Resident Evil: Retribution

DISCLAIMER - This review is incredibly spoiler heavy.  It deals with the plot of the most recent Resident Evil film.*  I will reference multiple scenes from the film, as well as the ending.  If you don't want the film ruined for you, do not read this review until you have seen the movie.  For those of you who will be holding off on reading this until you see the movie, I will tell you that it is on par with the other Resident Evil sequels.

This is your last chance to leave the page before I delve into the content of the movie.  Consider yourself warned.

A letter to Paul W. S. Anderson:

Dear Mr. Anderson,

I feel we need to talk, primarily about your latest entry in the Resident Evil franchise.  Before we get into the meat of this one sided discussion, I do need to give you the respect due your position.  You are a talented and creative person.  You get to write and direct movies, and while you may not be on par with someone like Christopher Nolan, you do a far superior job than someone such as myself.  The fact that you have a name in the business is to be applauded.  The fact that you keep making these movies shows that you have some affinity and affection for the subject matter and the characters you have created.

With all that being said, you have done yourself a great disservice with your latest entry.  While there were certain moments or images that were good, the not so good far outweighed those moments.  The film doesn't quite reach the level of awesomely bad that I frequently enjoy.  Instead, it's both awesome and bad, a wholly different monster.

Let's get the biggest problem out in the open first.  You resorted to startling the audience with loud noises.  The first twenty minutes or so of the film is full of loud and jarring noises.  That is the work of a hack.  The part of me that loves the idea of a Resident Evil movie likes to believe you were creating a commentary on the evolution of the zombie film.  The cynic in me doesn't believe that for a second.  While the entire film feels like a bunch of min-horror movies, I don't think that was intentional, which means the early segments with the jump out type scares weren't meant to be anything more than a way to get a reaction from the audience.  I expected better from you.

I appreciated your attempt to create an interesting opening for the film.  You came up with an idea and executed it quite beautifully.  The reverse opening scene, moving ever so slowly, was neat to watch.  Unfortunately, it didn't bring anything to the film or enrich the story.  If making awesome looking scenes was all you needed to create a quality film, you would be at the top.  I, however, require a bit more.  I'm not saying I was expecting Shakespeare.  If the film had been awesomely bad, I would have embraced it.  For example, I love Doom and the original Resident Evil; I bear no ill will towards video game movies.

Perhaps the problem was that you went too far but not far enough.  You included Barry, which I applaud, but if you're going to do that, why did we not get a line about a Jill sandwich?  If you're going to include a rather lame character, take it all the way.  You did a good job capturing the look of the characters, but they didn't necessarily feel like the characters.

Now, part of the reason I like the original Resident Evil movie is because it took familiar ideas and used brand new characters to explore them.  We saw the birth of the monster, so to speak, and we learned about it at the same time as the characters on screen.  With that decision came the opportunity to draw the audience in.  As the movies go on, more and more video game characters are showing up, and that's not a bad thing.  However, you have to balance it properly to make it work.

You created some excellent characters in Alice and Rain.  You cast two fun actresses to play them.**  Even though Rain died in the first movie, you found a way to bring her back!  Unfortunately, you didn't let us keep her!  You had the opportunity to do something interesting with the character but let her just be a stooge for the Red Queen.  You had a great opportunity to have her interact with the nice clone or even see her dead and come to the realization that something wasn't quite right.  She could have been so much better.  Of course, I just wanted you to do that so she could be in the next movie, if there is one.

Speaking of the Red Queen, was it really necessary to change up the model?  You obviously have no aversion to CG, so you could have kept the same look for the Red Queen.  I know this is a small complaint, and I know the original girl would have aged by now, making her unusable.  Even so, I would rather you had tried to use what you already had.

Additionally, regarding the CG, it just wasn't that good.  Did the images ape the video games? Sure, but they didn't look that good.  I appreciated your practical effects and make-up, but that success simply highlighted how much the CG was lacking.

I think we can both agree that the original Resident Evil film wasn't particularly original, but it was its own work.  Maybe it was inspired by other films, but I don't recall other movies coming to mind while I watched it.  With your most recent work, I spent a great deal of time being struck by the similarities to other works.  If that was intentional, it worked.  Bravo.  Somehow, I don't think you meant for it to be so overt.

