The long awaited full length trailer for "Resident
Evil: Retribution" debuted on the Web today, giving fans of Screen Gems' highly successful action horror franchise a first real look at the film's plot.
Both the teaser and full trailer gave a glimpse at the return of Michelle Rodriguez, who appeared in the first "Resident Evil" film as Rain Ocampo, a member of an Umbrella Corporation special forces commando unit. The full trailer also includes scenes of Oded Fehr and Colin Salmon, two other stars from earlier in the series who are returning for the fifth installment. Fehr appeared in "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" and "Resident Evil: Extinction" (the second and third films) as Carlos Olivera, a character from the Capcom video game series the films are based on, while Salmon appeared in the first movie as James "One" Shade. Rain, Carlos and One were all killed off, but are somehow back for this new movie.
The trailer doesn't actually explain the return of these characters so I had to go to Wikipedia to learn that the actors are playing clones created by Umbrella. That's no surprise as there aren't many other ways to bring back characters who were shot in the head, diced up or blown up. Also, this is a sci-fi horror film I'm talking about. However, they are not just playing clones, they are actually playing two clones--one a "good" version and one a "bad" version. (Only in a "Resident Evil" movie!)
The trailer does explain that Umbrella captured Alice and placed her in a dream world where she and Carlos are living happily in the suburbs with a young daughter--that is, until she is given a rude awakening by a zombie attack. Also, Umbrella has grown larger than ever and appears to have achieved world domination. Alice has to once again go up against Albert Wesker, the sunglasses loving villain who was supposedly killed when his plane exploded in the previous film, "Resident Evil: Afterlife." (Wesker could actually be seen parachuting from the explosion if you look closely). Alice also has to face her old ally Jill Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory, who appeared in "Apocalypse." A scene during the credits of "Afterlife" showed that Valentine is under the control of Umbrella thanks to one of their mind control devices. Also glimpsed in the full trailer are Ada Wong and Leon Kennedy, two characters from the video games who are making their way onto the big screen.
Despite never having played through an entire "Resident Evil" game, I am a huge fan of the movies (as I mentioned in my post about my love for all things zombie). This latest film looks like it will not disappoint in giving us a good dose of shooting, ass kicking and Umbrella Corporation craziness. The previews for "Afterlife" showed Alice storming Umbrella's facility that resulted in a huge battle, but that part of the film ended up only taking up the first 10 or 15 minutes. I actually thought it was a really clever twist. The movie's actual plot turned out to be much narrower in focus than I originally expected, dealing more with Alice getting trapped in a prison with a group of survivors and not having her facing off against Umbrella again until the end. "Retribution" looks like it will be the global scale war that I was expecting in "Afterlife," which is necessary to keep the franchise fresh and draw it to an explosive close. I just wish Chris and Claire Redfield were included in this film, but unfortunately they seem to be missing since their appearance in "Afterlife." Hopefully they will be in the sixth, and reportedly final, film.
"Resident Evil: Retribution" will be released in theaters on September 14, 2012. Watch the trailer below:
Update: Screen Gem's released two additional international trailers that can be found on the Web site Bloody Disgusting.
