So I’m finally caught up with the Resident Evil franchise and was able to see Resident Evil 6: The Final Chapter. I went into it fully expecting that the team would go all out to make up for the lackluster last two movies but at the end, I emerged frustrated more than anything.

Synposis: Mankind has come to its last 48 hours as the Umbrella Corporation is poised to extinguish the whats left of the survivors with the T-virus. However, the Red Queen turns against Umbrella and tells Alice (Milla Jovovich) that there is an antidote that can save the survivors, but it is hidden underneath the Hive. Alice must go back to where she started to fulfill her mission at the risk of her own life.

I am a huge fan of the first three movies of this franchise. I thought that they developed Alice and the story well and made a very solid trilogy. I was mildly surprised when the Resident Evil team chose to revive and extend the franchise with Resident Evil: Afterlife, which was not entirely a bad movie but lacked the punch of the first three films. Resident Evil: Retribution, the penultimate film in the franchise should have clued me in about how Resident Evil: The Final Chapter would turn out. And it was really bad, which was very sad because it managed to water down everything that was good about the franchise — even the badassery of Alice.

There were things that I appreciated in the movie, don’t get me wrong. I liked the first five minutes where Alice was narrating the origin of the T-virus which served as a tie in for all of the other movies. It also brought audiences who were unable to watch any of the older movies on the same page with fans of the franchise. But sadly, this was where all the good things ended. The entire film felt like an excuse, a means to justify why the franchise was extended with another three movies when there was no sense to it. Alice, while still skilled, seemed like a shadow of her former self, beating up the undead and the members of the Umbrella Corporation indiscriminately for the sole reason of showing off her awesome fighting skills.

There was no character development for the newbies. Alice just found Claire and after a final stand, and her new friends just decided that they want to help her get to the antidote but they generally don’t contribute anything to the mission except to become warm bodies lined up for slaughter. The identity of the traitor was obvious from the start and it came as no surprise in the end.

The villains were annoying at best and didn’t really seem like a threat to Alice no matter how much they tried to appear menacing. Sorry Iain Glen. Even you couldn’t save this disaster. And while I appreciated the attempt at a throwback with the laser room, it wasn’t lost on the audience that it didn’t have the cube laser mode that killed the  captain of the elite squad in the first movie. So technically, it wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant as the big boss fight.

It was a real bummer that despite the shortness of the film, it felt ridiculously long because the film was going nowhere and was merely killing time with a bunch of scenes that really felt like fillers to get to the ending. I’m really happy for Korean actor Lee Joong Ki though for being cast in this movie although his part wasn’t as long as expected. Still, its a start.

All in all, Resident Evil:The Final Chapter, though it was able to propel the franchise to become a billion dollar film series, was far from delivering on the hype. It was predictable. It was boring and it may well be the weakest installment in the franchise. Can I just forget the last three movies ever happened and cling to awesome memories of the first three instead? Sorry, but this just left an awful taste in my mouth — it tastes a lot like cheesy cliche. I still love Milla and Paul but even they have to admit this one was far from being finale level.