Movie Review - Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Eoin Macken, Fraser James, Ruby Rose, William Levy, Rola, Ever Anderson, and more.

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson Written by: Paul W.S. Anderson Cinematography by: Glen MacPherson Music by: Paul Haslinger 

Premise: Having survived a trap in Washington, D.C. Alice gets contacted by the Red Queen - Umbrella's AI Computer. She warns that in 48 hours the three thousand plus humans left on the surface of the planet will be exterminated. Their only hope is for Alice to come back to the Hive to retrieve the antidote for the T-virus. One the Umbrella Corporation has kept hidden from the world. The ultimate secrets are about to be revealed. (Rated  R)

Review:

1) Acting - Thumbs Up: Familiar and new characters fill the cast. Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, and Shawn Roberts reprise their previous roles in the Resident Evil universe. A couple of them get to play more than one. :) Milla Jovovich continues to give Alice some nice layers with what little she's given to work with. Iain Glen looks to have had a lot of most fun playing multiple roles in this one. 

2) Special Effects - Thumbs Up: It's hard to say if it was due to budget cuts or the direction the group was ordered to follow, but some of the filming choices made a lot of the special effects look cheap or mediocre. Which is a shame, because there were some neat effects in there.

The first creature that attacks Alice is filmed in such a way the audience can't get a sense of what it look like. All you see is a blurred, giant blob of flesh. Between all the shaky cam and giggling, weaving viewpoints. They did slightly better with the next creature, but even that one the good glimpses seemed doled out rather than consistent.

Great work on the zombies. The ones hung from a bridge and only reacting when the trucks drove beneath them were an awesome detail. There's one that shows up in the Hive that gave it all he had despite being hung to dry, poor thing. He looked great! 

The Hive itself was fab. The recreations of several familiar places and the transformation of others were well done. The evil laser corridor makes a comeback. Bwahaha! The bridge/walkway coming up out of the water was awesome. 

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Down: Hubby has loved this franchise since day one. I've gone and seen all of the films with him. Some have been better than others, yet you don't tend to expect too much in that department. The action and special effects are what people truly come for, and they usually deliver quite well on that aspect of things.  This time, though, they failed at both. :(  

The plot was awful. Too much of it was contrived for convenience. No real surprises. 

It was bad enough that the audience gets thrown into the deep end with little explanation. (And with information that doesn't match info previously given in other films!) Then we're "told" Alice survived a trap in D.C. but got to see none of it. New characters are thrown at us, but the audience is given no time to get to know them. Yet we're expected to care when they die...

Alice has 48 hours to get the antidote and save humanity. Yet the story has the characters waste hours upon hours preparing for a coming attack on the human "stronghold" rather than just go to the Hive to save what little of the human race is left. Instead, Alice leaves herself two measly hours to break into and infiltrate a giant underground facility and find the elusive antidote. One that could be locked up anywhere in the facility and not easily accessible. Right...

Wesker's job is to keep people out of the Hive. He knows Alice is coming. He and Isaacs keep talking about doing lockdowns and having all the security primed. So what does he do? He keeps the giant door leading into the hive WIDE OPEN! Even taking into account the supposed "power grid issues" he still had plenty of time to close the thing but doesn't. (What's hilarious about the super convenient "power grid issues" is that if they truly had rolling power outages, all of the people in the cryo tubes would be DEAD!)

Don't get me started on how the "power grid issues" get used to make convenient problems for the infiltrators. Ugh. 

As if the plot issues weren't bad enough, they ruined most of the action shots with shaky cam, blinking lights, wobbly angles and any excuse to not get a good clear shot of the action. Made no sense. You'd get one impressive bit of fighting, then a ton of jerky crap you couldn't keep track of. *sigh*

4) Stunts - Thumbs Up: Lots of stunts and neatly choreographed battle scenes. But they too suffered from the horrible shaky cam, wobbly angles, and strobe light effects. Boo! It was frustrating to get something super cool and then something almost unrecognizable. Double boo!

5) Music - Total Thumbs Up: The one bright spot of the movie was the music. Paul Haslinger's "A Force so Evil" track which is used as the film opens got the blood flowing and built a growing sense of excitement. Too bad the plot and bad filming couldn't follow through on what he created with the score. 

Conclusion: The final installment in the "Resident Evil" saga will not leave a good impression overall. Bad plots might be expected in films like these, but when they muck with the action, they've drained what little fun could be had at all.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better for Matinee.) 

Movie Review - Resident Evil: Retribution

Resident Evil: Retribution

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriguez, Aryana Engineer, Bingbing Li, Boris Kodjoe, Johann Urb, Robin Kasyanov, Kevin Durand, Ofilio Portillo, Oded Fehr, Colin Salmon, Shawn Roberts, and more.

Directed by: Paul W S Anderson Writing Credits: Paul W S Anderson Cinematography by: Glen MacPherson Original Music by: tomandandy (Tom Hadju and Andy Milburn)

Premise: Captured after the unexpected attack by a brainwashed Jill at the end of "Resident Evil: Afterlife," Alice finds help from an unexpected source - her sworn enemy, Albert Wesker. His agent Ada and a small team of men have been tasked with setting Alice free and destroying Umbrella's underwater Siberian base. The Red Queen, Umbrella's AI, who has now taken over the facility, will not make the task easy. (Rated R)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: The film gives unexpected avenues for the stars to show their acting acumen. Milla Jovovich has always done well in her action film roles, but we get to see another side of her talents in the early Suburbia section of the movie as a suburban housewife fighting for her life and reacting from it. Michelle Rodriguez also gets to show a different side as she too has multiple roles in the film. Aryana Engineer gave a good and layered performance despite her young years. The fact her character was handicapped and used voice and sign to communicate allowed for deeper layers for the character of Becky.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: As with each of the preceding "Resident Evil" film, the budget for this one was high, and they made great use of it. Some true hard work went into the film and it showed.

