 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: Evil goes global Tagline: Think global. Kill local. The Umbrella Corporation's deadly T-virus is spreading across the globe, transforming ordinary people into legions of undead. Headed for extinction, the human race has just one hope: Alice (Milla Jovovich). She's on a mission, fighting her way through cities and across continents, all inside Umbrella's prime research facility. Old friends become new enemies as she battles to escape and discovers that everything that she believes may not even be true. Storyline: The Umbrella Corporation's deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race's last and only hope, Alice, awakens in the heart of Umbrella's most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex. Written by Sony Pictures Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, December 18, 2012 -- Once again we found ourselves fighting for our lives. What's the movie with multi-million dollar production values, a ten-cent script, and no brains? That would be Resident Evil: Retribution, the worst Action movie of the year and probably the least appealing of the entire Resident Evil franchise, a franchise that's had some good (Resident Evil) and entertaining (Resident Evil: Extinction) pictures, one midlevel (Resident Evil: Afterlife) effort, and a single clunker (Resident Evil: Retribution) . Retribution may as well be called Redistribution, because that's all it does. It takes old characters and old story lines and tries to make them new all over again (occasionally and briefly to halfway interesting result, admittedly) and fills in whatever gaps remain with a mindless barrage of gunfire and slow-motion acrobatics that looked cool years ago but have worn extremely thin now. Resident Evil: Retribution is everything that can be wrong with Hollywood today, a shame considering the quality source material and interesting premise. The franchise has officially worn out its welcome, and a gold star to anyone who can sit through this rubbish without even once feeling bored, experiencing déjà vu, lamenting the coming sixth film in the franchise, wishing they were playing the video game instead, or drowning the drivel with copious amount of pop and candy. Alice (Milla Jovovich) has successfully fought off the pursuing goons on board the Arcadia. But no sooner is the battle complete does she find herself in suburbia, with longer hair, a husband, and a daughter. It seems she's suddenly in a picture-perfect world...until the zombies shatter her existence. She barely escapes but suddenly finds herself elsewhere, again, this time in a North Russia Umbrella virtual reality station in which she's forced to battle hordes of enemies in recreated corners of the world. Alice discovers that Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) is working alongside the vaunted "Red Queen," the real force behind her incarceration. Alice is aided by an old nemesis as well as a heavily-armed group of mercenaries, including Leon Kennedy (Johann Urb), that will help her escape the supposedly inescapable Umbrella facility to fight another day and discover the truth of what's happening in the real world rather than partake in any more of the Queen's violent and deadly simulations. Indeed, the Resident Evil schtick is wearing quite thin. There's only so much audiences can take of Mila and friends slow-motion jumping through the air, slow-motion dodging big weapons, and slow-motion firing their guns, all the while fending off the same bad guys in various locations around the world (the end of Retribution promises yet another iconic setting for the coming film). At the end of the day, however, audiences continue to eat it up, this time to the tune of $220,000,000 in box office returns. Obviously, not everyone agrees that this thing has run its course, but maybe this film will be the breaking point, as well it might should. It's mind-numbingly awful, a largely plotless and brain dead ninety-minute sludge through a world (or worlds, better said, both artificial and real) populated by cardboard characters, acting that starts and stops at the physical aspect of the craft, and that is absolutely shredded by an endless string of gunfire that proves briefly entertaining but becomes so repetitive that whatever net positive effect it might have in terms of dazzling audiences with loud noises and incessant motion is lost to the destruction of brain cells and ringing ears. This is the ultimate in thoughtless entertainment, the opposite of smart Action movies like Die Hard, and it doesn't even have the charm of something like Commando. It's a movie that has become its own enemy, a digital zombie that only goes through the motions, no more and no less. From a technical perspective, Resident Evil: Retribution does shine as a striking modern example of slicked-up digital filmmaking. The picture enjoys top-quality craftsmanship in every area of concern, from computerized visuals seamlessly integrating with real actors to the every-last-stitch-in-place costumes. Of course, it's sometimes easy to look past the production values when hordes of zombified Soviet-style troops are being mowed down, when an endless stream of ammunition is being expended to blast away any and every obstacle that lands in the characters' paths, when nearly every object on screen is blown into oblivion for the sake of blowing it into oblivion. For all the excess, though, there's not a ton of gore; the movie is plenty bloody with countless zombies blasted in the head, but this isn't a true blood-and-guts experience. The film is at its best in those few sequences that take place in the "suburbia" program, where bright, pink-accented little girls' bedrooms become battle zones for Mila versus the undead and their digital tentacles that come pouring from their mouths. This is straightforward escapism at its most basic but also its most polished and most generic; audiences determined to watch will have to decide if smooth-as-silk filmmaking and repetitive action is more important than plot and strong characters. Editor's Note: Sigh. Resident Evil: Retribution is a completely derivative and unnecessary sequel to a franchise that's just dragging its heels and hiding an absence of story behind a barrage of gunfire and smooth production values. This one is the worst yet, a film completely devoid of original thought and content, made only to once again show Mila and company doing their thing in slow motion. Maybe the next one will be better; chances are it can't be any worse. Sony's 3D Blu-ray release of Resident Evil: Retribution features dazzling video and audio. Summary: 3D-equipped fans will want to pick this one up, while others are strongly encouraged to rent first. [CSW] -3.4- You have to accept this for what it is, a lot of action and no substance. If you liked the other Resident Evil movies, you should like this one. I enjoyed it as there was a lot of good action, but don't expect more. The acting was mediocre and I'm not sure there was any kind of plot. However, it did end with a set up well for the next movie. I added the 3D version to my collection but only for the great 3D eye candy, the action, and the slow motion effects, because the nonexistent plot almost subtracts from the overall film. Cast Notes: Milla Jovovich (Alice), Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine), Michelle Rodriguez (Rain), Aryana Engineer (Becky), Bingbing Li (Ada Wong), Boris Kodjoe (Luther West), Johann Urb (Leon S. Kennedy), Robin Kasyanov (Sergei), Kevin Durand (Barry Burton), Ofilio Portillo (Tony), Oded Fehr (Todd / Carlos), Shawn Roberts (Albert Wesker), Toshio Oki (Japanese Policeman), Takato Yamashita (Japanese Businessman [also archive footage]), Mika Nakashima (J Pop Girl [also archive footage]). IMDb Rating (04/14/13): 5.2/10 from 60,307 users IMDb Rating (12/12/12): 5.4/10 from 37,085 users IMDb Rating (10/24/12): 5.9/10 from 24,078 users
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
