Resident Evil 5 - Retribution (2012)

Michelle Rodriguez is back! Confusing, isn't it? Was that all just a dream, or was it brainwashing? Or is it all eventually explained, and made to seem pretty clever even though it's really just an over-complication of the plot? Yeah, probably the latter.

The intro was pretty cool, but after that it all spirals out of control again, and they do their best to build upon something that could've gone some different way entirely! And though I liked this movie in general, I don't like certain details, like the Red Queen made to seem evil - a nemesis of all humanity, taking the place of the suddenly more humane Whesker. Way to make an anti-homage to the first, where the Red Queen's actions were all based on logical deduction. Homicidal, sure, but not evil - that's one small detail that really brings down my otherwise positive impression of this second-to-last segment.

The other detail? Alice being taken in, again, and once again becoming a part of Umbrella's grand experiment. How many times has this happened now? Seems like it's at least once in every movie. And then there's the detail of Wesker going good (though not really). And Ada, Leon, Barry, Jill Valentine... even Luther? I knew about Luther, but bringing together all the other game characters just to make the viewers happy feels a bit much at this stage. Leon doesn't even look like Leon. In this case it isn't the clothes that make the man - it's the actor.

That said, the new characters did make a good entrance, and Barry looked just like the Barry we know. Even some of the voice-acting feels on-point with early in-game dialog name-calling and style. The filming is as stylish as the architecture is impressive. The final fight seemed whimsy at first, but it grows on you. People die like flies though. And then there's humanity's last stand... it feels like Alice just gets tossed from one thing to the next, but I am pretty excited about how the sequel might turn out! It looks... interesting. And if it's one thing the games all have in common, it's a flashy ending - be it feelgood or unwanted. Maybe when the series is complete it won't all be so bad after all.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle