This month sees the purported “Final
Chapter” in the Resident Evil movies series starring Milla
Jovovich, based on the hit video game series. The six movies series,
written by Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed almost all of them, began
in 2002 and has featured Jovovitch as Alice, a former member of the
evil Umbrella Corporation. Over the course these movies, Alice has
fought with a rotating gallery of allies, most of which don't survive
or return from the dead (it gets weird), trying to stop the T-Virus,
which both turns people to zombies and/or mutated creatures (don't
ask).
It's a complex (convoluted?) storyline, so let's let the
star herself explain(spoilers):
Not
many stars can say they have been the sole lead of a six-film
franchise over 15 years, but Milla Jovovich has done it, playing a
bad-ass movie action hero... who is also a woman. She is the
strongest aspect of the series. I just wished the series was worthy
of her.
So as Alice's mission comes to a close, here's my
ranking of the film, from best to worst.
RESIDENT EVIL (2002):
#2
Where it all starts. This movie is party mystery (who exactly
is Alice and what was she up to?), as well as action horror. The
secondary characters are probably the most interesting of the series,
especially Umbrella Corporation soldiers One(Colin Salmon) and
Rain(Michelle Rodriguez). The biggest problem for me is that, in a
movie that supposed to be about zombies & monsters, they are kept
relatively small in the scheme of things. But I will give full
credit that, even after all these years, Alice fighting infected dogs
in “zombie dog-fu” never ceases to amuse me. The movie ends RIGHT
where I wanted it to start.
RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (2004)
#1
THIS is the movie I wanted to see! The T-Virus has now gone
widespread, taking over all of Raccoon City. And Alice, who's been
infected as well, but has now turned her into a SUPER bad-ass, is
here to take out as many undead as possible. Survivors aid them in
trying to get out, including Jill Valentine(Sienna Guillory), Carlos
Oliveira(Oded Fehr), and L.J.(Mike Epps). This also has Alice
throwing down against a monster called Nemesis, which is a whole
lotta fun. We end with Alice now having psychic powers, rescued by
Jill and Carlos from Umbrella, but we see “Project Alice” is now
activated by Umbrella Corporation bad guy Dr. Issacs (Iain
Glen).
RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (2007) #3
But wait, we
don't start where we left off, but instead -Welcome the
post-apocalypse Mad Max world! While the T-Virus has spread around
the world and has wiped out most of the population or turned them.
Alice is on her own and learning of her psychic powers. Her old
friends L.J. and Carlos are part of a convoy of survivors, lead by
Claire Redfield(Ali Larter)... yeah, no sign of Jill from the last
film. There's some hope of a signal from Alaska of safe sanctuary
called Arcadia. We learn that there are clones of Alice being used to
try and recreate again the powers of Alice (clones will become very
important from now on). As Jill and the survivors take a helicopter
to Alaska, we lose L.J. And Carlos, and Alice kills a mutated Dr.
Issacs... maybe?
RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (2010) #5
With the addition of crappy3D, we begin
the slide into even worse stories. Alice and her army of clones
attack an Umbrella HQ in Tokyo. Nope, you didn't miss something;
somehow Alice and her clone army made it from the US to Japan...
somehow. Then she gets a plane and starts trying to find Arcadia and
her fiends... for a long time & never running out of gas...
somehow. She find Claire, but she's got a weird device on her chest
from the Umbrella Corporation. They go to LA, end up in a human
refuge in a prison, including Luthor (Boris Kodjoe) annd Claire's
brother... somehow. Yeah, there's a lot of somehow. It ends with
Arcada being an Umbrella ship will a bunch of humans and Umbrella
soldiers flying in to attack-and SURPRISE! Jill is back from the 2nd
movie, blonde and a baddie... somehow. This is where I started
realizing that this film took a third of a story, stretched over an
entire movie. This is not the only time...
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012) #4
We
get a cool opening of the battle on the Arcadia tanker told in
reverse-wasted on this film. Alice is captured by Umbrella, runs
through underground “simulations” of NYC, Moscow, and Tokyo,
finds a deaf girl that think she's her mom, Luther comes to help her
escape, and clone versions of One, Rain, and Carlos appear to fight
her... because? I like this better that the last one if only for a
car chase through “Moscow”, the deaf girl, and the return of Rain
and Jill for a major throwdown fight with Alice in the Arctic. We
YET AGAIN end the film right where it gets interesting: Alice, Jill,
Luthor, and some others make it back to the armored compound of the
White House, under siege by undead and monsters...
RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER (2017)
#6
...which brings us to the most recent movie, which begins with
Alice coming out of the ruins having been “betrayed” and NONE OF
THE PEOPLE WHO WERE WITH HER APPEAR TO HAVE SURVIVED!! So not only
do we not get them, we aren't even shown them dying. Instead we get
Alice fighting a flying monster, being captured by Dr. Issacs... who
was apparently a clone prior, a pointless battle of survivors
designed only to introduce our lost Claire (but no brother mentioned)
and more allies to die along the way for Alice to release an airborne
cure for the T-Virus in 48 hrs because... movie logic. There's other
“surprises”, but you can endure those in theaters now.
While it MOSTLY ends the series, there
is a bit that could bring her back for a movie or two.
But I
surely hope not.
Let me leave with with the last words of the
Red Queen, “You're all going to die.”