During one of the earlier sequences, when we see the suburban Alice and how she handles the zombie outbreak, it felt just like the remake of Dawn of the Dead.  Specifically, the scene where she is outside the house and kind of looking around felt just like the scene with Sarah Polley's character.  While my mind may have made them more similar than they were, it even felt as if the camera movements were similar.  That was subtle enough that I may not have brought it up if it weren't for a few other familiar moments.

Aliens is one of my favorite movies.  I can watch it over and over again, so when you decide to essentially lift a chunk of your third act from it, I noticed.  I imagine a lot of other people did as well.  The main character, who has become attached to a young child, is forced to follow after the big bad in an attempt to save the child.  There are blinking lights and an industrial type back drop.  She finds the child constrained by the monster but still alive.  In both cases, the monster is vanquished and the girl is reunited with her surrogate mother.  Yeah, you were a bit obvious with that.  I love Milla Jovovich, but she is no Sigourney Weaver.  They are two very different actresses.  I adore them both, but there was something missing that made the scenes in your film lack warmth and weight.

Milla Jovovich is a perfect Alice, and I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.  Michelle Rodriguez is just an all around bad ass and a pleasure to watch.  Kevin Durand does a lot with very little.  While you have some talented and fun actors, a large amount of the acting is wooden or just plain bad.  I don't understand how you covered up all of the teeth marks on the scenery.  Now, I  may have misunderstood your goal.  It certainly evokes the video games to have some less than stellar delivery, but is that really how you meant for your film to feel?  If you're going to channel the video game, shouldn't you only pick the good parts?

I must say that Jill looked awesome.  I didn't like Sienna Guillory in the second film, but that may have been what she was given to work with that I took issue with.  In this film, however, she nailed the character as she appeared in Resident Evil 5.  My only problem with that arose during the fight at the end of the film.  You had a lot of good stuff going on there.  The two fights going on were both well done.  I adored the snowy setting and the 3D effect with the snow.  What bothered me was based more on video game knowledge than anything else.  Everyone knows that when you're fighting the boss, the blinking red spot is usually his weak spot.  Why don't movie characters know this??  Alice eventually came to the realization, but it took her way too long.  I understand your need to create a solid fight scene, but I had trouble respecting Alice after she was so slow to catch on.

By the way, have you seen Angel?  It's a pretty good show, with a solid ending.  If you haven't seen it, you may want to return to this paragraph some other time.  Anyway, in the end, Hell essentially opens up, releasing untold hordes of evil and at least one dragon.  Joss Whedon, in his infinite wisdom***, opted not to show us any of that.  We see the characters decide who is taking on what, then it ends.  It's amazing.  If, however, he had shown us, I imagine it would have looked a lot like your closing image.

You have proven yourself capable of creating scenes and images that are just plain cool.  The only problem is deciding when enough is enough, when you should and should not utilize it.  The initial scenes of Rain underwater with the zombies are very beautiful, yet disturbing and scary, if you think about it.  When you pulled back and showed the giant pyramid of zombies closing in on her, it took me out of the moment.  It was just too much.****

I guess what I want you to know is that I enjoyed your film. There was quite a bit of incredulous laughter, but if you make another one, I'll go see it.  I hope you fix some of the things I didn't care for, but I would rather you keep making these films than not.  You have some fun talent involved, and you excel at creating neat images.  Just stay away from the loud noises and maybe try to have a plot next time.  Much like the final Lord of the Rings movie, I felt that this film could have ended three different times.  You should bring in a good editor.

Keep up the good work.  Regardless of my criticisms, your movies are usually pretty fun.  You create something from nothing while I just sit here telling you what I like about it and what I don't.  I admire your ability and fortitude.

Sincerely,

H. L. K.

*That is, if you can claim the movie has a plot.

**Seriously, they need some off the wall series where they play catty bad asses or some such.

***Well, it may have also had something to do with budget.

****Mark and I disagree on this point.  He loved that image.