Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) Screen Gems/Action-Horror RT: 95 minutes Rated R (strong violence throughout) Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Screenplay: Paul W.S. Anderson Music: tomandandy Cinematography: Glen MacPherson Release date: September 14, 2012 (US) Starring: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriguez, Aryana Engineer, Johann Urb, Li Bingbing, Shawn Roberts, Kevin Durand, Oded Fehr, Boris Kodjoe, Colin Salmon. Box Office: $42.3M (US)/$240.1M (World)
Rating: ***
For better or for worse, here we go with Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth installment of the popular video game movie series. Fans will be pleased to know that it’s a slight improvement over Afterlife. It’s also equally as silly as any given entry in the series.
In my opinion, the most significant thing about the Resident Evil films is how each one openly borrows from other movies in the sci-fi/horror/action genre. Over the course of four movies, I’ve seen nods to Escape from New York, The Road Warrior, Day of the Dead and The Matrix. You can now add Aliens to the list. In this latest chapter of the Alice (Jovovich) saga, she must protect a little girl from a big slimy monster while trying to escape from yet another underground facility, this time in Moscow. Can we say Ripley and Newt? The kid’s name is Becky (Engineer, Orphan) and, depending on which reality the characters find themselves in, she may or may not be Alice’s daughter. Say what? It’s okay, I’ll clear up this last statement momentarily.
Allow me to preface my synopsis of the plot by saying that Resident Evil: Retribution is the wildest entry in the series. It appears as though writer-director Anderson hit a real creative stride with this flick. It doesn’t necessarily make it the best of the Resident Evil movies, but it certainly makes it stand out a lot better than the previous installment.
Resident Evil: Retribution picks up exactly where Afterlife left off. A fleet of airships attacks the Arcadia and all of the survivors on board including Alice. The attack is led by Jill Valentine (Guillory), Alice’s ally from Apocalypse. She’s now under the control of the Umbrella Corporation; she’s wearing the same mind control device on her chest that Alice found on Claire Redfield in the previous chapter. Alice gets captured and taken to the Umbrella facility in Moscow. It’s there that we see Alice in an alternate reality. She’s a suburban housewife in Raccoon City. She lives in a nice house with her husband Carlos (Fehr) and hearing-impaired daughter Becky. Their morning routine is interrupted by a zombie attack. Alice grabs Becky and attempts to flee. Suddenly, she wakes up and finds herself imprisoned in the Moscow facility. Jill shows up and attempts to interrogate her with no success. The power unexpectedly goes out and Alice manages to escape from her cell. This is when things get really strange.
Alice finds herself battling zombies in Tokyo; it’s a re-enactment from the first scene in Afterlife. Then she finds herself back at Umbrella where she encounters Albert Wesker (Roberts) and his top associate Ada Wong (Bingbing). It turns out he’s the one who helped her escape from her cell; he and Ada no longer work for Umbrella. The Red Queen (remember her from the first movie?) now controls everything and wants Project Alice terminated. It also turns out that the Moscow facility is the testing ground for their biological warfare experiments, hence the formation of replicas of major cities from around the world. Wesker has arranged for a team of commandos to infiltrate the facility (located underwater) and rescue Alice and Ada. Together, they must reach the point of exit within two hours while fighting off Jill and her mercenaries. They also face off against super-zombies and other mutated creatures. Whew! Did you get all that?
Eventually, Resident Evil: Retribution becomes a more standard kind of horror-sci-fi-actioner with the heroes attempting to dodge some pretty nasty adversaries. Danger lurking around every corner, little girl in peril, a really ugly monster, a confined space ….. you’ll find all this and more right here. It shouldn’t work as well as it does, but dammit, this flick is entertaining!
Once again, the ladies are in charge and they’re just as tough as ever. This installment brings together the ladies of Resident Evil movies past. Alice, Jill and Rain (Rodriguez) who’s either an ally or enemy depending on which reality the action takes place. Ada Wong makes a nice addition to the gallery of female bad asses. Of course, there’s no denying that Jovovich leads the pack. I wish all tough girls looked that hot.
Resident Evil: Retribution has plenty of great action sequences as well as some fairly decent special effects. This time around, Anderson appears to abandon his usual “style over substance” directorial style and make a movie with a half-decent plot. Sure, it’s as silly as they come and it’s all done very loudly, but somehow it actually works. I know that I shouldn’t like the Resident Evil movies, but there’s something about Alice that makes me keep coming back every time one of these movies come out. They’re still the best of the video game movies. I guess that I still have a few traces of the teenage Movie Guy 24/7 that would show up on opening weekend every time a new Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street movie came out. Some things just never die, but who says that’s a bad thing? One thing’s for sure, I’ll be back in two or three years when the sixth Resident Evil movie comes out.
