PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*
In my review of the fifth and next-to-last installment of the RESIDENT EVIL series, I opined that it may have been weaker in its spectacular elements because the producers were saving their better work for this "final chapter."
Sure enough, FINAL, in addition to wrapping up the story-arc for its memory-impaired heroine Alice, boasts some impressive action-scenes. A particular standout appears in the first thirty minutes, when Alice is caught in a noose-trap, so that she's forced to hang upside-down as the marauding trappers converge on her. The heroine promptly decimates all of her attackers and goes on with her mission.
An earlier installment conveniently destroyed most of the world's population (off-camera) with the Umbrella Corporation's malignant T-virus. FINAL offers the palliative of an anti-virus, capable of eradicating the T-virus, allowing for humanity to recover once all of the virally created zombies have expired. The downside: since Alice's system was enhanced by the original virus, the release of the cure will probably doom her.
The selfish heads of the Umbrella Corp have no interest in humanity's rebirth, since they're fine with letting the rest of the people perish while the plutocrats live on in their technological domains. But one of their servants-- the computer intelligence the Red Queen, seen in earlier episodes-- wants to protect humanity. The Queen renders aid to Alice and warns her that one of the members of her resistance group is a traitor.
In addition to assorted kickass fight-scenes, FINAL also unravels the mystery of Alice's origins, which are as might expect, intimately tied to the Umbrella Corporation's operations. Paul W.S. Anderson, who returned to both directing and writing duties for the finale, comes up with a good way to test Alice's inherent heroism, and to allow her crusade to go on even after she's saved the planet-- quite ignoring the film's advertising catch-phrase, "Finish the Fight." Jovavich turns in a strong performance for the character that in all likelihood will be her defining role.
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