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View Full Version : Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson)



Sxottlan
09-15-2012, 06:12 AM
IMDB page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1855325/).

http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Resident-Evil-Retribution-Poster-44.jpg

My Photobucket account wasn't uploading this, so this might disappear like my last thread.

EyesWideOpen
09-15-2012, 06:38 AM
Photobucket hasn't been working for most of the day.

TGM
09-15-2012, 04:42 PM
Hoping to see this one pretty soon!

B-side
09-16-2012, 12:08 AM
Heard great things. Hope to see it in the next few days.

Dukefrukem
09-17-2012, 01:06 AM
great things? really?

elixir
09-17-2012, 01:12 AM
Yes, really. The director has vocal fans.

eternity
09-23-2012, 11:46 PM
Umbrella Corporation is what would happen if Tom Haverford and Jean Ralphio started a biomedical corporation. Holy Christ, Paul W.S. Anderson.

B-side
09-26-2012, 04:47 AM
The best I've seen from Anderson, and probably the best video game film yet made. Anderson's film is the apex of the video game/film hybridization; The apotheosis of well over two and half decades of entertainment fusion. Since the inception of home video game consoles, developers have continuously sought to establish an emotional link between their digital works of art and the person wielding the controller. Naturally, this struggle has lead to innovations in graphical technology with the sole goal in mind of coming as close as possible to recreating real imagery and triggering our brain's capacity to connect similar imagery with our own past experiences. Retribution represents multiple fugue states of digitally-evoked "reality" culminating in a relationship between a simulated being and a pseudo-human that video game developers could only dream of. This simulated child is no more "real" than the identical models dangling like dry-cleaned clothing in the underground facility, but the key difference lies in the few human details implanted in the child that give her a semblance of memory, thus establishing her as about as real as a simulation can be and providing proper conditions for an emotional connection between Alice and her digital daughter. Alice is, by all accounts, the surrogate avid gamer, enthralled by the new state of narrative gaming that elevates plot and graphical immersion over gameplay mechanics. Though Retribution may not have been initially conceived as being the absolute best example of this fusion of video-game-play and film, Anderson amplified the spark of ingenuity during the creative process that lent itself to a film that feels like an escalation of video game "levels" and "bosses". He's been approaching this full-on confrontation for several films now, but here it finds its most fertile ground for a fantastic clash of mediums.

As sleek as polished chrome, the film opens with a stunning reverse slow motion sequence beginning with Alice silhouetted in the ocean as piercing rays of light illuminate her figure. Just as quickly as that image is acclimated in our psyche, Anderson flips the switch on the reversal and carries us back mere moments (that with the slow motion ends up being a few minutes) prior to the very end of the previous film in the franchise where the film is abandoned and Alice takes up narrator role to recap the audience as a digital projection accompanied by multiple screens replaying relevant segments from the previous films. As soon as she finishes, the film kicks into gear and plays the reversed sequence forward and thrusts us into one of the several fugue-like levels of reality; a theme brilliantly conceived and staged as a metropolis of disparate cities and cultural sects that can be triggered and ceased on a whim. Alice herself falls victim to this "reality-at-the-push-of-a-button" power when she awakes in an idyllic middle class home, complete with handsome husband and endearing young child. The sun peers in through every window, glowing radiantly, practically giving away the scene's artifice before anyone involved finds out. Once the vision breaks, Alice watches as her dream scene is torn to shreds by a barrage of machine gun bullets and explosions. Grid maps feature prominently, as they often do in Anderson's films, and his camera swoops in and out of them with all the ease in the world. His camera can often be described as a surveying one, floating away and above the in between moments, highlighting stunning linear and symmetrical perspective photography. The 3D allows for a nice level of dirty immersion and visceral joy. Anderson is a theater-goers best friend, and he nods tongue in cheek toward the 3D viewing audience by having Alice don a pair of 3D glasses herself in order to see the same digital grid map we see on the other side of the screen.

Raiders
09-26-2012, 01:19 PM
Nice. Seeing it this weekend. Bring it.

Dukefrukem
09-26-2012, 01:25 PM
Wow. High praise here. B-side have you seen Silent Hill?

B-side
09-26-2012, 10:41 PM
Wow. High praise here. B-side have you seen Silent Hill?

Yes, but not since around the time it came out.

