Resident Evil Retribution

            If you are planning to watch this movie, most likely you have seen all of the others, much like myself. You are emotionally invested in this franchise and will watch it no matter what anyone says about it. Welcome to the club.

            This installment of the movie franchise, based on the games of the same name, stars everyone’s favorite beauty, Alice. As is required in her contract, there is an obligatory mostly nude scene of her wearing a sheet of paper. It is clear that this scene, which is in EVERY Resident Evil movie, is something of a fan favorite. In fact, the entire film felt like they took fan favorites from all of the other movies and mixed them together into an incoherent mess of action and zombies.

            I was somewhat excited to see the introduction of Ada Wong (who those familiar with the game will recognize). The actress who played her did very well, and she truly looked the part. That is why it was extremely disappointing to see her relegated to the role of “damsel in distress” for much of the movie. In the games, she is an unstoppable badass. In this movie, she is a badass until she is stopped. Quite early on I might add. I felt it was a bit of a disservice to her character.

            Other characters that fans of the games may recognize were also included, such as Leon, Burt and Jill Valentine. While it was nice to see them in there, it also helped fuel the feeling that this movie was just a hash of things that fans liked without much consistency or real thought about the plot itself. The plot was quite rubbish, not that you expect much surprise out of a zombie movie. Still, it really felt like the writers were either getting lazy, or just running out of reasons for Alice to keep fighting zombies.

            That is not to say that the movie was not entertaining. The film is packed with never ending action scenes which are a delight to watch unfold, even if they do not particularly challenge the viewer. If such can be said of this kind of movie, there is almost too much action going on, with almost no breaks for silly things like plot development.

            Overall, while this movie is far from perfect, fans of the movie or game franchise or just the zombie genre in general will probably be at least entertained for the duration of the film. It is essentially movie junk food. You know it isn't good for you but you watch it anyway because it makes you feel good. Despite the lazy writing and obvious fan service, I will probably be just as excited to watch the next installment as I have been for the last 20 or so. I give it a somewhat generous 3 out of 5.