Another day another film and I've jumped back on the shit train to review 'Resident Evil: Retribution' (2012). This lockdown has been tough for a few reasons, but repeatedly having to come back to this series has definitely made it a lot worse. Now, you may be thinking 'couldn't you just stop watching them if you don't enjoy it?' Yes I could, but what kind of person would that make me? Anyway, I've done enough of these films that you don't need much of an intro lets crack on. The film picks up immediately after the last film and again follows Alice (Milla Jovovich). After the ship she and her friends are on is attacked by Umbrella Corp. forces she is captured and imprisoned at their underwater base in Russia. She is helped to escape by Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) who sends a former Umbrella agent, Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), and a strike force to ensure her safe delivery to him. However, to escape they'll have to face new enemies, old friends, and, of course, hordes of zombies.
This film continues the trend this films have set of being pure crap across the board. The filmmaking is very sloppy. Within the first 5 minutes of the film I already had my head in my hands due to the really poor editing that was just all over the place. It calmed down and got better as the film progressed but it is never all that good. The special effects are their usual crummy selves. It would b unfair not to mention that they are a definite upgrade from the special effects of previous films but they are still properly wonky. There is one moment in particular where a guy gets a chainsaw to the chest and the blood spurt that comes out of him looks horrendous. The production design is about as good as it has always been, which is to say bland and unoriginal. Maybe I'm just burnt out on the look of these films but my god is it dull. The acting is also as terrible as it has always been. Honestly I struggle to see this as a negative at this point as the poor acting is some of the most entertaining aspects of these films. There are a couple of decent performances again. Milla Jovovich, although starting to seem bored at this point, is still fine as Alice and a returning Michelle Rodrigues is also fine as Rain. But it was another returning character and actor who absolutely stole the show and that was Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine. This is the first time she has appeared in a full role since 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse' (2004). She was awful in that film and I am happy to say that 8 years have done nothing to improve her acting skills. Every line read is off and boy did I love it. Unfortunately I think the filmmakers cottoned on to how bad she is and didn't give her all that much to do, to the detriment of the film.
I will give this film one thing, its probably the second-best of the series, at least so far (I still have one left to watch). It does have a lot of the same problems that the other films have in the poor quality of it, but it did do one thing that I had been crying out for. It forgoes any real attempt at narrative or emotion and decides to be a fully-fledged action film. Seriously this film goes from one action scene to another almost without pause and if nothing else it meant that the film did fly by. The problem with the action scenes is that they all have no build-up and no pay off so as cool as some of them are to look at there is no emotional investment in what is happening. A lot of them just end unceremoniously as well. There is one scene that captures what I've loved from all of these films and that is the ridiculously over the top but stupid fun scenes of Alice kicking ass, but the ridiculousness is lost on a lot of the other action set pieces. This film also decides to introduce a kid into the mix and I don't know why. Alice is compelled to look after this child within the narrative, but then she is just dispatched with every time an action scene happens so I don't see the point of her being a character at all. I did quite enjoy the crowd favorites aspect of the film. There are a lot of returning characters in this film, especially from the first film. Even though the reason they are brought back is stupid and they are hardly used it is still fun to see them back. But the best thing this film did comes right at the end. If you read my review of the last film you would know that I was pissed when Alice had her powers taken away. Well no need to fear dear friends as she gets them back! Fuck yes I am all in for that final film. If it gives me stupidly overpowered Alcie versus. hordes and hordes of zombies I'll be happy, even though it will probably still be shit.
'Resident Evil: Retribution' may be the second bet of these films but it only just scrapes to those lofty heights. Despite some decent action set pieces and fun character returns this film is still hugely flawed. The filmmaking is shocking at times and the script and acting are genuinely laughable. However, it did do what I had hoped of it by foregoing a focus on narrative and instead focusing on dumb action and, in a beautiful twist, gave Alice back her powers, one of the only things which made her stupid fun in the first plac.e This film is crap and you shouldn't watch it, however with Alice returning to full power I am kind of looking forward to what this final film has to offer. I know one thing that it will deliver and that is a relief. The relief of knowing that when those final credits roll I'll be done with this series forever.