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RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER

With Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Eoin Macken, Shawn Roberts, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, William Levy, Lee Joon-gi, Ever Anderson
Written & Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (based on the Capcom video game characters)

[ Access my article here from ComingSoon.net, featuring my interviews with writer / director / producer Paul W.S. Anderson, star Milla Jovovich and producer Jeremy Bolt, from the set of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter ]

Anderson and Bolt's production partnership has been a successful one for around two decades with a host of exciting movies resulting from it, including their first foray into video game adaptation with Mortal Kombat, the cult fan fave outer space horror of Event Horizon, a CGI boosted re-imagining of Dumas' Three Musketeers, and the historic disaster spectacle & romantic drama Pompeii. But, their crowning achievement is the mammoth 6 chapter video game

adaptation franchise Resident Evil, which 15 years ago helped to bring back the zombie genre (but with a kick-ass action and sci-fi punch). Up until the 5th chapter, the movies crossed the billion dollar gross mark.

This sixth and (reputed) last chapter aims to wrap up all the loose ends and reveal all about Alice and the Umbrella Corporation (Umbrella being the evil corporate entity responsible for engineering a deadly virus, turning those infected into ravenous zombies, and across one and a half decades and half a dozen movies our heroine Alice has been fighting them and the many villains & creatures they've spawned).

Shot here in South Africa, the movie is a return to the Hive, the underground Raccoon City facility from the first film, where Alice's bloody journey began, and is now set to end. Battle-weary and without her superpowers, Alice has to take on these insurmountable odds at all cost. With the majority of the world population wiped out by this time, Alice is the only hope to execute a mission to

save the rest of the planet's survivors, leading her to this highly protected Umbrella location. On this fateful mission she meets up with old allies, and face arch enemies thought to be dead (deceivers also behind friendly faces).
With a string of action packed set-pieces driving towards the ultimate conclusion (with quite a few surprises and revelations unfolding), the film is a more gritty post-apocalyptic trip, in both it's look and approach.
The highly effective make-up effects were done by Cape Town's Cosmesis Advanced Prosthetics Studio.

(This time around the deadly Red Queen computer is played by Anderson and Jovovich's young daughter Ever)

It is difficult for me to pick the best of the Resident Evil movies - they all make part of the whole and while I don't feel this is the top one in the batch, it is a very important component as a closing chapter, bringing it all together to wrap up this exciting series (see links for reviews of the first 5 movies, games and

soundtracks below).

DVD extras include: an exploration of The Hive and a look at the Badass Trinity and the women of Resident Evil.

In the cinema set-up, knowing how much goes into putting a movie like this together, I do feel that a lot of detail gets lost watching it in a 3D cinema that is not optimal, with many of the scenes far too dark.

As The Final Chapter started I thought about a fun activity lying ahead - watching all 6 Resident Evil movies in sequence (as one should do annually with the Alien, Star Wars and Terminator franchises!)

The night before its South African cinema release (3 Feb), the Universal channel screened the first movie, and I couldn't resist watching the opening again. We also screened the original film at our 2015 South African HorrorFest where Paul WS Anderson and Jeremy Bolt attended as special guests to chat about the movie, its genesis, expansion and legacy.

PS. South Africans and Capetonians in particular will get a kick out of the Table Mountain cable car opening

Paul Anderson & Jeremy Bolt at the 2015 South African HorrorFest

scene!

4 / B
- Paul Blom

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
- A - B - C

Access my ComingSoon.net interview with Anderson, Jovovich and Bolt - With a multitude cast and crew interviews conducted on set, expect more to be published soon










Click images below for the full Resident Evil spectrum incl. movies, games & soundtracks: