Resident Evil: Retribution | Movie review

A cacophony of abstract action-horror mayhem, this fifth entry in the video-game-inspired franchise finds superheroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) massacring zombies per usual as she attempts to escape an underwater complex. Retribution’s story brings back familiar places and faces, including Michelle Rodriguez’s resurrected angel of death, and makes little sense. No matter, though—from the opening viewed-in-rewind set piece to the sweeping final image of apocalyptic warfare, director Paul W.S. Anderson utilizes slow-motion 3-D to hyperbolic effect while again casting Jovovich as the epitome of badass sexiness. It’s a late franchise entry that distills genre elements down to their beautiful-nightmare aesthetic core.