You've seen its genesis. You've witness the apocalypse that slowly leads to mankind's extinction. You've experienced the afterlife. And now, The Umbrella Corporation is back with their zombies in 3D but this time, they're bringing along new challenges and villains to stop Alice from saving the human race and from delivering her retribution in Resident Evil: Retribution.
Resident Evil: Retribution is the fifth installment to the live action Resident Evil franchise. It is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Afterlife) and is the second movie shot in 3D. The film picks up where Afterlife ends. Alice (Milla Jovovich) battles the ships, soldiers, and Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) summoned by Umbrella to kill her. After crashing one aircraft onto to Arcadia, Alice was thrown into the ocean unconscious. She wakes up and is now in one of Umbrella's testing facility where she tries to escape along with Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), Leon Kennedy (Johann Urb), and Barry Burton (Kevin Durand) but as she makes her way to escape Jill and Alice's former allies, Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), One (Colin Salmon), and Carlos (Oded Fehr) were sent by Umbrella for Alice's blood.
I've seen the film but only in 2D since money made 3D a bit impossible so I'll be removing the 3D aspect for this review.
The opening of Retribution has established that this movie is going to be more epic than the previous movies but that's just in the beginning. They were wrong because the rest of the film feels like a action thriller B-movie only sprinkled with well-choreographed fight scenes and heart-stopping action. But the film managed to put a little bit of emotion and that made the film stood out among the rest.
Retribution never disappoints with their promise of blood, intense violence, state-of-the-art visual effects, and fight scenes but don't expect for it to deliver a good story because just like the previous ones, this one is a bit of a flop when it comes to the story for its inconsistency (a thing I have notice after watching all the previous films before Retribution). Anderson tried to bring up the Aliens vibe here by bringing a kid who think she's Alice daughter, thus, trying to create a mother-daughter link between the two as they try to survive the horrors. Unfortunately, the character development is weak because all our attention is diverted to the action. The only strong point about the plot is the ending which promises a bigger set of events.
Like I said, the film has this B-movie feel and let me elaborate that one. The film may have all the good action and violence but the dialogue is like campy and cheesy. It's nothing memorable. And the acting part is a bit lacking. Milla Jovovich, as usual, looks good and prime in her Alice but the rest are just like cardboard characters.
One thing I'd like to point out is the series' direction. The first film, just like its source material, started off as a horror film. Apocalypse slightly detaches from the horror and sticking itself to the action genre. Extinction restores a bit of the horror in the franchise. Starting with Afterlife, all the horror is gone. The zombies can't be feared anymore. I'm starting to miss the fear in the franchise but unfortunately, looks like the filmmakers have decided to go on a different direction.
To sum up, Retribution still has the knack for all the good blood and violence it promises to deliver but with its inconsistent script, campy acting and dialogue, and generic plot, the film fails to deliver the ultimate movie-going experience. It may leave the fans of the film series with their fists in the air but for the video game fans and the rest of the audiences, they will leave with nothing.
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