First things first. Resident Evil Retribution is a very good action movie that has zombies in it. It is definitely not a zombie movie. ( I have to put that out there this being a zombie blog and all. )
It has spectacular set pieces and action, which I loved.
I wont go too much into the story as not to post spoilers but what I can say for fans of both the movie franchise and the games is that familiar characters are back and in some cases appearing for the first time.
Leon S. Kennedy ( Johan Urb ) and Ada Wong ( Li Bingbing ) finally appear in the movies and Luther West ( Boris Kodjoe ) is back in this one. Other characters from the movie series pop back up but I wont give those spoilers here.
I only have two real issues with the movie. One is major and one is minor.
The major one is the acting of Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine. To put it bluntly she was horrible. I know the Resident Evil movies are popcorn movies and no one is expecting award winning performances but she was really bad.
The minor issue is with the character of Alice ( Milla Jovovich ). Now in the last movie Wesker supposedly took her powers. You would never know it by the way she flips, jumps, and generally kicks ass in this movie. I mean she beats the hell out of dozens of zombies, flips over zombies and assorted monster's heads, and takes punishing blows like she's Superman. This wouldn't be much of an issue if it weren't for something that happens near the end of the movie that reminds you of this.
Both those issues aside this is a fun action filled movie. The zombies on motorcycles in Moscow doesn't come off as crazy as it sounds and is a great action scene.
The Resident Evil movies all follow the same formula. That formula being action, badass chick in skin tight suit, zombies, big guns, loud music, and monsters. This one does it very successfully.
There are even a few actual scares early in the movies when he zombies get some screen time. Yeah so what I jumped once. LOL.
On a system of 1 - 5 with 5 being the best I would have to give Resident Evil Retribution a 3 1/2.
Check it out!
George Cook author of The Dead War Series
