Thursday, October 4, 2012

Resident Evil: Retribution



You got to love that tagline.  Like what were the first 4 films about then?

 

     If there is one thing any nerd has grown to know, is that you have to take film adaptations of your favorite video games with a grain of salt.  The prospect of seeing your favorite characters or story playing out on the big screen can seem like an awesome idea, but we've learned that this is mostly never the case.  There have been great video game film adaptations, but for every Silent Hill, there is at least 10 Super Mario Bros. out there.  Resident Evil: Retribution falls into the center of this spectrum as it does some things right and some things wrong.  (WARNING, to summarize the plot to Resident Evil: Retribution, I have to give away the ending to Resident Evil: Afterlife, so here is your Bruce Willis SPOILER ALERT).



Bruce Willis was SPOILER ALERT the whole time.

 

     Resident Evil: Retribution picks up right where the forth film left off.  Alice (Milla Jovovich) has just dealt a blow to the Umbrella corporation, the ones responsible for the zombie apocalypse, by defeating its head, Albert Wesker.  However, Umbrella's massive army has appeared and captures Alice.  She wakes up trapped in a large testing facility in the middle of the Arctic.  Alice escapes her cell and finds that Umbrella is now under the control of the Red Queen, a malevolent AI that she destroyed in the first film.  She soon meets up with Wesker's right hand woman, Ada Wong (Li Bingbing), who wants to help her escape and meet up the rest of her team already entering the lab.  Now the two groups have to traverse the zombie infested facility and escape if they want a chance at defeating Umbrella once and for all.




Unfortunately, "Off with their heads" isn't an option.

 

     Now the term "Jump the Shark" is a major understatement for this film and the rest of the series.  The first movie did its best to stay true to the feeling to the games with its claustrophobic laboratory setting filled with zombies and other monsters.  However, this is all thrown out the window by the forth movie where Milla Jovovich storms a fortress with an army of her super powered clones to duke it out with an even more super powered evil CEO.  Needless to say, the films aren't striving for a sense of realism or a resemblance to the games.


An artiest rendition of these movies just not giving a F***.


     While this may displease the game's fans, I find it to be a good thing in this case.  Part of the reason why video game adaptations fail is because movie studios aren't handling the stories well.  Most of the time, changes are made to the plot and the characters to give it a more "broad" appeal to increase ticket sales, but in the end it only displeases fans and still alienates newcomers.  To avoid doing this, Resident Evil creates an original storyline with an original main character.  Now the writers have more freedom with the story and can still please fans with the inclusion of their favorite characters and monsters into the film.


Then again, that might not always work either. 

 

     Milla Jovovich once again gives a great performance as Alice.  While its not the most well written character ever, it works well for this movie.  It's more focused on her ability to kick butt and make the snappy comebacks on par with any cheesy Schwarzenegger action film.  If women action stars are included as part of the next Expendables outing, Jovovich would fit that bill just nicely.


Arnold would also fit the bill just nicely.

 

     The films backdrop is also surprisingly creative.  The giant lab was used to test the effects of the zombie virus in a controlled environment.  To do this, they placed human clones in replicas of major cities inside these giant domes.  Then they introduce a zombie and see how the virus would spread.  While all that seems extremely convoluted and expensive to do, its part of the reason why Umbrella is so great as a the villains, they show real dedication to being evil.  Anyway, this allows for some great action set ups, for example one team could be fighting an army of zombies in Moscow, while the others dodge giant ax wielding monsters in New York traffic.  Its great to watch and gives us plenty to take in.



A realistic rendition of an Umbrella literally giving a F***.

 

     My one complaint about this movie is that there isn't enough time to give the new characters to develop and show us what they are all about.  They bring back series favorites like Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and the famous Barry Burton, known throughout the Internet for his cheesy one liners in RE1.  For example, it is implied in the film that Leon and Ada have "something" between them.  If you didn't play the games, you wouldn't have any idea what the characters are talking about.  To a new viewer, its just like it's there and comes off as forced for no real reason.

Overall:

     This may be the best entry in the series, but it isn't good enough to gain any new fans.  If you didn't like or see the other films, it be best to skip this one over.  If you are a fan however, you're sure to find plenty of over the top action and plenty of the classic monsters with this one.  And the best part yet is that there is a sequel already in the works.


A sneak peek at the Resident Evil 6 Writing process.


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