¨ My name is Alice, and this is my world. ¨
Resident Evil was in my opinion the best movie
adapted from a videogame thanks in most part to Milla Jovovich. Almost all
other films have failed to make the transition from videogame to film, but
there was something special about seeing this heroin fighting off the undead.
What began as a horror film eventually turned into a nonstop action film in the
following sequels: Apocalypse, Extinction, Afterlife, and now in the fifth one
Retribution. I enjoyed some of the previous sequels although to a much lesser
degree than the original. I was just fascinated with Jovovich`s character,
Alice, that I didn’t mind that Resident Evil was quickly turning into an action
franchise. Finally in Retribution I realized it was just getting too old and
mind numbing. I was really disappointed with this film, although my
expectations were lowered by the previous sequels. I was hoping that since some
of the characters from the original film would be back that the film would go
back to the horror genre, but instead it was much more action packed than the
rest with so many characters that I just lost interest in the film. My love for
Alice diminished after the first 30 minutes of Retribution and I was hoping the
film would end soon. The acting in this film is terrible (not that it wasn’t in
the other sequels, but it is even worse here) and I really didn’t enjoy any of
the characters. The plot was also very hard to follow at first and I feel that
every time a new film starts they forget about everything that was left untold
in the previous films. It`s as if they want these films to stand on their own,
but they keep on raising questions and then never answer them.
Retribution picks up right where Afterlife
ended with Alice (Milla Jovovich) and the few survivors from the apocalyptic
world in the Arcadia ship being attacked by planes from the Umbrella Corporation
with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) commanding them. During the attack Alice
manages to bring down one of the planes before jumping off the ship to the
water. After she awakes we see her locked up somewhere in a clandestine
Umbrella facility where she is continually interrogated by Valentine who is
receiving orders from the Red Queen (a computer that controls the entire
Umbrella system). Then all of a sudden there is a security breach and Alice is
able to escape and finds she`s in Tokyo or some place similar. She is attacked by
the virus infested people and manages to make her way back to the facility.
Here she is helped by Ada Wong (Bingbing Li) who tells her she has been held
captive by the Red Queen and that she has helped her escape. She also lets
Alice know that she was still in the facility and that she just had entered a
simulation of Tokyo created by the evil corporation to train their soldiers.
Ada works for Alice`s enemy, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) who claims to be
helping her since he needs her help after having lost control of the
corporation. Albert has also sent some other men to rescue her including Luther
(Boris Kodjoe), Leon (Johann Urb), and Barry (Kevin Durand). Together they will
have to find a way to survive the undead and escape the facility, although the
Red Queen has some surprises along the way: Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) and One
(Colin Salmon) have been cloned and also receive orders from the Queen.
Despite being introduced to some of the old
characters, in Retribution the Redfield brothers and K-Mart are left out along
with several other plot elements. The main problem I had with this Paul W.S.
Anderson film was the over abundance of action and characters. It was just too
much for me. The best part of the film happened in the beginning in a scene
that reminded me a lot of the original and had me fooled it was returning to
the horror genre. It was a scene involving Alice waking up in her suburban home
along with her daughter Becky (Aryana Engineer) and her husband Todd (Oded
Fehr). Everything seemed like it was back to normal until some zombies began
invading their home. Those 5 minutes where the most suspenseful and intense
moment of the film. I just wished the film would`ve stayed that way instead of
returning to the action packed scenes with hardly any scares or dialogues. It
was just one action scene after another and nothing new was added to this film.
I was really disappointed with Retribution and it will probably be among my
list of the worst movies of the year.
