At this point in the Resident Evil franchise, there have been almost about as many movies in the Resident Evil franchise as there have been the video game series it’s based on. At this point, the film series appears to be as undead as the zombies that star in it. But the beginning of the end is in fact near, as we now have the first screenshot of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Emphasis on the word "screen."
Film star Milla Jovovich posted the above image of her character Alice, with her back to the camera, on her Instagram account. The shot doesn’t give us much to go on, in fact it has what appears to be destruction in the background and Milla Jovovich looking like a badass in the foreground. In short, it is definitely a shot taken from a Resident Evil movie. If you’ve been one of the people waiting for this latest, and supposedly final sequel, all signs point to this being exactly what you were waiting for.
This first look at the latest Resident Evil film is so fresh, we have to assume they’re going over the dailies or some other sort of footage review. We're also going to assume she asked permission, as piracy is frowned upon in Hollywood, and leaks are more common than you'd think. Still, the shot is vague enough to be on the safer side of things, and this doesn't seem like the type of shot to cause too much of a security crisis.
The Final Chapter marks the sixth film in the series, which matches the quantity of numbered entries in the series. While the game Resident Evil 7 is on the way, all involved in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter are promising that this film will live up to its name and end the series. While we really want to believe that, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that this film has the same title as a certain Friday the 13th movie that wasn’t even close to being the end of that series. So you can't really blame us if we fully expect Paul W.S. Anderson to announce Resident Evil: A New Beginning in about 18 months. No, actually we don’t expect that. God, please don’t do that!
It has been a long road to the final chapter of the Resident Evil films, as we were supposed to have seen the film released this time last year. That changed really quickly when Jovovich came down with a serious case of pregnancy, resulting in the entire production having to be pushed back for some time. Just recently, the cast and crew of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter had gotten to work in South Africa, with an eye to a release next fall.
Resident Evil is by far the most successful series of films based on a video game. This is odd, as few would ever call it out as an example of a game being properly translated into film. Fewer still would call this a quality source of cinema, but it’s got zombies and guns, so someone's going to watch it. For now, we’ll focus on the positives and wait to see how Resident Evil: The Final Chapter will close the book next fall.
