5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Alice returns to where the nightmare began: The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts (II), Eoin MackenAction | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 74% |
Horror | 60% |
Thriller | 51% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Castilian and Latin American Spanish; Polish VO
English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
UV digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
All good things come to an end. So too do mediocre and bad things. The Resident Evil franchise falls somewhere in that middle "mediocre" pack, standing as, arguably (and there's not a lot of room for argument), the best movie series ever based on a video game. Where most of them have fallen flat or, worse, completely embarrassed themselves, Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil series is a beacon of competence, excitement, and storytelling, none of those (save, perhaps, "competence") at any sort of high level but enough to keep the series relatively strong at six films and entertaining audiences in search of agreeable post-apocalyptic mayhem, replete with excess violence, monsters, gunplay, clever kills, and mostly well-developed characters along the way. This "final chapter" doesn't deviate much from the formula, seeing the movie return to its roots and complete Alice's story of violent adventure through a dead world, finally getting to the heart of Umbrella Corporation and fighting to put an end to the madness that has defined her life, or at least the life that she can remember.
Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was reportedly photographed
at 5K and finished at 4K. The end result on UHD is interesting to say the least. The movie doesn't necessarily lend itself to a dazzling presentation.
As noted
in
the review of the 1080p Blu-ray (also included in this
package),
the film isn't a looker. It's naturally pasty and flat, largely devoid of color beyond shades of brown in its first half and gray and blue in its second half.
The UHD, which is also HDR enhanced, does add a noticeable bit of depth to the color. The palette, as bland as it may be, appears noticeably deeper
even prior to performing an A-B comparison (watching the movie again several hours after the first 1080p viewing). Even as the image takes on a
deliberately mucky appearance at the beginning, it's clearly firmer, more nuanced, more evenly and accurately saturated. The HDR enhancement
never inherently
alters the movie's
color texture. The film feels as it should; it's just enhanced to a mild, but evident, degree. That said, the many darker backdrops and
nighttime
settings struggle. Black levels cannot maintain depth. Snowy noise and macroblocking effects plague most every dark corner, sometimes, often,
really, in an extreme, distracting, almost debilitating manner. The effect is significantly reduced to downright unnoticeable on the Blu-ray.
The
film's already artificial-looking appearance remains on the UHD. Even as the film was finished at 4K and presented at 4K, detailing doesn't offer any
serious, massive upgrade over the 1080p Blu-ray. At best, detailing takes a very small uptick by way of increased sharpness. But again it's the
movie's
natural, pasty, low-light state that seems to hold it back. There's not much room for improvement even on ragged, jagged, destroyed landscapes or
the
finer, cleaner, sharper environments inside Umbrella. No matter where the movie goes, improvements to clothes, skin, and environments rarely
exceeds the minimum. Considering the unattractive and plagued blacks, it's actually valid to say that the Blu-ray offers a better overall watch, even
considering the lack of firmer colors and the minute improvements in detailing the UHD does offer.
Sony has once again reserved a premiere soundtrack for the UHD, and it doesn't disappoint. While the Blu-ray's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is stellar, the UHD's Atmos presentation takes things to another level. The track's ability to create a fuller, richer, more involved, more accurate, more immersive listen is something else. Take the sequence early in the film when Alice is summed by The Red Queen. Blaring air raid sirens scream with incredible room-filling depth and overhead dimension. The same can be said for the whirring, clanking, clicking dot matrix printer that hauntingly echoes throughout its room. The Queen's reverberating voice creates a presence much more gratifying, filling, and spookier than the 7.1 track can offer. Environments simply feel more complete, and that carries over to action too. While music maintains the same aggressive sharpness-meets-clarity sensation (combined with superbly deep bass), the sense of chaos is greater, more involved. That added layer -- here including four Atmos speakers -- makes most everything more dynamic, more intense. The track opens up considerably at times. Baseline effects, notably dialogue, remain firmly planted in the front-center and offer no issues with clarity or prioritization. Atmos is no gimmick, and that's made clear by this track in particular: this is a true reference listen.
Aside from Sony's usual compliment of bonuses on the 4K disc, which includes the Cast and Crew photo tab and the collection of categorized
Moments from the film (2160p/HDR/Atmos) -- Alice (21:46), The Red Queen (10:33), Dr. Isaacs (13:19), and
Zombies (13:44) -- there are no extras on the UHD disc. The extras below may be found on the included 1080p Blu-ray disc. A UV digital
copy
voucher is also included with purchase.
The last Resident Evil film isn't the best, but it's the most important, with the possible exception of the first one. It's stylistically every bit Resident Evil, but its various revelations make it, obviously, a must-see for fans, even if the action isn't particularly groundbreaking or, frankly, even all that exciting in the grand scheme of things. Anderson and company do well to bring it all full circle, including some moments that hearken back to the original, on the way to wrapping it up nice and tidy but certainly leaving some wiggle room for a spin-off or sequel. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter's UHD is a tale of two presentations. On one hand, the Atmos audio is superb and makes for one of the best reference Atmos tracks on the market. On the other hand, the UHD's 2160p/HDR video presentation offers modest-at-best, negligible-at-worst upgrades to a naturally dull film, and problematic blacks arguably make the Blu-ray the better choice. But the Atmos soundtrack is that good, and for those who can decode both it and the 4K video, this is the way to go, though it must be said that throughout this reviewer's movie watching life and reviewing career, audio quality has always been preferred to video quality.
2016
2016
The Complete Collection
2016
2016
2007
2004
2002
2012
2010
2013
2007
Ultimate Collector's Edition
1986
バイオハザード:ディジェネレーション / Biohazard: Degeneration
2008
3-Disc Set
2010
1987
2004
バイオハザード ヴェンデッタ / Biohazard: Vendetta
2017
Special Edition
2000
バイオハザード ダムネーション / Biohazard: Damnation
2012
2011
2011
40th Anniversary Edition
1979
2009
2009