Review of Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) by Dukejon — 27 Jan 2013

More of the same from the Resident Evil franchise; little more than a sequence of bullet-time gunfights featuring babes in latex carrying SMGs mowing down zombies or black-suited bad guys. It's a shame, as there is a lot of the story they could take the time to explore; such as the T-Virus, how the survivors are doing, etc. Instead we get a film that is essentially as dumb as a first person shooter video game. No plot to speak of ("Escape base". Again.), cookie-cutter square jawed heroes and pantomime villains like Wesker. Reminds me a lot of the Underworld series. The first Matrix film proved that you can have latex, sunglasses and bullet time and it doesn't mean you can't have an interesting story to hang it off.

Another problem is that a lot of the characters keep coming back as clones. Why should we care if someone dies if they can appear in the next reel, brand new? They are constantly changing sides as well. The plot is paper-thin - just like a video game we travel from one environment to another (New York, Moscow, Sewer) and once all the grunts are dealt with an end of level boss appears. Playing video games is fun. Watching someone else playing them... not so much. Still, Alice and Valentine look nice in those costumes and all the bullet-porn and cgi is kind of exciting in a lowbrow way whilst it's going on. I just wish the producers would set their standards a little higher.