Alice is back in the fifth installment of the popular zombie franchise “Resident Evil: Retribution”, and to continue with the theme of its predecessors, she is the human’s last hope to save the world from the living dead.
Alice, played by Milla Jovovich, must once again fight through vast adversity to save Earth. The film begins where the last one left off– a slow motion, rewinding flashback to the Arcadia under attack by the Umbrella Corporation.
The film then cuts to a suburban home where Alice has a husband and daughter and then suddenly chaos ensues and Alice must find a way out of what seems to be the beginning of the zombie apocalypse caused by the T-virus outbreak. Or so one may think.
Alice then wakes up in a room and finds herself in an Umbrella Corporation base surrounded by rooms resembling major cities across the world that simulate the event of a T-virus outbreak.
The rest of the film follows Alice as she and a few friends attempt to escape and resume her role as the world’s heroine.
“Retribution” has taken a back seat to previous films in the franchise. Many of the fight scenes involved impressive choreography but lacked originality. A tendency to stay in one room during fight scenes made it predictable as to what was going to happen with the one way in, one way out setup.
The storyline at times can be a bit confusing. If unaware of the movie’s predecessors, many references to previous films would make it difficult to understand the plot. Although past characters, such as Jill Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory, and Rain Ocampo, portrayed by Michelle Rodriguez, returned, the story remains basically the same with one common goal and the story heavily revolving around one character.
Not all was bad with the new “Resident Evil”. There were enhanced mutated killing machines that provided a “David vs.. Goliath” feel to the film. The choreography of the fight scenes were nerve racking, having Alice do impossible back flips and then proceeding to hit a zombie in the face with a metal chain.
“Resident Evil: Retribution” did not have great acting, a clear storyline and had an ending that may leave its fans with just one more film in the zombie horror franchise.
2/5 stars
