Resident Evil: Retribution (** out of ****)

Alice, the Umbrella Corporation, zombies, and mutants all return in the fifth film in the franchise. Milla Jovovich and her husband Paul W. Anderson make one of these films every few years and the world keeps spinning. Retribution is not the strongest of the mediocre series but probably not the worst. This time Alice must fight her way out of a Umbrella facility that was used to simulate the T virus (zombie virus) on major cities. There's other returning faces in the characters Jill and Rain, but for fans of the video game series Ada Wong, Barry Burton, and Leon  Kennedy (the best) make their debut. In creating an action film of this type it falls flat in comparison to other great films. In using slow motion and bullet time effects Retribution tries to be like The Matrix but fails in making intense and emotionally gripping fights. The series once tried for an action horror route in the vein of Aliens, little is left now. The video game series has made some classic moments in it's industry. I don't know why they don't try to replicate the stories of either the first or fourth game. There are some moments of fun here and there and I never grew that bored so that's a nice compliment for the franchise. Say what you want of Paul W. Anderson (I often am very critical), but he's one of the few directors who understands how to incorporate 3-D properly into a film By the end of the film it appears that the craziest days await us in the sixth film. Yay?

** out of ****