RETRIBUTION was more about the special effects than it was about moving the serial story along. Alice has become a facade of herself. Tramping through different scenarios run by the red queen she finds herself facing one problem and danger after another. Now before I go on I have to say, I love the evolution of zombies. I love that zombies can be fast, or talk, or thoughtful, or fall in love, but I have a serious problem with a zombie driving a tank, or shooting a gun, and the worst offender, a zombie using a chainsaw to cut into a militant dude. I mean seriously! It wasn't just that they were using modern day weaponry, but I swear these zombies were the same zombies from DEAD SNOW, and they were sooooo much cooler in DEAD SNOW!
It wasn't just the zombies that were a problem for me. The weird octopus monster thing with the big teeth and no face was a non-starter. It wasn't scary, just weird and over the top. The gore in the movie all seemed to be overdone and in the wrong places. And yet I probably could have overlooked all of this if there had been less of one thing, drama. This movie tried to be so emotionally dramatic that I wanted to throw things at the television. RESIDENT EVIL isn't meant to be dramatic and tear-jerking, RESIDENT EVIL is meant to be zombirific and action packed and exciting.
I don't know what the studio was thinking when they made this movie, and I'm wondering what the next one (if it's made) will be like. I just hope it doesn't suck, at least not this much!