Wrapped up in a pretty box covered in blood and gore, Resident Evil: Retribution was actually a pleasant surprise despite all the trash talk of “they need to stop making these” that came before it.
The fifth movie in the Resident Evil franchise, Retribution starts where Afterlife 3D left off and follows Alice as she fights to escape an Umbrella Corporation base with the help of two of the video game franchise favorites, Leon S. Kennedy and Ada Wong. Initially trapped in an Umbrella holding cell, Alice awakes several times from strange dreams involving herself with a husband and deaf daughter living in a normal suburban home. All hell breaks loose not even minutes later when hordes of zombies begin to break into her home, infecting her husband and leaving her and her young daughter to fend for themselves.
These dreams of normalcy are soon revealed to be an Umbrella trick, as the facility has exact replicas of a few of the most well-known cities in the world hidden within. Michelle Rodriguez reprises her role as a STARS agent, in addition to a new role as a helpless activist, and together, the group fights their way through replicas of New York, Moscow and Tokyo to find a way out.
Milla Jovovich returned to her role as Alice, with newbies Johann Urb and Li Bingbing playing Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong, respectively. Luckily, Leon’s hair didn’t look nearly as awful in the actual movie as it did in the trailer. Though, it was a serious potential distraction, it was completely necessary to make Leon the really emo character he always has been.
It was also interesting to see how the writers slowly integrated aspects and characters from the video games into the movies. Alice, of course, was a movie-made character, but characters like Chris and Claire Redfield, as well as Leon and Ada are straight from the games, making the movie that much more fun for fans of the Resident Evil game franchise. Even virus strains such as Las Plagas and Uroboros, made appearances in Retribution.
With a clear sequel in sight, Resident Evil still has movies and zombies to go, so even though cries of “they’re still making those?” will probably be heard when the next one is released, there will always be greatness in Capcom’s legendary series.
