Since it’s still summer-ish and we won’t have time for it this october, i feel it’s time for me to complete (until a new one comes out) my coverage of the Resident Evil CG films, after tackling the Netflix CG series and then doing a retrospective on the previous CG animated films.
From the title i’d assume its either based on Code Veronica or RE Revelations 2, but nope, there are echoes of that, but this is actually a direct sequel of the last, Resident Evil: Vendetta.
After a prologue featuring some fairly relatable Umbrella soldiers transport to Racoon City and given horrendous orders to follow, we follow Leon S. Kennedy tackling a target scientist kidnapped by an unknown group of hostiles, while Claire Redfield investigates the strange bites on a dead beached orca, Jill Valentine is stalking around a desolated house, Rebecca Chambers is scientising in her lab, with their respective missions eventually resulting in them joining forces to stop a new mutation of the T-Virus that spreads in unclear yet very specific fashion, which seems to stem from a tourism oriented island called “Alcatraz”.
It keeps the continuity by referencing some plot points from previous CG RE movies, and actually making the cliffhanger from Vendetta pay off, as there’s the side villain of that movie (a woman that look like Anna Williams, honestly, since i guess Ada couldn’t be there as the shady frenemy), alongside a new one, which is kinda generic, his motivation and origins are actually sort of backed up by his past, but it doesn’t make him that interesting or memorable, just the kind of villain that’s more bent on turning the protagonists against each other, while having a symphatetic side that almost makes him relatable. Almost.
Could have used a 10 seconds flashback for the side villain, since Vendetta came out in 2017, but whatever.
the CG animation (a collaboration between Quebico and Unlimited Produce, a TMS Entertaiment sub-studio) looks very, very good, i won’t lie, you see the money put into the CG quality and mocap, you do, but still, some of the animations lack panache as characters feel like weightless inflatable humanoids, it’s the type of high fidelity, realistic style of CG that they go for that makes the whole thing still look fake-ish, so in this regard we have the same issues of the previous RE CG films, despite this being the best looking one so far.
It’s definitely the follow up to RE Vendetta, which makes sense, as in its written by the same guy, Makoto Fukami, but sadly direction by RE Infinite Darkness director, Eiichiro Hasumi, as it does mean this has also a plodding pace, less interesting set pieces or monster, the script still being garbage, which fits with the usual B-movie quality and sensitivities of the series, but this time it’s simply less interesting and more dull, and here the prison island setting – where most of the movie takes place – feel incredibly underused, like the final scenario for one of the games but instead of going through more locations, we stay in the prisons and then the lower decks, that’s it.
It has its moments (and a zombie shark), especially in the final act, but Vendetta was more enjoyable, even if more typical of the series, had better pacing and plot, almost everything really, still wasn’t good, but definitely a bit better than Death Island, which is inoffensive, subpar but not really atrocious or the worst of these CGI RE animated films.
Though, unless you have already seen the previous films and want to see this one too for completition and-or curiosity, i wouldn’t bother, but there’s worse way to kill 90 minutes.
On the flipside, it does not borrow/steals from the videogames nearly as much as the previous film did… but since the final result it’s kinda lackluster, i kinda wish they did or either had a better script, but more likely there will be more of these in the future, eventually, so we’ll see about that.
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