Well, it’s been one long and shakey roller coaster ride, but it’s finally over. I have to admit, I am kinda sad now, but satisfied. Over the course of almost 15 years, we got 6 movies—some good—some bad, and I was not entirely disappointed in this last entry. Was it the best in the franchise? Most certainly not (The first one takes the cake on that, obviously) but it wasn’t the worst. I’ll let you battle that one out amongst yourselves.
Now, I went into this movie with moderate expectations, since it was sort of a steady decline after the first movie, but this one certainly held it’s ground. I won’t lie to you though—the first 40 or so minutes of this was kind of boring, and hard to get into, but, the last hour of this was great. It was a traditional Resident Evil movie, with It’s badass Alice ass-kicking moments, almost cringe-worthy CGI, generic “fill-in” characters who were killed off so mercilessly, and over-the-top obstacles the characters Had to face—but isn’t that what made this franchise so great?
With that being said: let’s jump a bit more into it now.
WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The movie opens how every RE has opened after the first—with Alice explaining what’s going on. Then we finally get a backstory to how and why the T-Virus was made—and I was happy they finally did this, because I think many of us have been waiting for this, and it tied up a loose end.
After that’s all said and done, the movie picks up some time after the events of Retribution. Except the white house has fallen, and everyone there has been killed—except for our heroine—Alice. After she gathers her bearings, she gets a call from none other than her sworn enemy: the evil Umbrella corporation, but, it’s from a much friendlier Red Queen, and the message is simple: You have 48 hours to go back to the Hive in raccoon city and get the antivirus that will kill every organism infected by the T-virus, or the last remaining settlements will be wiped out. Of course, it’s not going to be easy. On her way there, she gets sprung into an Umbrella coronation trap, that leads her back to a somehow resurrected and now religiously devoted Dr. Issacs—who has a little cult, and an army of zombies following them.
As per usual, she uses her wits and badassery to conduct an escape, only to be forced to help a small settlement of survivors led by Claire in Racoon city to fight the army of zombies Dr. issacs has accompanying him in his pretty tricked out tank. As I said earlier—the first half of this movie was a little boring for me (even the wonderful Milla Jovovich seemed a bit bored) and everything just felt sort of rushed and they wanted to throw in a lot of action, but once they reach the Hive, things suddenly fall back in place—and this is when the movie gets a lot better.
There are a lot of flashbacks of the first Resident Evil film once they get inside, which was nice and nostalgic. Some scenes even almost mirrored them as well, which was again, nice and nostalgic. They threwn in some new, and old classic Hive defense systems, some awesome kills, some bad, and glorious “a-ha” back-stabbing moments, and a huge twist that not only effected this movie, but the entire franchise. I honestly can say—I did not see that coming.
As a whole, this was a good Resident Evil movie, with an extremely satisfying ending that both fans, and harsh critics will love and appreciate. If you’re a fan of the series, then you should totally go out of your way to see this, and if you’re not a fan of the series—well, then I’d wait for it to be On Demand for free, or on Netflix.
Submitted By:
Chris Leske
