Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

A largely plotless survival horror with wooden 2D characters distinct from each other only in name, outfit, and weapon, this third Resident Evil movie, like the others, is easily dismissed as empty dross, but fans of CAPCOM's survival horror game series upon which these movies are based will derive great pleasure from the details - 3D geometric maps, zombie ravens, tourism posters - that recall so clearly the joys of the game.

★★☆☆☆

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Survivor (2015)

I like Milla Jovovich on screen but her clenched jaw and steely look here as government security specialist Kate Abbott - constantly dashing through gunfire, thrown back three times by explosions that she simply shrugs off, and appearing in new scenes by rising from behind alleyway garbage bins as if that is all we need to know since we last saw her - leaves the strong impression each scene of this wafer-thin action thriller was designed to segue into first-person shooter gameplay, a feeling amplified by Jovovich's long run as Resident Evil heroine Alice and by Survivor's superficial game logic, where action trumps story as Abbott is ludicrously accused of a bombing, hunted by a terrorist called The Watchmaker (Pierce Brosnan) and then, in a laughable end-title flourish, held up as relevant to actual post-September 11 US security concerns.

★★☆☆☆

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Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)

Paul W S Anderson's third Resident Evil directorial effort - the fifth movie in the series - dutifully brings the game franchise to life again, delivering the zombie-killing action across a series of distinct, game-like map areas and peppering scenes with fan-pleasing nostalgia - Umbrella Corporation logos, red barrels, ladders that slowly extend downwards, and a host of familiar characters played by actors who speak and move like polygon clusters - but even as a huge fan of the series myself, I find it hard to imagine anyone would be still paying attention at the one-hour mark, by which point this slick but completely vacant horror action exercise has been well and truly, er, done to death.

★★★☆☆

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The Fifth Element (1997)

Incessantly noisy and goofy to the point of pantomime, Luc Besson's scifi fairytale is full of elaborate surface details - wacky costumes, sets, and creatures - that hardly compensate for the movie's threadbare, incoherent and overlong story of a 23rd Century taxi driver embroiled in a battle for control of a powerful weapon.

★★☆☆☆

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