Call the Resident Evil films  one of my guilty pleasures.  There are, with the one I’m about to review here, six of them.  Arguably that’s at least three too many and yet…

I dunno.

I dig ’em.

Having said that, I’d also be the last person in the world to argue these movies represent some kind of high water mark in the annals of actions/suspense/horror cinema.  Indeed, the second to last film in the series, Resident Evil: Retribution, I thought apart from an interesting setting proved to be pretty bad.

However, the first two films in the series, Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse, were, again in my opinion, quite good at delivering on the promise of action and suspense along with apocalyptic zombie related gore.

Almost all these films were written and/or directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, whose wife happens to be Milla Jovovich, the movies’ star.

So, after all these years, what do I think of the supposed “final chapter” in this series?

I think its a decent enough film that never swings too high nor falls too low, which is something of a shame as I wish I could say this was a truly brilliant send of to this series and Ms. Jovovich in what is arguably her best known role.

The movie opens with Alice (Jovovich) emerging into a devastated Washington D.C. and facing off against some of the nasties that now reside there.  Soon, she is contacted by the enigmatic A.I. which has alternately helped and hindered her.  In this case the A.I. tells her she must return to Racoon City, where this whole mess started, and release a chemical which will neutralize the man-made virus that devastated the world. (Most of this is found in the video I’ve embedded below)

Only problem is that Alice carries this virus within her and while it hasn’t made her a zombie like all the others -in fact, it may have made her the bad-ass super-hero she is- if she releases the counter-toxin, she will likely die along with all the other zombies.

I won’t give away too much more of the story -not that there is all that much more story to give away- but Alice meets at least one old friend along the way back and, together, they face off against another pair of old foes.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter does feel like a conclusion of sorts even though the film’s makers couldn’t quite bring themselves to ending it all.  There is wiggle room for another chapter in the saga though news of a “new” Resident Evil film series (you can read about that here) indicates that perhaps this might well be the last rodeo for Alice and her particular company.

If this is the case, this six film series was, at least to me, a pleasant enough diversion while it lasted.  Even if these works were never quite classics, they were entertaining and, sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for in a movie.

So, I raise a toast to Ms. Jovovich’s ass-kicking Alice.

If this is the last we’ll see of you, it’s been a fun ride.