(Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)
Reviews for the latest Resident Evil movie have been mixed on its third act. Based on the video game series of the same name, this new addition to the fan-beloved franchise has been directed by Zach Cregger.
While the movie has received largely positive reviews, critics are divided over its third act. In Resident Evil (2026), the third act shifts into a chaotic and fast-paced finale inside an Umbrella Corporation laboratory. Here, earlier character subplots fade out into heavy monster action, leading to an abrupt, open-ended conclusion.
As Pickety Witch‘s Amelia Emberwing noted in her review, the third act of the film lost her. She wrote, “I’m not going to spoil the specifics of the conclusion, but there is an absurd slapstick-y quality to it that doesn’t gel with the rest of the film. The shift from funny to goofy ripped me right out of the story, and the film’s ending only compounds the issue. The final battle is nonsense, robbing of any real “climax,” and then the film simply ends.”
Meanwhile, Don Kaye noted in his review for Moviefone, “Even if the last third drags a bit before going a little too haywire (Cregger doing his best to top the previous hour or so), with an ending that all but screams ‘sequel,’ the movie’s tight 90-plus minute runtime guarantees that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.”
Despite the controversial third act, the new Resident Evil movie is getting great reviews
Although the third act takes some significant creative swings, with some critics thinking it’s the best part of the movie while others think this is where the movie completely “loses” them, Resident Evil (2026) is still earning some pretty great reviews.
Kaye, for one, called the film “a great horror movie” from Cregger. He mentioned that, as compared to Cregger’s Weapons and Barbarian, “this one draws a straight line from start to finish” and “amps up the comic aspects glimpsed in both those films, escalating it to an anarchic, gleeful high while still finding just the right balance of genuine dread, some heart-stopping jump scares (aided by excellent sound), and clearly defined, frightening stakes.”
Or, as Syntell noted in a review on YouTube: “The ending earns everything it is building toward. You spend the whole movie rooting for Bryan, and the final stretch will leave your mouth hanging open. This is a ten out of ten for me, an A+ without a doubt, and it belongs in the conversation for one of the best video game adaptations ever made.”
The movie follows Bryan Hodukavich (played by Austin Abrams), a hapless courier who has to deliver a package to a remote hospital. Things soon go awry as he finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak. To survive, he must fight through hordes of bloodthirsty, mutated creatures.
Resident Evil (2026) is currently playing in theaters now.
Originally reported on SuperHeroHype.com.