Rowland
09-27-2012, 02:13 AM
Awesome.

eternity
09-27-2012, 07:33 AM
The best I've seen from Anderson, and probably the best video game film yet made. Anderson's film is the apex of the video game/film hybridization; The apotheosis of well over two and half decades of entertainment fusion. Since the inception of home video game consoles, developers have continuously sought to establish an emotional link between their digital works of art and the person wielding the controller. Naturally, this struggle has lead to innovations in graphical technology with the sole goal in mind of coming as close as possible to recreating real imagery and triggering our brain's capacity to connect similar imagery with our own past experiences. Retribution represents multiple fugue states of digitally-evoked "reality" culminating in a relationship between a simulated being and a pseudo-human that video game developers could only dream of. This simulated child is no more "real" than the identical models dangling like dry-cleaned clothing in the underground facility, but the key difference lies in the few human details implanted in the child that give her a semblance of memory, thus establishing her as about as real as a simulation can be and providing proper conditions for an emotional connection between Alice and her digital daughter. Alice is, by all accounts, the surrogate avid gamer, enthralled by the new state of narrative gaming that elevates plot and graphical immersion over gameplay mechanics. Though Retribution may not have been initially conceived as being the absolute best example of this fusion of video-game-play and film, Anderson amplified the spark of ingenuity during the creative process that lent itself to a film that feels like an escalation of video game "levels" and "bosses". He's been approaching this full-on confrontation for several films now, but here it finds its most fertile ground for a fantastic clash of mediums.

As sleek as polished chrome, the film opens with a stunning reverse slow motion sequence beginning with Alice silhouetted in the ocean as piercing rays of light illuminate her figure. Just as quickly as that image is acclimated in our psyche, Anderson flips the switch on the reversal and carries us back mere moments (that with the slow motion ends up being a few minutes) prior to the very end of the previous film in the franchise where the film is abandoned and Alice takes up narrator role to recap the audience as a digital projection accompanied by multiple screens replaying relevant segments from the previous films. As soon as she finishes, the film kicks into gear and plays the reversed sequence forward and thrusts us into one of the several fugue-like levels of reality; a theme brilliantly conceived and staged as a metropolis of disparate cities and cultural sects that can be triggered and ceased on a whim. Alice herself falls victim to this "reality-at-the-push-of-a-button" power when she awakes in an idyllic middle class home, complete with handsome husband and endearing young child. The sun peers in through every window, glowing radiantly, practically giving away the scene's artifice before anyone involved finds out. Once the vision breaks, Alice watches as her dream scene is torn to shreds by a barrage of machine gun bullets and explosions. Grid maps feature prominently, as they often do in Anderson's films, and his camera swoops in and out of them with all the ease in the world. His camera can often be described as a surveying one, floating away and above the in between moments, highlighting stunning linear and symmetrical perspective photography. The 3D allows for a nice level of dirty immersion and visceral joy. Anderson is a theater-goers best friend, and he nods tongue in cheek toward the 3D viewing audience by having Alice don a pair of 3D glasses herself in order to see the same digital grid map we see on the other side of the screen.

What the fuck.

transmogrifier
09-27-2012, 09:52 PM
Forget it, Jake. It's Brightside.

number8
09-27-2012, 09:57 PM
His name is clearly B-side. What are you, blind?

transmogrifier
09-27-2012, 09:58 PM
His name is clearly B-side. What are you, blind?

Artistic license, my dear.

Dead & Messed Up
09-27-2012, 10:25 PM
What the fuck.

Be aware that this kind of opinioning is on the rise.

B-side
09-28-2012, 05:30 AM
I probably should've just responded with a "lol this movie sux bro". Much more thoughtful.

transmogrifier
09-28-2012, 05:54 AM
I probably should've just responded with a "lol this movie sux bro". Much more thoughtful.

I'm surprised at how easily people get offended at good natured ribbing. It was more directed at eternity, who should know by know your general tendency towards verbose defenses of trashy genre movies.

It's like being amazed when Armond White writes a love letter to Speilberg, or Jon Stewart makes fun of a Republican.

Doesn't mean I hold you in any less regard. It's part of the fun of knowing others well that you can tease them.

Rowland
09-28-2012, 06:12 AM
I'll back up B-side. This is a compellingly self-reflexive Ouroboros of a movie/game/product, that happens to be exceedingly gorgeous and delightfully out of its fucking mind to boot. The allusions to Lewis Carroll finally pay off in what proves to be the new peak for not only this increasingly fuguelike series, but for Anderson's career as well.

B-side
09-28-2012, 09:20 AM
I'm surprised at how easily people get offended at good natured ribbing. It was more directed at eternity, who should know by know your general tendency towards verbose defenses of trashy genre movies.

It's like being amazed when Armond White writes a love letter to Speilberg, or Jon Stewart makes fun of a Republican.

Doesn't mean I hold you in any less regard. It's part of the fun of knowing others well that you can tease them.

