4k-UHD/Movie Review: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

 

This is the final entry in the six-movie action-horror zombie apocalypse film franchise adapted from the Resident Evil video games, starring Milla Jovovich, which spanned 14 years from 2002 to 2016. This one was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, Jovovich's husband who has produced and/or directed pretty much every movie in the franchise. 

This movie is set a few weeks after the events of Retribution and sees Shawn Roberts, Ian Glen, and Ali Larter return to reprise their various characters. Alice (Jovovich) is told by the Red Queen (played by her daughter Ever) that she must return to Racoon City to release an airborne Anti-Virus that will kill everyone infected with the T-Virus (so all the zombies). She learns the origins of the T-Virus and what it was originally intended to do and tries to take out the rest of the Umbrella Corporation.  The big addition to the cast in this movie is Ruby Rose, who plays one of the characters who joins in the attack on The Hive in Racoon City.

The 4k set is a two-disc set with one UHD disc, which just contains the movie and one regular blu-ray which has all of the extras. The extras include an option to play the movie in "Retaliation Mode" which basically has cutaways to Anderson and Jovovich providing commentary on specific scenes, then there are three featurettes, one on the stunts in the movie, one on the female characters, and one on The Hive. Then there are trailers for other movies. What was included is good, but there is not an extensive amount of behind-the-scenes material. Jovovich is always good on commentary tracks and she is again entertaining in the Retribution Mode clips. 

By now, anyone interested in this knows what the movies are and what they are not. They are very good action/suspense/horror movies, and they definitely stay in that lane. Jovovich does a great job playing the lead, and she definitely walks a fine line between taking the role seriously without taking herself or the story too seriously. So, if you liked the other movies then this one is worth watching. If you have not been a fan of the other movies, then this one will probably not do much for you.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Resident Evil: Retribution

 

Retribution is the fifth installment of the Milla Jovovich-led Resident Evil franchise. By now, anyone interested in watching them knows what you will get. A ton of action, dialogue that is sometimes okay and sometimes bad, and lots of zombies. This picks up during the end battle of Afterlife. We see that Alice (the nearly ageless Jovovich) by the Umbrella Corporation, stripped of her powers, and held in an underground facility. At the same time, a clone of Alice is living in the suburbs (really Raccoon city) with a husband and daughter. While we do not see the fates of the Redfields (Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller's characters) from Afterlife, Sienna Guillory's Jill Valentine who was teased at the very end of Afterlife has a large role in this movie, and Michelle Rodriguez comes back to the series.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality is top-notch again, and there are a bunch of extras. Those include an interactive database on Project Alice, two different commentary tracks on the movie, one with Paul W.S. Anderson and Jovovich (who is always great on commentary), and one by Anderson and one of the producers. Then there are deleted scenes, outtakes, several making-of featurettes, and a short featurette about a fan who got to be turned into a zombie on set.

Overall, the movie is good, if you take it for what it is. The action is great, and Jovovich who does as many of her own stunts as she can is great in the lead role. You can tell from the commentary track that she takes the role seriously, but does not take herself too seriously and does not pretend the movies are more than what they are. While you can watch this movie on its own, it makes a lot more sense if you have seen the prior movies since the stories in each movie are at least a bit intertwined. So, if you are looking for a good action movie (and like dystopian future plots and a bunch of hot cast members), and you enjoyed the other installments in the series, this is definitely worth watching. If, however, you did not like the other movies, this one is probably not going to change your mind about the franchise.