'Resident Evil: Retribution' Featurette Recounts The Saga Of Alice

Hey, kids! It's August! That means we're less than a month-and-a-half out from "Resident Evil: Retribution" hitting conventional and 3-D theaters, marking the fifth chapter in Sony's inexplicably lucrative video game-based franchise.

At this point, it's like watching four previous slow-motion-replayed kicks to the groin of devout gamers as a Pro Bowl placekicker lines up for a fifth. Casting fan-service aside, every single movie since the 2002 franchise debut - which, in my own opinion, was a good overall movie despite a debatable devotion to the source material - has had progressively less and less and less to do with the revered Capcom game franchise whose adaptation rights were licensed. To their credit, though, the Milla-Jovovich-versus-Zombies-and-Corporations-That-Breed-Them saga's installments can usually be watched and understood well enough by their respective lonesomes.

Still, a refresher rarely hurts.

It could be especially helpful, since a recently released Yahoo! synopsis that pairs with this featurette recapping the story so far claims that "Retribution" will make major revelations concerning the back story of Alice (Jovovich), which has been well-shrouded from Jump Street. Still, it's hard to tell what going over four movies of exposition in under three minutes better belies: gifted, thrifty editing, or just how alike the three sequels after "Resident Evil" all look.

Nevertheless....somehow, this packs 'em in without fail. A good many people who have seen every movie - soon hitting shelves together in a Blu-ray combo set - have probably never touched the numerous games on any platform. In that sense, their ignorance is bliss: they're not half as confused as we who love the franchise are as to why this is even still called "Resident Evil."

A little (admittedly, somewhat condescending) credit: this one once more boasts some familiar game nods. Barry Burton - one of the playable options of the 1996 PlayStation original - finally makes his debut, played by Kevin Durand. Speaking of the original's heroes, Sienna Guillory reprises her "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" role as iconic Jill Valentine. Bingbing Li plays recurring game character Ada Wong. Finally, Johann Urb debuts as frequent hero Leon Kennedy.

So there's at least a half-assed effort made. Of course, this will only end in writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson being hated even more, since he doesn't have a great track record with representing the games well or pretending he cares about really doing the series' spirit justice.

That's truly sad, too. He's also known for having made one of the only game adaptations that's widely regarded as having actually worked: 1995's "Mortal Kombat," which proves beyond a doubt that he can abide by source material and make a perfectly entertaining movie....it just seems that he rarely wants to do so.