I wasn't offended. I was responding to eternity's terse dismissal of my thoughts. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but if that was all he had to offer in response, then it seems needlessly reactionary to reply with "What the fuck" and leave it at that.

Sven
10-02-2012, 03:50 AM
Brightside's right on the money. This movie is excellent, and easily Anderson's best.

Sven
10-02-2012, 04:12 AM
First martial arts scene in the corridor against the Japanese zombies was one of the best I've seen. I've never been too thrilled by Anderson's close-quarters action, but that was amazing. The blocking and editing were in beautiful tandem.

B-side
10-02-2012, 05:28 AM
First martial arts scene in the corridor against the Japanese zombies was one of the best I've seen. I've never been too thrilled by Anderson's close-quarters action, but that was amazing. The blocking and editing were in beautiful tandem.

Absolutely.

Bosco B Thug
10-02-2012, 06:52 AM
Would I need to see the previous RE films to get a full appreciation of this?

It's not you guys, an egghead philosophy-learned friend who isn't even really into movies mentioned this ecstatically today and my brain plotzed.

B-side
10-02-2012, 08:58 AM
I don't think so, no. She outlines the previous events in the overarching narrative in the beginning so you're all caught up.

Rowland
10-02-2012, 07:04 PM
Would I need to see the previous RE films to get a full appreciation of this?

It's not you guys, an egghead philosophy-learned friend who isn't even really into movies mentioned this ecstatically today and my brain plotzed.Thanks for specifying that your interest has nothing to do with our enthusiasm. :P

Anyway, while there is an extensive recap at the beginning of this film, I'd still suggest that you at least see the original, which I rather like and would recommend on its own merits anyway. Assorted characters and events from the following films (and games) are involved as well, but I suppose they aren't terribly important beyond what the recap covers.

Rowland
10-02-2012, 07:09 PM
Brightside's right on the money. This movie is excellent, and easily Anderson's best.:pritch:

You should vote for it in the yay/nay and star rating polls.

Sven
10-03-2012, 12:51 AM
:pritch:

You should vote for it in the yay/nay and star rating polls.

Thanks for the reminder. Should mention that you, too, are right on the money.

As bad as they are, BBT, I think the fifth one's impact is probably most effective having experienced the immersion of the previous four. Part of this one's glory are the ways in which it responds to the rest of the series. The recurring castmembers, locations, and sequences (and the address thereof) are integral to the points Anderson makes about identity transposition and virtual life.

That said, I am hesitant to recommend bad movies, so...

Rowland
10-03-2012, 01:57 AM
As bad as they are, BBT, I think the fifth one's impact is probably most effective having experienced the immersion of the previous four. Part of this one's glory are the ways in which it responds to the rest of the series. The recurring castmembers, locations, and sequences (and the address thereof) are integral to the points Anderson makes about identity transposition and virtual life.Agreed, though I'd argue that the third film was the first to take tentative steps in this direction with the Milla-clone subplot.

Speaking of the other films in the series, while I mostly came around to your position concerning Apocalypse, I found myself enjoying Extinction considerably more now than at the time of its release. Perhaps this was in part a reaction to its conspicuous superiority over its immediate predecessor, which I still had fresh in my mind, in terms of technical production, formal craft, and (relative) ideas.

Afterlife on the other hand, which I revisited earlier this year (and would probably grade as a C on my current scale) now strikes me as little more than a technical dry run for Anderson before shifting things into high gear with this latest film, to which it might as well be a prologue. That said, as you pointed out, it's a prologue that features important context to really get the most out of what Anderson achieves here. I absolutely adore, for instance, how he responds here to the stupid cliffhanger he wrote for himself in Afterlife.

Bosco B Thug
10-03-2012, 02:43 AM
As bad as they are, BBT, I think the fifth one's impact is probably most effective having experienced the immersion of the previous four. Part of this one's glory are the ways in which it responds to the rest of the series. The recurring castmembers, locations, and sequences (and the address thereof) are integral to the points Anderson makes about identity transposition and virtual life.

That said, I am hesitant to recommend bad movies, so... This is low stakes, I assure you - I already had the idea there was some sort of intertextual synergy thing going on, which is why I asked. The dude I mentioned came up with some thesis about franchise and the play of essencelessness. :lol:

Rowland
10-03-2012, 03:09 AM
The dude I mentioned came up with some thesis about franchise and the play of essencelessness. :lol:You may be laughing, but your friend's thoughts don't sound too dissimilar to what B-side, Sven and myself are proposing. ;)

Bosco B Thug
10-03-2012, 03:20 AM
You may be laughing, but your friend's thoughts don't sound too dissimilar to what B-side, Sven and myself are proposing. ;) Nice! Talk about synergy. Having naturally not ready anyone's thoughts since I haven't seen the picture, that was a stab in the match-cut dark with a stranger's words.

ciaoelor
10-03-2012, 10:15 PM
First martial arts scene in the corridor against the Japanese zombies was one of the best I've seen. I've never been too thrilled by Anderson's close-quarters action, but that was amazing. The blocking and editing were in beautiful tandem.

