What was that mess? Resident Evil: Retribution

Resident Evil: Retribution is the fifth film in the series. This is my least favorite of the films so far. It isn’t boring. It doesn’t make much sense and has little to do with the video games, but it isn’t boring.

The writer and directors crowbarred a bunch of characters from the video games into the movie. Some characters who should’ve been in the first film show up here. It feels very forced.

I don’t know about this movie. It continues from the previous film, but all the characters I liked are dropped. K-Mart, Claire, and Chris Redfield are all gone. Luther comes back, but I’m not sure why.

Plot Summary

So, where do I begin with this? There are a ton of characters and different versions of those characters. It gets very confusing.

We start on the Arcadia with Umbrella killing or capturing everyone. Then we switch to Soccer Mom Alice and her family in a suburb. There is a zombie outbreak, and everyone dies including Soccer Mom Alice. Her daughter lives.

Then we switch to a different Alice as she is being tortured by Jill, who has a mind controlling boob spider on her chest. I know they have a name from the video games, but I like my name more. Anyway, the computer shuts down and Alice escapes. She also finds a dominatrix outfit. I have no idea where she finds it, but she puts it on very fast.

Eventually, Alice meets up with Ada Wong, who Alice mysteriously knows. Wesker pops up on a monitor and fills us in on what will happen for 30 minutes. It is like a B-movie plot. I like it, but I’m not sure why.

Wesker tells our two heroes that he’s sent an extraction team. This is where more characters get crowbarred into the film. There are two expendables, Leon S. Kennedy, Barry Burton, and Luther from the previous movie. Don’t get too attached to these guys, they don’t matter in the films.

Alice and Ada make their way through the underground facility. They eventually find Soccer Mom Alice’s kid. I don’t know her name, and it doesn’t matter.

Ada and Alice get separated when Jill and a bunch of clones attack them. Alice meets up with the extraction team, and they end up fighting a Licker. At least I think it is a Licker. It could be anything, but looks like a Licker.

This is when our main characters start dying. It’s weird, but I guess they had to go at some point. Many of the clones die, and Alice goes off to save her daughter. Don’t think about it too much. None of it really matters.

This all culminates with a battle on the surface. Oh! I forgot to mention that this is all happening in Russia. That is kind of important since the last fight takes place on a sheet of ice.

Alice is able to remove the mind controlling boob spider from Jill, Luther is killed by an evil Rain. A bunch of other characters from the first two films show up. They aren’t important because they all die.

Evil Rain injects herself with the Las Plagas parasite from the games. Thank God Leon tells us what it is. We don’t know how it works and it comes out of nowhere.

If you thought this was going somewhere, then you would be wrong. Evil Rain dies, probably. Then our heroes fly off to the White House where they meet Wesker. Alice gets her powers back, and then we see what is left of humanity fighting bio weapons.

It is a cool cliff hanger, and I can’t what to see how they fuck it up.

Remembering the Games Exist

So, there are a few things from the video games in this movie. Not all of them make sense, and it felt like the filmmakers were trying to give fans of the games a reason to come back. It feels like Fan service, but I doubt that fans of the series were interested in the movies at this point.

We get some characters brought back from the first and second movies. They don’t matter much, aside from Rain and Jill. It was nice to see Ada Wong in the film, and I think the actress did a good job.

There are a few objects from the games. It feels rather forced. Like the filmmakers heard about the parasite from the games and decided to include it, I wish it were a bigger part of the game.

It feels like these additions from the games were crowbarred into the film. What makes it worse, is that these characters are dropped from the next film. Kind of like how Claire and Chris Redfield are gone from this movie. It just feels weird.

Final Thoughts

This is a forgettable movie. I wasn’t bored during this film. It moved quickly because it was all one action scene connected by a few exposition dumps.

Slow motion is overused in this movie. It also feels like parts of the story were edited out. Stuff just happens in this movie, and it felt like they were trying to pad it out.

I’m glad this is almost over. I have one film left and I’m not looking forward to it. Granted, it will be nice to see who returns for the last movie.

This movie is also a 3D film. I have no idea why, but it explains a few things like the slow motion and the crap flying at the screen. This movie made 240 million dollars on a 60 million dollar budget, so that’s a good thing.

If you liked this post, please check out my other reviews of Resident Evil and Apocalypse.