The Gist: Captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice wakes up in yet another underground complex from which she must try to escape, this time aided by the same Umbrella official who was trying to kill her in the past. The Red Queen, Umbrella’s artificial intelligence, is back in the baddie seat.
Milla Jovovich still entertains as Alice, but the gig is getting more and more tired as time goes by. To keep the stakes high, more unlikely characters, monsters, and mutants are brought on board, but they can do little to improve upon the final product.
The last episode (to date I’m sure) in the franchise plays out like the closest videogame adaptation I’ve ever seen, and not in a good way. It is one thing to try to keep close to the original material for the sake of the fan base, and it’s a totally different thing to make a movie that looks exactly like one of the cutout scenes that are embedded in key spots on the actual videogame. For instance, people in Retribution sound and talk like animated characters, the plot is played out just like videogame characters would in the game and so on. It’s like watching someone play the actual game, not like watching a movie at all. It doesn’t look nor sound pretty.
Another thing that always bothered me about the whole Resident Evil franchise is that the zombies move more like Olympians than dead bodies. Their speed and precision of movement is unbelievable!! C’mon… and this only got worse (meaning they only got faster) with each incarnation. Pathetic.
The Bottom Line: If you’ve made it this far like I did, congratulations, you’ve seen the “good” and the bad (and the terrible) of this franchise. You’ve witnessed what it takes to ruin the name of a franchise that could have been better but that now might only be saved by a complete reboot with or without Milla Jovovich (still the only character I’d salvage from this train wreck). Do yourself a favor and watch something else. Anything else. Even traffic.
Grade: 2
No comments:
Post a Comment