Unendurable: Rashid Irani’s review of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Direction: Paul WS Anderson

Actors: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen

Rating: 0.5 / 5

The sixth and supposedly final installment of the videogames-inspired franchise is sillier, louder and tawdrier than any of its predecessors.

The husband-wife team of Paul WS Anderson (writer-director) and Milla Jovovich (leading lady) reunite to save mankind from an impending apocalypse.

They have even recruited their nine-year-old daughter, Ever Anderson, to portray an artificial intelligence hologram capable of resolving the long-drawn-out conflict once and for all.

The outcome is guaranteed to try anyone’s patience.

For the benefit of those unfamiliar with earlier editions, the super-heroine (Jovovich) helpfully provides a voiceover summary to bring viewers up to speed.

Essentially a series of dull fight-or-perish set pieces, the narrative ensures that subsidiary characters merely serve as zombie fodder.

After most of humanity has been wiped out by a deadly virus, the survivors of the zombie infestation make their way through a nightmarish cityscape. Their mission: find an antidote and vanquish a megalomaniac (Iain Glen) intent on reducing the planet to a graveyard.

The undernourished script never coalesces into anything remotely exciting. Mutant monsters abound, but the scare factor is totally missing.

Essentially a series of dull fight-or-perish set pieces, the narrative ensures that subsidiary characters merely serve as zombie fodder.

Donning her trademark black latex outfit and packing a six-shooter, Milla Jovovich performs her gravity-defying stunts with a modicum of panache.

Even given that videogame-to-film transfers tend to be moronic, …The Final Chapter is exceptionally unendurable.

Watch the trailer for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter here

First Published: Feb 03, 2017 16:32 IST