Title: RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Script: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich , Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory
Released: OUT NOW
Run time: 95 minutes
Rated: 15
In this fifth instalment of the multi-million dollar franchise Alice must once again fight the Undead to save the world. The film also stars Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory, Kevin Durand and Boris Kodjoe, and features the popular game characters Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, the Red Queen and Dr. Wesker. The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead.
Alice awakens in an Umbrella base that serves as a testing ground for experiments she and other characters from the series have to escape from the base against the will of the Red Queen who wants to kill Alice. They have to work their way through different environments such as New York and Tokyo with different threats.
It’s fair to say that there is a certain amount of style over substance on offer here but I don’t think that’s a huge problem and it’s clearly what writer/director Paul WS Anderson does best. The Resident Evil series is pretty short on plotting and what plot there is does tend to be fairly confused or confusing, but that’s not really what they are about. They are zombie-killing films. And if that’s all you want from them (like me) then they are endlessly fun.
The Resident Evil films always look pretty slick, especially on blu-ray, are excitingly fast-paced, full of hyper-kenetic action, fighting, shooting, and stunts. On the flip side, there is also some wooden acting and cheesy dialogue, but that’s part of the fun of this sort of film isn’t it? Oh and let’s not talk about exposition – I stopped listening after the first instalment. I don’t really care about the paper-think storylines. I skip through the story cut scenes on the games as well. I’m all about instant gratification and killing zombies.
Resident Evil Retribution is actually, in my opinion, the best sequel of the series. It’s very watchable. I think Resident Evil fans are going to be pleased with this instalment. And I don’t think we’ve reached the end yet. Reports suggest that there will be (at least) one more film that is already planned as a conclusion to this long running, well-loved, series. I don’t think many Resident Evil fans will be at all disappointed by Retribution, or the promise of more instalments. Keep them coming… just like the zombies… they just won’t die.
Blu-ray Special Features
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Six featurettes:
- Maestro of Evil: Directing Resident Evil: Retribution
- Evolving Alice
- Resident Evil: Reunion
- Design & Build: The World of Resident Evil: Retribution
- Resident Stuntman
- Code: Mika
• Project Alice: The Interactive Database
