<Sigh> This is getting really old and boring. A movie series based on the video game franchise that does not seem to declare itself worn and torn, is like a boy band that just won't accept that its star has faded. If a long-winded movie review is something I should be devising, then I must be off my rocker because nothing is anything different from before. Resident Evil: Retribution is just the same as always like its predecessors: little plot, unwatchable acting, ear-aching and repetitive dialogue, unjustifiable reprises of actors and characters, incessant slow motion, tedious action sequences, and connections to the games without reason.
If I can actually gather this, the story revolves flooding an Umbrella Base in the former Soviet Union (Russia). With Umbrella's Tokyo HQ decimated, there is this one in Russia that remains to be decimated. But there is still so little to gather from this movie in terms of a plot.
What is there to expect? Slow motion reverse opening credit shot that will soon just play in forward motion after Alice's boring prologue; more exposition than actual story; wooden acting and static choreography; gratuitous reprising actors/characters without any reason or logic; never-ending presence of product placements. And do watch out for some one-liners. Do not also expect any real suspense in this movie for it just happens when least expected.
Watching this movie there are many scenes of gun battle that just get as old as fight scenes from The Matrix: Reloaded that occur too frequently. You will notice that other than Alice (Milla Jovovich), One (Colin Salmon), Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) and Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). The first two of these guys were just clones of the originals while Wesker should have stayed dead after the last explosion that powerful enough to decimate half of Tokyo. There was simply no reason to bring him back at all. This sequel can be equated to The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix as far as Wesker and Agent Smith are concerned.
You want to know what else has surfaced? It turns out that various humans are cloned and assigned different life roles as part of a simulation of a bio-hazard outbreak. This definitely sounds like a video game from the Sim franchise. No wonder Rodriguez plays two different characters in this film, good and bad respectively. It just seems so daunting enough for Alice to tell the difference.
To this movie's credit they did at least have The Red Queen upgraded and visible on screen more than once throughout this movie. It is clear that she has control over all the bio-hazards in the facility, including the Axemen; thus amending the mistake from Afterlife in which there was no transparent indication of anyone responsible for their liberation.
Recycling is good, but not when it comes to movies. I doubt this movie was designed to make overall improvements, and I do not think it was designed to be a movie but an actual video game it is based on, only that it is a video game you cannot control. Other than the action scenes, advertisement is ever present throughout this flick, notably in the New York simulation where they are illuminated on neon signs on every wall around.
I must also note that this is another one of the Resident Evil entries that feature at least one child character: Resident Evil (2002), Apocalypse (2004), Extinction (2007) as well as this film but not including Afterlife (2010). Plus this is also another one of the movies that must surely include at least one instance of the bullet time inspired by The Matrix (1999); though Extinction is excluded.
<Spoiler Alert> The ending indicates that the next sequel will be the final entry in this long-running video game movie franchise. I will not be leaving a fond farewell to a franchise that was losing more flavor than organic candy. Let it be a lesson to anyone that video games do not make good movies unless the formula is innovative and original. Resident Evil: Retribution is just one big advert for every product whose company sponsored this movie.
