Story line
Picking up immediately after the events in Resident Evil:
Retribution, Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the only survivor of what was meant to
be humanity's final stand against the undead. Now, she must return to where the
nightmare began - The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is
gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of
the apocalypse.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson
Stars: Ruby Rose, Milla Jovovich,
Ali Larter
R | 1h 46min | Action, Horror,
Sci-Fi
Movie Rating ★★☆☆☆
Milla Jovovich needs to escape this undead franchise
Everyone would understand if
Milla Jovovich had simply had enough of the Resident Evil series, “Sometimes I
feel this has been my whole life. Running. Killing,” moans her character,
Alice, in the sixth and latest one.
If she’s reassured by its
subtitle, The Final Chapter, she may want to investigate Friday the 13th, Part
IV: The Final Chapter (1984), which was followed immediately by Part V: A New
Beginning (1985) and about six further sequels.
Jovovich’s husband Paul WS
Anderson, who has directed all but two of them, doesn’t need long to apprise us
of the goings on so far
Anderson borrows so many bits
and pieces from James Cameron’s Aliens you sometimes wonder if he’s seen a
single other film. Ah – Terminator 2. Wait, there’s some Mad Max: Fury Road
thrown in, for good measure. These are prime sources for a post-apocalyptic
chase movie that winds up in a facility called the Hive, but Anderson’s magpie
plundering is haphazard to the point of lunacy.
It’s also deafening. Every
single thing that happens is cranked up to ludicrous, eardrum-shattering
levels. A dot matrix printer gets set off in the dark, and it sounds like the
planet is ripping in half. Hush and patience are simply not in Anderson’s
vocabulary. He bombards you as if terrified of encroaching tedium, and the set
pieces trip each other up in their sheer haste.
Casting has often been one of
his stronger suits. The underrated Fraser James, whose electric, gravelly voice
is easily the best thing on the soundtrack, puts up a good fight in support –
more so than Shawn Roberts, as the kind of gym-bunny rent-a-villain who wears
sunglasses indoors and says nothing that isn’t sarcastic.
Jovovich, a theoretically
interesting star given robotic tasks throughout, plays disabled, too, as an
earlier incarnation of Alice (hello, Alien: Resurrection) wheeled on in old
lady make-up. Her faint resemblance to Theresa May is doubtless unintentional
but nonetheless comical. Talks with Merkel? A New Beginning? What is it this
time? Someone needs to get her out of this.
Read Full review at Telegraph
