The sixth and last film in the franchise, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” tries to remake some of the series’ greatest moments but fails on almost every level possible.

Picking up after “Retribution”, “Final Chapter” follows Alice (Milla Jovovich) as she returns to Raccoon City in search of a cure for the world-ending T-Virus.

The film opens with a confusing recap of the series that retcons important plot elements from three of the previous movies. From there, the story only devolves further as it attempts to explain the large majority of the plot through short exposition-filled bouts spoken by the main characters and skips chunks of material entirely. These are placed between the seemingly endless number of action scenes “Final Chapter” throws at the audience, leaving the film with large pacing issues. Because of this, everything quickly starts to drag, and it feels like nothing of consequence is occurring. The only positive factor in the story is that it wraps everything up and leaves little room for a sequel.

The problems with the story are emphasized further due to the lackluster acting from the film’s stars. Milla Jovovich phones it in as Alice, giving a sense of boredom as she progresses from scene to scene. Because the film focuses primarily on her, it becomes inherently harder to watch and care about her or anything happening to her character. None of the other actors are memorable either, often having one or two lines of dialogue, and Iain Glen’s villain is over-the-top and laughable in a bad way.

This leads to the absent character development that plagues the movie as well. Alice’s journey through the series comes to a standstill in “Final Chapter”, with what little growth she’s had undermined entirely by a poorly-executed twist. The five characters that accompany her are forgettable due to their lack of dialogue, and it becomes hard to tell or care whenever someone dies. A mix of new characters and motivations are also thrown in late into the film’s final act, and the emotional payoff at the end feels completely unearned.

Unfortunately, “Final Chapter” also suffers from some of the worst visuals to come from a big-budget production. The noticeable and poorly-used green screen makes the film seem fan-made. The constant flashing of lights makes it difficult to watch for extended periods of time as well. The worst, however, is the migraine-inducing editing, with shots cutting constantly and lasting under a second each. This, mixed with poor lighting choices, makes the film’s many action sequences unwatchable.

All of these issues make “Final Chapter” an absolute skip. Fans wanting any of the series’ cheesy action or answers to the multitude of unanswered questions will be left with nothing, and anyone not already invested in Alice and her journey won’t find anything worth justifying their time or the cost of a ticket.

Verdict:

Unnecessarily convoluted and hard to watch, “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” is a cinematic trash fire that ends the franchise in the worst possible way.

0.5/10