I loved this scene, but the rest of it was underwhelming. Besides Mila and Michelle Rodriguez, none of the other actors have much screen-presence.

TGM
10-04-2012, 02:34 PM
Heh, this movie was special. My review. (http://cwiddop.blogspot.com/2012/10/resident-evil-retribution.html)

Ezee E
12-23-2012, 12:31 PM
I like that it has 3 one-star ratings and 3 4-star ratings.

Dead & Messed Up
12-24-2012, 05:52 AM
Oof. This is next on my Netflix queue, due to the oddball raves in here I can't cozily dismiss, but Brude's got me worried.

Oh well. Movies. Y'know?

Sven
12-24-2012, 05:57 AM
but Brude's got me worried.

Ehhh, he's off base.

Dead & Messed Up
12-24-2012, 06:05 AM
Ehhh, he's off base.

But Sven, what if you're off base?

What then?

Dead & Messed Up
12-27-2012, 03:06 AM
I didn't love this movie, and I didn't quite like this movie, but it exceeded my expectations.

For the record, I've only seen the first and third of this brand in totality, with the second and fourth skipped for reasons involving me not liking the first or third movies.

I think I finally accepted that Anderson doesn't care about the Resident Evil brand but loves Cameron, the Wachowskis, and a thousand first-person-shooter games. The drama felt like an afterthought, the dialogue was tedious trailerese, the mission-objective plotting was rote, but the malleability of the overall premise allowed Anderson to do whatever the hell he wanted, whether it was disaster floodwaters or a super-giant mutant licker or kung-fu x-ray punches. Look, it's the opening to Dawn of the Dead! Look, it's the climax to Aliens! Now Inception music! After a while, the gleeful pastiche approach becomes sneakily enjoyable, even if it was still buttressed by too much action movie cliche for my liking. If the ending tease is a genuine indication of what comes next, I'll definitely check out the next one.

There were entirely too many scenes of people just barely dodging slow-motion ax attacks.

TGM
12-27-2012, 03:46 AM
There were entirely too many scenes of people just barely dodging slow-motion ax attacks.

Not nearly as many as were present in the fourth one though! I was actually impressed by Anderson's restraint as it concerns the slow-mo this time around. :P

Dead & Messed Up
12-27-2012, 03:55 AM
Not nearly as many as were present in the fourth one though! I was actually impressed by Anderson's restraint as it concerns the slow-mo this time around. :P

I didn't see the fourth one, so I don't have a frame of reference. I just know this has more slow-motion ax attacks than, say, Before Sunrise.

Dukefrukem
12-31-2012, 07:42 PM
If anything, this can't be the worst movie of the year.

Dukefrukem
01-02-2013, 01:46 AM
For the second RE film in a row, the best part of the movie is the opening credits.

Henry Gale
07-03-2013, 09:55 PM
I knew this film (and for reasons beyond my full anderstanding, Anderson in general) had its admirers, so even though I hadn't seen the 3rd or 4th Resident Evil's, I decided to watch this with a few friends late at night and, I gotta say, it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

The opening sequence is a pretty good indicator that the movie isn't against completely disorienting even its intended, loyal audience, and from there all of its sprawling elements don't exactly come into focus for a good half-hour or so (in disappointingly exposition-heavy ways). It's surreal, hyperactive, jarring, even genuinely exciting.

Sadly, it isn't built to last. Once you start to actually ponder how Umbrella operates and why anything that's happening needs to be going on, it quickly crumbles. The action scenes go from inventive hybrids of horror, sci-fi, gun-play and hand-to-hand action sequences to an entire second-half seemingly made up on ten people with machine guns shooting at ten other people with machine guns.

It's much weirder than I ever imagined the fifth installment in the Resident Evil franchise could've been, but most of that bizarre admiration dissipated after the first 30-40 minutes when it somehow became for generic and repetitive. And as much as I liked that first portion and how the overall plot brought things back to the claustrophobic doom of the first film, letting its imagination run wild from there, it quickly began to feel like no more than a problematic script written as it went along without a real storytelling goal in mind other than to look slick and energetic and keep enough people alive for the inevitable sixth movie.

Still, I'd recommend that first third.