Resident Evil: Retribution

At this point in the franchise, Anderson is content to alight the saga on a perpetual rewind loop, ever-ending, ever-rebooting, all subsidized by his nonpareil compositional sense.

If it's true that movies can transport you to places you could hardly have imagined, then Resident Evil: Retribution is the cinema's ultimate passport to purgatory.

At this point, the Resident Evil movie franchise has become a personal playground for husband-and-wife team Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich; every few years, they find another excuse to pit Jovovich's videogame-inspired dark superhero, Alice, against zombies and other gruesome monsters.

Jovovich's physicality and chilly mien (she was originally a "project" of the Umbrella Corp.) carry the series from start to … whenever it finishes, which might not be for quite a while yet.

As always, Jovovich's game face is admirable - whether giving gunslinger shade or play-acting a protective mother storyline straight-outta-Cameron. But it can't be easy when all around her are line readings that recall the glory days of baroquely dull foreign-movie dubbing.

A few striking images keep our attention – like evil warrior Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) seated menacingly with an assault rifle on a playground swing in the 'burbs. But the film's title promises payback, without offering ample compensation.

It's a testament to the movie's lack of creativity that Anderson can't even rip off "Aliens" and have it come across as anything less than totally boring.

PAUL W.S. ANDERSON IS LITERALLY A GOD! Like seriously, this film is just so smoothly and beautifully shot and all this imagery of life in which STYLE IS SUBSTANCE.

The stagnant machinery of a matrimonial routine: A 3.0-star "rhythmic drift" through fading glory.2012 (3.0)I watched "Resident Evil: Retribution" in the theater in 2012, and it remains a functional 3.0-star record in my archive—a film where my high-tension expectations were met with a visceral "revelation" of franchise fatigue. Having been a 100% loyal fan of the series, I rushed to the theater with "vivid" memories of Milla Jovovich as an untouchable, mysterious, and "sensational" action hero. However, the narrative rhythm felt incredibly "stagnant" and mechanical, **** the fourth wall not with cinematic genius, but with the "pathetic" realization that the "raw" spark of the original had vanished. Seeing Milla on screen no longer provided that "vivid" and rebellious energy; instead, it felt like a "chewy" but uninspired project where the director and lead were simply filming out of "matrimonial loyalty" rather than creative passion. The 95% preservation of my memory is dominated by a sense of "silent frustration" as the rhythmic action sequences lacked the high-tension payoff found in my 5.0-star pillars like "The Chaser." Unlike the "vivid" soul of the earlier entries, this installment felt like a "stagnant" repetition of tropes, leaving me in a state of "hing-gu" disappointment rather than "hororong" excitement. It stands in my record as a 3.0-star artifact—a "pathetic" descent into formulaic production that, while visually "vivid," failed to leave a permanent, "sensational" scar on my soul. It was a high-tension encounter with the reality of aging franchises, leaving a "raw" sense of nostalgia for the "sensational" hero she once was, before the rhythm became 100% predictable and the soul became "stagnant."

Alice is going through an alternate world. When she finally snaps out of it, she finds herself trapped in and underworld city.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Lifelessly plotted, choppily edited and poorly acted, "Resident Evil: Retribution" is worthy watching merely for the laughs. It's so bad it's hilarious.