Following the events that ended the previous film, Alice discovers that in order to end the horror she’s so long lived, she must return to where it all began. Teaming up with Claire and a new group of survivors they go down into The Hive where Alice discovers secrets about Umbrella, the T-Virus, and herself.
The final entry in the popular series is an extremely solid closing to Alice’s story. Everything comes full circle and anything that’s revealed doesn’t feel completely out of left field. All of the secrets about Umbrella and the T-Virus make sense, as do the secrets revealed about Alice’s background. Now granted, some of these reveals can contradict some of the details revealed in past films. For example, the Red Queen was said she was a recreation of the daughter of one of Umbrella’s founders, and the creator of the T-Virus. Back in Apocalypse this was revealed about Jared Harris’ character and his daughter. It’s pretty annoying, but it’s more detailed here and helps wrap up the story.
Alice is just as bad ass as ever and we finally see her being really tested with her abilities and her emotions. It’s also great to see Claire return as well, but per usual, we are left with no other returning characters that survived or hear what happens to them. And once again we are given new characters that are underdeveloped, we don’t care about them, and they’re merely used for expendable purposes. One of these characters is Claire’s love interest, and besides one small recognition to this, their relationship isn’t developed, nor is it recognized after that small moment. And for such a fairly popular actress like Ruby Rose, you would think that she would have been given more development. Not the case. Those are a lot of the flaws. The return to The Hive is great, even if there weren’t too many callbacks to the original, regardless, The Hive is one huge death trap here and provides for a lot of thrilling sequences as Alice and her gang try to get inside, and the overall production design is solid. The entire film is one action sequence after another, and it’s pure fun and thrills all the way through. However, a lot of the action sequences are pretty brutally edited to where they’re complete quick cuts. It was really annoying sure, but I managed to work with it, but it was a horrible choice to do.
Milla Jovovich as always kicks ass as Alice, and she brought more to the table when it comes to showing a more vulnerable side to Alice as she begins to question things she thought she knew about herself. Ali Larter also recaptures Claire really well, even if she did deserve a lot more spotlight than she did, and I really wanted more double team action with her and Milla. Iain Glen is at his best in the series in this one. He’s more villainous and despicable, and you can’t wait for the final showdown between him and Alice, and Glen really delivers and gives it all he has as the bad guy.
RE: The Final Chapter really does wrap up the story well and brings it all full circle. Despite the usual flaws found in the series involving characters, a little contradiction, and questionable editing, it’s a fun, non-stop action-filled way to close Alice’s story.
–Cody Landman
