Hmm, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter”...a fizzle I’m afraid. And that’s from a viewer who became a fan of the series, although slowly, for its daring to be visually unique for each of the films, six in total now. And the length of the series itself is notable too: normal for slasher-horror, but not so much for horror that crosses-over into sci-fi/fantasy. The exemplars there being “Alien,” “Terminator,” “Underworld,” “Twilight” — even “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” with their ties to Hammer horror thru actors Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee. Thus I will devote a double-length review to this series.

For the underwhelming final cut, I can only guess and sympathize that writer / director Paul W.S. Anderson, and husband to then-pregnant lead-actress Milla Jovovich, was too distracted & exhausted to deliver his best, and perhaps relied on some ghost writer / directors. And I only write this review for love of the film genre, to recommend any of the other films over this as a first impression; and also to say I found the Rotten Tomatoes reviews too vague to be convincing, and in the end kinda wasted the $5 rental fee to have a personal looksee.

So keeping with habit, let me carefully rationalize where I deduct critical points, revising as I give this belated-Halloween-season movie a 2nd view in my darkened living room. (So as to not neglect the possible grow-on-me factor.)

The first ten minutes were a bit irritating in that, no less than four times, some vague CGI ghoul ambushed the viewer by popping onscreen (or implying to) to a sound-stab some 4x louder than the background wind or voicework (causing my upstairs neighbors to stomp in quiet protest.) “This has to get better” I groaned...even the 3rd film “Extinction” started objectionably to me, but got better quickly. And since I stuck around I have to say it must not have earned less than say a 12 point deduction off the bat, 3 per ambush. But "excellent" was surely already out as a fair description.

Then, in the midst of two more ambushes, this time from fugitive humans that heroine Project Alice (and her sisters) is supposed to be in alliance with (with minor twists), I concluded the intro felt rushed and dragged at the same time, and didn’t pick-up fairly from the SPECTACULAR cliffhanger of the prior, 5th, film. And that cliffhanger, along with the overall puzzlebox plot of the series, was the main reason I wanted to see the saga’s conclusion. About this time, the actors playing the Red Queen Computer and the evil doctor were already coming across with performances subpar to their earlier parts in the series. So deduct another 15 points, 3 per “infraction,” lol, and by the end of Act 1, we’re sadly already at 73 of 100, or a C –.

So I stuck around for mere scholastic research. And then I begin to notice, especially with the dogs, that all the creatures have so far either been blurrily CGI’d or look like wax-melts from a cheap haunted house. With one arguable exception at the start, more of a Harryhausen-claymation-puppet, there’s NOT ONE DECENT creature design in the whole film. What??? Darn, how much would you penalize your review for that infraction of the series’ legacy alone? Say you’re generous — or welcome some “Army of Darkness” campiness and jerky movement — and you only deduct 10, that still lowers the score to 63 or D –.

Unfortunately, there’s this “Willy Wonka” spinning fan & bad-egg spiderhole drop, set to this weird orchestral music totally at odds with both this and all the other films. I thought this franchise was anti-kiddie-Disney, an “Alice in Techno-Gothic Wonderland,” rather than “Wonkaville,”...or even the “Pinocchioville” later hinted at. Yikes! Sorry but that groupthink-meddling costs another 7 points for 56 of 100, a solid F.

And there’s at least two other big problems besides those I can’t greatly detail, for spoiler reasons. I should at least hint though, that the ultra-sexy co-star who “makes” the 4th film reappears to totally underwritten effect. And when the sexy female co-stars of film 1 & 2 were reprised in film 5 to such stunning effect, viewers both want and deserve so much more than what we’re given in this finale. Then there’s the midpoint fight-on-the highway-vehicle-fight so subpar to “The Matrix 2,” “T2,” and even the similarly low-budget “Mad Max 2,” that I KNOW I’m not being unfair or cranky. So –6 = 50 of 100.

Perhaps I rushed the critique of the Red Queen Computer and Dr. Isaacs though. Squirmingly longwinded and clichéd dialogue for sure, but what I first pegged as something that might turn away new series, and marginal moviegoer, -viewers might have been tested and rewritten to do the opposite. —Rewritten, that is, to make sure the storyline and motivations were clear in an otherwise very erratic plot. I should also mention the positive trademarks of the film are mostly there too: furious combat and explosions, the laser-death-grid, and of course the ominous line “You’re all going to die down here.” But right now I‘m at 2.5 of 5 stars, which is the precise average of the scores at IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, & Metacritic. So I should let that verdict rest.

My conclusion would be to watch/rewatch any of the other prior films instead of renting this one. And it’ll be free on TV soon, for those who demand at least seeing how Alice concludes her fight with the terrible T-Virus and Umbrella Corporation.

And speaking of rewatch, some recent films not fairly applauded I’d also belatedly recommend are “World of Warcraft” for EXTRAORDINARY CGI CREATURES, “Project Almanac” for YA sci-fi, and “Terminator: Genisys” and “Divergent: Allegiant” for dystopian sci-fi, “Terminator: Genisys” the best overall of the above batch, imo. And it’s such a better film too, even though like “RE 6” it only made half its budget back in the USA, they both still profited by a not-too-shabby $260mil.+ including worldwide sales. And whether “T5” gets rented a lot this summer will likely determine whether parts 2 & 3 get made. And they so deserve to be made. Otherwise, we’ll just get more “Robocop” dreck in its place, you can bet.

2.5 of 5 stars.

Resident Evil: GenesisResident Evil: Genesis