It's been an inexplicable ten years since Alice(Milla Jojovich) first donned her first skin-tight outfit and sliced 'n diced her way through the Umbrella Corporation's zombie horde, and in that time she's never lost a step. Sure, she's gotten stronger, faster, and been cloned more times than anybody can keep track of, but Alice never truly changes. She's a sexy avatar of violence and rage, and that can be fascinating....for awhile. But Resident Evil: Retribution is now the fifth film in the franchise, and while Jojovich remains as spry and energetic as ever, the series is starting to show serious signs of wear and tear.
Some would probably argue that the Resident Evil movies never had any tread to start with, but they've always appealed to a certain hardcore segment that has stuck around faithfully. Even the most die hard fans will find little to love this time around, as Retribution marks a new low point for a series that was always just barely keeping its head above water. Ponderous exposition by Alice herself reminds us of Resident Evil's amazing ability to be incomprehensible and have storylines as razor thin as one of her serrated blades. Alice finds herself in a different situation than ever before. A world free of the ravages of the T-Virus, an living a comfortable life at home with her husband and daughter. Within moments of feeling true happiness, her familiar world violently intrudes and breaks up the complicated illusion, with Alice waking to find herself in the heart of Umbrella's deepest, darkest headquarters.
Why she's there won't mean a thing to franchise newbies, and loyalists probably won't care either. The point of these movies has always been for director Paul W.S. Anderson to provide a showcase for his sexy, leggy wife to acrobatically disembowel her undead foes. Jojovich flips around in pseudo-Matrix style slaughtering zombies and bustin' lead into some random armored goons. The action sequences are frequent and frequently repetitive, with a lot of flash and no sizzle. After reaching technical heights with 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife, this film is a serious step backwards visually and creatively. Alice is forced to fight her way out of a gigantic hologram program of Umbrella's making, which you'd think would make for some inspired battle scenarios. Instead we get a lazy digital interpretation of future Tokyo, some grungy tunnels and little else worth remembering. To be perfectly blunt: the film looks cheap. 
Some of Alice's long-thought dead friends turn up to be part of the fun. A brainwashed Jill Valentine(Sienna Guillory), sporting an outfit so tight it's a wonder she can breathe, makes for a lifeless villain. The popular Ada Wong(Li Bingbing) makes her series debut in an outfit that's undeniably sexy, but so impractical it's only good for a few laughs. The return of Michelle Rodriguez as Rain Campos held some promise of the inevitable cat fight with Jojovich, but it turns out to be just as flat and forgettable as everything else. There is light at the end of the tunnel, though, as the film does seem to be racing towards a final ultimate showdown. The Resident Evil movies are more successful than ever, with the previous film breaking new franchise highs, but at Comic-Con Jojovich revealed the sixth film would be the last. Whether they live up to that promise remains to be seen, and while Resident Evil may be the most successful video game adaptations ever, now is finally the time to say "Game Over".
