Not even waiting the 3 years between sequels anymore, as the well is running dry and instead of filling it with blood of the scribe, we’re making these even faster as we approach the penultimate chapter, with Retribution following upon the twist reveal at the end of Afterlife, with the Arcadia surrounded by a lot of black Umbrella helicopters that captures the original Alice and brings her to a remote underwater location in the Extreme North section of Russia, used for testing the T-Virus, from where she has to escape alongside both old and new faces, including many other characters from the videogames that Paul W.S. Anderson couldn’t cram in the previous script, like the fan favourites Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong and Barry Burton.
So, if the keyword of Afterlife was “clonatron and mind control robo-scarabs taken from RE 5”, Retribution also adds to the vocabulary salad “simulation” and “diorama”, showing off obvious inspiration from Westworld with Umbrella creating sets and clones to populate it before they die in it, because fuck any attempt of constructing more setpieces when we can literally redo the previous ones like it’s a rematch of previously beaten bosses in an older Zelda game.
And clone evil version of older characters, while we’re at it.
But then again, these kind of scripts are done the way Gruntilda made potions, just throwing things into a pot and stirring, seeing if bones and leftovers of a previous concoction resurface for “extra flavor”. All it matters is to make Milla Jovovich’s character look cool and kick ass during action scenes, resurrecting and powering her up when needed, all with over the top editing and directing (for example the opening sequence is all played in reverse, from Alice plummetting into the water to the events that led here there).
Plus, it fits with the videogame origins of the series, and it allows to staple various scenarios, some older some new, all together for a “gauntlet” style experience, like the new Moscow “simulation” and the suburban home, which also feature Plagas zombie chainsaw units (which i guess would be a reference to RE 4 if it was, but it’s accidental, unlike the first time when Ada Wong and Alice meet), and a bit of swimming zombies, because ultimately everyone steals from Fulci’s Zombi 2.
This time the villain is not so much Wesker, but the Red Queen (and Jill Valentine as she’s under her control), having been reactivated sometime after the incident in the Hive, and now even more of a rogue IA with extra desire of revenge on Alice and the entire human race…. a bit late now there’s barely a crumble left of it, but whatever, we need to have the previous big villain be forced by a greater evil to join the heroes, at least temporarily so, come on.
At this point, i don’t have much to say or add, it’s about as good as Afterlife, i enjoyed that more even if this one has more setpieces (literal ones) and lot more frequent action scenes, the coreography it a bit better this time around, has a more vaguely eastern flair and feels less phony, but the script also plays the “villain turned ally for a bit” card on Wesker, which would be fine if it didn’t mean he just talks on comm link and then actually does nothing off screen, until the very end where he basically shows the survivors at the fortified White House that this is the last stand for humanity, as Umbrella is throwing Dynasty Warriors sized hordes of zombies and monsters at them.
Tune in next to see what awaits Alice and her surviving allies (and Wesker) in the aptly titled final entry of the series, Resident Evil The Final Chapter.
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