Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Lead
cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Iain
Glenn Screenwriter: Paul W.S. Anderson Producer:
Paul W.S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Robert Kulzer, Samuel Hadida Editor:
Paul Haslinger Musical
Director: Doobie White Genre: Science Fiction Cinematographer: Glen Macpherson Distributor: Screen Gem Location:
Germany, France, Canada, Australia
Running time: 106 minutes
Technical assessment:
2.5
Moral assessment:
1.5
CINEMA rating: A-18
MTRCB rating: R16
The sixth in a series of video-game based films
since 2002, the film opens with Alice (Milla Jovovich), who has grown stout in
the service, out to battle the undead as well as the evil Umbrella Corporation
led by Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen). Alice’s sidekick, Claire (Ali Larter), provides
occasional assistance. Alice has 48 hours to find the airborne antidote to the
T-virus, a pandemic that has turned the planet into its disastrous state,
populated by zombies. Will she be able to make it against the strength of the
enemy?
With the film on
its sixth franchise, it already has a grown fan base who would really
appreciate the film for what it is. Like
a video game, it is just dark, messy, bloody and dizzy—if such a term should
describe a movie. Non-fanatics of the
series would really be alienated and confused as to what’s really going on in
the story—as if there is a story to speak of. The movie tries very hard to create a plot but
it never goes beyond one single goal—and the entire film is just focused on it.
Characters are not well fleshed out—their
names not even clearly mentioned—sending a message that they are not
significant at all. The film treats scenes, characters, and even special
effects like a video game: nothing serious, just for fun. But it gets more bizarre when it tries very
hard to put some human dimension to an otherwise non-human or superhuman
character. Jovovich remains to be effective as the tough Alice and it seems she
has been the role—she owns Alice’s character. The entire film caters still to its fanatics–
and their audience may just have fun as relentless as the lead character’s and
video gamers must have enjoyed the killing spree.
Non-humans can be more human at times. That
might be the main message of Resident Evil: The
Final Chapter. It is preposterous how humans can think of destroying the
humankind in their own terms—acting and playing God. The film has a non-human, clone character for a
lead who longs to feel how humans feel. Someone created by man transcended into
something greater than what God created– a moral statement that is quite
difficult to accept. Perhaps the film’s message is as ambiguous as the entire
film. It wants to say something moral out of something
that seems immoral from the very beginning. For what is
the purpose of cloning than to re-create God’s creation out of
man’s pride and arrogance in thinking they are equal to or even greater than God? What is moral with
cloning? The film in its entirety is wholly disturbing
bordering on abhorrent, with its dark theme, heavy violence, and all the world’s pessimism and
negativity. One character appears to be good or upright, but it’s still not quite convincing that only
childhood memories can make one purely human. The respect for and the dignity
of human life is all the way insulted in this film
that is true to its name, Resident Evil.