They did a great job integrating the zones of the base with computer simulations and tracking systems used by the Red Queen. They made great visuals and also kept the audience informed on who was where. The attention to detail was high and really came through as the groups traveled through the different zones.

There were fights and explosions galore. And in a nice reversal, we even got chainsaw wielding zombies! The amount of flying bullet casings was quite impressive as well. Dumb zombies, hungry zombies, Russian smart zombies,  even armed and rocket launcher wielding zombies, it was a veritable smorgasbord of 'zombiness', which was a lot of fun.

There were the occasional segments of infinite bullet syndrome, but they did make the attempt to stay realistic on occasion.

The opening sequence was both unusual and attention grabbing. The franchise has always been very good with their openings - this one was one of the best.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: In previous reviews of the franchise I'd made the statement that as the budget went up, the story quality went down. I am rather pleased to say that in this instance, they broke the pattern. Of a whole, they kept the story simple and strait forward, which helped to keep it from careening into plot holes or other issues the "Resident Evil" films have shown in the past.

For those who've not watched the previous films, they have a quick recap picking up some of the most important details to share with the audience so they know what's what. For those who've watched them all, you'll get the added treat of seeing many of the characters from some of the previous films brought back, though not exactly as you've met them before. Made for some fun contrast and also gave some of the actors a chance to shine in a different line from the usual action personas.

A definite fun bit was the recreation of the opening sequence where the virus first showed up in Tokyo, Japan in "Resident Evil: Afterlife." They even got the same Japanese Business Man (Takato Yamashita) and the J Pop Girl (Mika Nakashima) to reprise their roles. Nice!

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: The choreography during the fights were 'top notch.' Combine them with the great special effects, and it made for a fabulous viewing experience. The fight with Alice, the chain, the gun, and the Japanese zombies will stay with me for a long time - it was a work of art. Everyone gave their best and then some.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: The panning scene where you see exactly where Alice is when she escapes part of her prison was utterly breathtaking. Water was a recurring theme and used in some very imaginative ways. Loved the visual with Michelle Rodriguez towards the end.

The recreations of New York, Moscow, Tokyo, and American suburbia were exquisite. It made the contrast even better when the illusion would occasionally crack and show the facility beneath. There were several rooms in the base proper that had great impact due to the use of light. Loved the lighting up sequence at the central hub. Lots and lots of visuals to keep the eyes occupied.

Conclusion: A lot more fun than I was expecting. Definitely one to check out. Just the high doses of action will keep the audience's adrenaline pumping to high levels throughout. And yes, we get left in a cliff hanger - AGAIN.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Paying Full Price to See Again)

Movie Review - The Three Muketeers

The Three Musketeers

Starring: Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Orlando Bloom, Logan Lerman, Madds Mikkelsen, Christoph Waltz, Freddie Fox, Gabriella Wilde, Juno Temple, James Corden and more.

Directed by: Paul W S Anderson Screenplay by: Alex Litvak and Andrew Davies  Based on the Novel by: Alexandre Dumas Original Music by: Paul Haslinger


Premise: D'Artagnan leaves home to go to Paris to join the King's Musketeers. However, when he finds them, he's told the musketeers are no more and that all is not well in France as Cardinal Richlieu plays for power with the young king. Then the Cardinal sets a plot in motion, helped along by Milady de Winter, which may push England and France to war unless the Musketeers regain their drive and go put a stop to it. (Rated PG-13)

Review:  If you've followed my reviews for a while, you've come to know I have certain things I will see no matter who or what put them together - the Three Musketeers is one of those.

Be prepared. If you're a purist, this movie is not for you. If anachronisms bother you - not for you. However, if you want something fun, fast paced, with some innovative ideas, and fresh takes on some of the beloved characters thrown in, plus lots of great fights and some explosions - this IS for you!

Yes - Alexandre Dumas meets Mission Impossible meets Wrath of Khan. I kid you not! (For those of you with SF flowing through your veins, you'll know what I mean when you get there. Try to restrain yourselves from standing up and yelling out "KHAN!" If I can do it, so can you. :P)

Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham is nothing like you'll be expecting and he was a total BLAST! Milla Jovovich was actually a very fun Milady even with the stolen signature moves from her Resident Evil films. Freddie Fox was a totally wonderful King  Louis, he was great for comedic relief, several touching moments, and more.

Sadly Christoph Waltz and Madds Mikkelsen didn't get enough face time to show the true oozing Evil they can be. Mr. Mikkelsen suffered the most, but he did get an awesome sword fight, so that made up for a lot. The rest of the cast did great work as well, even those with minor bits.

The beginning credits and several other sections did wonderful maps with miniatures and even had them do things. Very innovative and worked extremely well! 

The sets, the costumes, all top notch! And even accurate. As I mentioned earlier, however, the dialogue is incredibly modern with many cliche phrases thrown in. And very few, if any of the actors, actually had French accents. Still, a lot of good dialogue zingers, and even some Word Fu, which was quite nice.

The general plot and a lot of details are just like the Three Musketeers novel (though it's been a LONG time since I read it) and looked like some homage was paid to the Three Musketeers film with Michael York. (That one wasn't entirely serious rendition either, though more tongue-in-cheek I think than this one.)

With some Da Vinci inventions thrown in we even get some Airship Fu. And they still gave us several just darn fun sword fighting scenes to get our musketeer on.

So overall, the movie was way too much fun! Fast paced, lots of comedic touches, good sword fu, airship fu, some word fu, betrayals, politics, fantastical science but not way-way over the top. If you want a fast romp with lots to see and hear and FUN, this one's for you.

Rating:  4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Would Pay Full Price to See It Again!)