Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) Review

https://youtu.be/hoyMT-7wEqs?is=pOzpuvRMRfmcWdhX

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sometimes, taking a step back should be the path to success. That was not the case when looking back at 2012’s Resident Evil: Retribution.


PLOT


The film takes place immediately following the events of Afterlife. The protagonist Alice, whistleblower of Umbrella Corporation, has been captured by the evil oppressors thanks to a brainwashed Jill Valentine. One of her clones would wake up in the suburbs believing she has a happy family, only to find herself die in a simulation of Raccoon City in the beginning of the T-Virus outbreak. The real Alice would be trapped in an underwater facility in a former Soviet outpost now used to test the virus’ effects, interrogated by Jill, but a power outage gives her a chance to be free from restraints. As she arms herself, she reaches the control room and meets one of Albert Wesker’s top agents, Ada Wong. Wesker himself then appears one of the screens to reveal hes no longer associated with Umbrella due to the artificial intelligence, the Red Queen (Meghan Charpentier), has taken over the Corporation, and needs her help to deactivate her for good to save what’s left of human kind. He admits to have staged the outage so that she & Ada can rendezvous with a rescue crew that includes: Leon S Kennedy (Johann Urb), Barry Burton (Kevin Durand), Antonio Rosato (Ofilio Portillo) and Luther West, the latter who already knows Alice back in Los Angeles. Luther’s team will plant explosives near the facility’s entrance with a two hour timer to ensure its destruction once they all escape together. Alice & Ada do reach the suburban simulation after passing through the New York simulation and Tony does die when passing through the Moscow simulation at the hands of a zombie horde, does the protagonist quickly bond with a cloned simulation of a daughter named Becky (Aryana Engineer). The two and Ada are quickly surrounded by other clones of Alice’s past allies: James Shade aka One, Carlos Oliviera & Rain Ocampo. They were sent to capture them, but that gets derailed when Ada stays behind to help the former two escape. When passing through the Moscow simulation does Alice try to trust the suburban clone of Rain, but an ambush by Jill leads to the clone getting killed by a Licker monster and Becky gets captured. Once Alice quickly saves her, Barry sacrifices himself to ensure everyone gets out in time. Jill & Rain still catch up to them in the snow via snowmobile, still holding Ada captive. Alice is able to rip the scarab  off Jill’s chest to regain control of her true self, but Rain injects herself with a parasite that makes her so strong that she incapacitates Leon and kills Luther. Knowing she’s too powerful to beat, Alice outsmarts her by shooting at the ice under them, resulting in zombies to drag the clone down. Once recuperating, all remaining survivors Wesker’s headquarters which is now a fortified White House. In the Oval Office does the film end in a cliffhanger with Wesker injecting Alice with another T virus strand that returns her previous powers so that she can save humanity from the Red Queen.


THOUGHTS


When a movie franchise turns 10 years old, it becomes the best time to play the nostalgic hits to keep us invested. But since Writer/Producer/Director Paul WS Anderson has been heavily distant from the source material from the beginning, there really isn’t anything to be excited about here. Nothing has really changed from the 3D effects that create the supposed suspense of zombies & mutants galore. The slow motion was so pointless when shooting at the scarab only to fucking graze it before finishing it off. While the costumes look great on everyone, the editing is so chopped up compared to past entries that it’s very annoying that I can’t ignore this time. I’m just at a point where I just feel nothing with this IP because the repetition is higher than a superhero movie. Alice starts out on her own and has a new crew to have her back mixed with at least two supporting players returning in the mix of it. Just because I’ve given my flowers to Michelle Rodriguez, Obed Fehr & Colin Salmon, does not mean I felt anything when they all returned as clones of Rain, Carlos and One. I want to be happy seeing Sienna Guillroy back as Jill, but her situation with the scarabs is inconsistent since she should’ve had the same amnesia problem as Claire Redfield. The fact she and her brother Chris disappear without explanation pisses me off. I don’t even care about Barry, Tony & Leon because I’m so focused with Borris Kodjoe back as Luther. He was a true ride or die compared to all of Alice’s friends because he rescued her without hesitation and it’s a shame he didn’t last longer. And you know what, Li Bingbing was not that interesting as Ada because she felt like a carbon copy of how we were first introduced to Jill & Rain, calmly heroic in the toughest of scenarios. She doesn’t bring anything new to the table even if she’s part of the games. None of this stuff takes away how Milla Jovovich remains a badass as Alice with all the plot armor she has before even getting her powers back, to remind audiences the value of protecting others for the greater good, hence doing so for Becky even when she’s not her actual kid, but the fact she still has to carry us through this bullshit has to be exhausting for her if you ask me. With that being said, there’s a lot more bullshit in the script that had me fuming throughout that I don’t think anyone can ignore for 90 minutes of mind numbing entertainment. Like I guess the test subjects getting killed on the spot does stem from the first implication of Red Queen’s control, but even if Jill ordered that, I feel like there should’ve been at least one other test subject for Umbrella’s sake since genetic experimentation has been their thing this whole time. Hell, I don’t even get why suburban Rain already had her windows down when suburban Alice was in her way. If there are zombies chasing me simulation or not, I ain’t ever gonna roll them down man. Alice is even wasting time asking Jill why she’s interrogating her when she can clearly see the damn scarab. There’s even no reason for there to be armor planted for her if the Red Queen has already taken over and Wesker has disbanded. I refuse to believe Ada planted them there too. That idea would be dumber than when she points a gun at her upon introduction. If you’re not the enemy, don’t do that shit. If we’re gonna get into more continuity errors now, I’d have to say it’s a miracle none of the glass partitions break once Ada starts shooting at everyone upon the same scene. And a grappling hook is the most pointless weapon to have in a shootout, so Ada was wasting more time than the exposition she had to split with Wesker to Alice. If she also has that, she should’ve given everyone spare specs that had the same option of looking at the blueprints to escape rather than a brief look after the suburban escape. I don’t even like the bait and switch for Wesker to be the bait and switch with the Red Queen. It’s not believable at all for me since Shawn Roberts remains the character to be cunning when he should be slightly less bold as he speaks. Hell, the mindset of zombies are weird even in simulations because I don’t get why one would hide in the closet like a predator when it should’ve chased Alice downstairs once she entered the house. Becky is even way too calm to see two different versions of Rain after already seeing versions of her designed mom. And since when did Alice know ASL in order to talk to her? We’ve never seen her do that before, so it’s hard to when exactly did she practice before or after the outbreak. And yes, I call bullshit on Becky leaving her backpack behind because she clearly did not have the time when wrapped up by the Licker. On top of that, Scarab Jill messes up betting on handling Alice with just Rain when she still could’ve brought reinforcements on the way out because it’s not like she knew the place was gonna blow. Thats more pointless than Leon making advances on Ada when there’s bigger things to worry about. To wrap up, Resident Evil: Retribution is just bullshit of a sci fi adventure that lacks whatever substance the franchise had in 2002. If you’re a gamer that dug the past video games, you’re not missing out on anything when avoiding this movie at all costs.