For the first 20 minutes of “Resident Evil: Retribution,” I was prepared to give the movie an enthusiastic review. I was even writing my lead paragraph in my head as I watched the opening scene:
“Paul W.S. Anderson is an inexplicably maligned director. Not only does he have an eye for compelling imagery, but he knows how to use 3D well. His new movie, ‘Resident Evil: Retribution,’ picks up where the last one in the series left off, only Anderson rewinds time. In fluidly shot slow motion and crystal clear 3D, explosions collapse into themselves, streams of blood re-enter bullet-riddled bodies and ammunition leaves pierced flesh and returns to the chambers of the weapon from which it was fired. It is the most artfully choreographed and best looking action scene of the year.”
A few minutes later, Alice, the hero of the series, enters a long hallway made of white lights, her black leather attire standing out beautifully against the bright backdrop, and makes taking out a dozen zombies look easy. She jumps, kicks, twists, twirls and lassoes her victims with a chain and then shoots them at close range, dancing a ballet of death with the undead. “I was wrong,” I envisioned myself writing. “THIS is the most artfully choreographed and best looking action scene of the year.”
Then, as my grandmother would say, things went to pot.
I’ve read unkind things about the storyline in this fifth installment of the movie series based on Capcom’s popular videogame franchise, but it’s solid. After the Umbrella Corporation, the evil commercial entity that unleashed a deadly virus on the world in the first movie, captures Alice at the end of the sequence that opens the film, Anderson switches to an idyllic suburban dream in which Alice is happily married and a doting mother. Then a zombie jumps onscreen and shatters the illusion.
Later, Alice wakes up in a cell, her June Cleaver wardrobe exchanged for a white sheet. Then the power fails, her sleek black clothes pop out of the wall, a door opens and Alice escapes. She emerges from the prison to find herself on the streets of what look like Tokyo. There, Anderson re-creates a scene from the fourth “Resident Evil” film shot for shot and then takes the action back inside to the pure white corridor.
Following the fight scene I described above, Alice learns she’s in a massive underwater facility Umbrella uses to simulate viral attacks for interested buyers. The June Cleaver Alice was a clone implanted with memories and emotions and used as a subject in the sim. This brings up an interesting question Anderson never answers: Did the events of the previous movie take place in this facility, not the real world?
In a nice twist, the villain of the series, Umbrella boss man Albert Wesker, pops up in a video and informs Alice she and he are now allies. He then says he arranged for her escape and has called in four of her best friends to rescue her, as mankind is close to extinction and he needs her to save the day. It’s a nice change of heart for a guy who unleashed a virus that killed billions. Maybe he watched “The Grinch” and his small heart grew three sizes.
Anyway, a lot of mindless action, silly dialogue, uneven acting and slightly muddled plotting follow. Anderson isn’t one to waste time on character development when he could be blowing things up, but none of the ensuing carnage is as engaging as the two scenes that open the movie. In fact, things get absurd, with dozens of bad guys firing automatic weapons at Alice’s friends as they stand out in the open and return fire, never getting hit.
The last shot of the movie clearly sets up what could be the last film in the series. Then again, Anderson will probably keep churning out these things as long as they make money, and I’ll probably keep buying tickets in the hopes of seeing the most artfully choreographed and best looking action scene of the year.
Rated R for violence. Two stars out of four. Email David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.