'Resident Evil: The Final Chapter': Evilly evaporable (Review)

Film: "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter"; Director: Paul W.S. Anderson; Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken, William Levy, and Iain Glen; Rating: **1/2

Don't know about apocalypse. But it is the end of the road for this franchise. The amazingly athletic Milla Jovovich who plays Alice -- the post-apocalyptic hero grappling with ghosts from the past and ghouls in the present, has decided to hang her sexy boots.

She is done. Her send-off film is a rousing homage to headless violence. The action, though relentless, swift and brutal, is evilly evaporable.

"Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" moves with the stealth of a poisonous snake destroying everything, including common sense. This is an uncommonly outlandish thriller.

Stunning in its vehement violence, the battle between Alice and a corrupt corporation that threatens to wipe out humanity from the (disfigured) face of the (devastated) earth is immediately attention-grabbing and just as easily forgotten once we step out of the zone of mayhem.

The action is relentless and frequently disturbing in their intensity. Ms Jovovich is so apt and her timing in the combat scenes so impeccable that potentially outrageous scenes of violent outrage acquire a credibility beyond the call of duty.

The dossier for devastation is unimpeachable. Director Paul Anderson shoots scenes of mass attack as a savage celebration of misanthropy. A surge of ghouls, zombies and depraved human beings run through the devastated hinterland in a blood thirsty rush. The survivors are brave, but unequal to the force unleashed on them.

Unusually, the villains are shown to be several steps ahead of the good guys. The traps of terror laid down by the crime organization create an inescapable maze of mindboggling hurdles. The film reads in many parts like a carefully orchestrated video game. Weirdly enough, this is the third film I saw this week after "Kung Fu Yoga" and "The Great Wall" -- where the protagonists are attacked by wild animals.

There is a heart-wrenching twist here with a little girl programmed by the villains to perpetrate evil. The girl is played by Ever Gabo Anderson, who is Milla Jovovich and director Paul Anderson's daughter. By casting the biological progeny as her own mother's ambivalent adversary, the narrative builds on the premise that those who plot to conquer the world primarily destroy the family nucleus.

And lest we forget, Ms Jovovich also played the ultimate martyr Joan Of Arc in an earlier film. Trying to save the world is just a breath away from being crucified for your efforts.

--IANS

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