The Sci-Fi Chronicles now brings me to the most recent installment of the film adaptation of the Capcom videogame, Resident Evil. This one, finds Alice (Milla Jovovich) in some strange territory after we see how the attack on the Arcadia played out… she wakes up in suburbia, and is surrounded by familiar faces like Oded Fehr, Colin Salmon and Michelle Rodriguez, she also finds herself mother to a small deaf girl, Becky (Aryana Engineer).

Or at least this version  of her.

Alice is once again in an Umbrella facility, this one located deep under the ice in a former Russian submarine pen. There are a number of sites within the facility depicting locations around the world, this is how Umbrella sold their bioweapons by giving demonstrations in realistic settings, i.e. showing the Russians how things would play out in American suburbia, or showing the Chinese the way things would happen in Tokyo.

She, Rain (Rodriguez) and Becky need to find their way out, but they aren’t alone against the legions of undead and the mutations that are stalking them. They are joined this time by Ada Wong (Bingbing Li) who is the spearhead of a group that includes Luther (Boris Kodjoe), Leon S. Kennedy (Johann Urb) and Barry Burton (an under-used Kevin Durand) that is planning to break out Alice, and put paid to Umbrella.

Working for Umbrella now, thanks to a scarab-like control device is Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and she poses a threat to Alice, as without her powers, she can be beaten, wounded, and killed just like everyone else.

A couple of questions are raised when they stumble upon the clones… was everyone in the original Raccoon City a clone, or were they cloned, or when someone signs up for service to Umbrella are they cloned and therefore in servitude forever?

Anyway…

As the heroes race through the complex fighting monsters, creatures, and beating one boss after another, they race towards a climax when allies now enemies face off before preparing for one final onslaught against the Undead… (which will apparently be the Final Chapter in the film series).

Wesker (Shawn Roberts) is back, and he’s still a complete D-bag, and seemingly increasingly cardboard-like, but I guess that’s the character. He’s a one note creation, no matter what side he claimes to be on.

This one, of all of them, feels the most like a video-game, which is saying something because all of them to some degree feel like a game, but it’s predictable (don’t get me wrong, still mindless fun) to the point of being able to walk away for stretches at a time and come back and know exactly what has and is about to happen.

So can I heartily recommend this series, I really can’t, like I said, it’s a guilty pleasure. But if the undead,women kicking ass, and paper-thin plots based on videogames is your thing, you may like them!