It made for a more impactful story and a more powerful ending. I just can’t ignore that we were already given the origin story, although it seemed like that was exactly what the filmmakers wanted the audience to do. If you haven’t seen Resident Evil: Apocalypse, then don’t see it before watching The Final Chapter. It sounds odd, but you will likely enjoy the film more by avoiding the conflicting origins of the T-virus. If you have seen Apocalypse, I will warn you that you may leave the theater a bit frustrated by the last film of the Resident Evil franchise.

OVERALL RATING: 5.5/10