Reaction & Review | Resident Evil: Damnation

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out an animated film from 2012. That movie is "Resident Evil: Damnation".

So, a couple of weeks back, I reviewed the first of these CG animated "Resident Evil" movies, which was "Resident Evil: Degeneration". And the best thing I could say about that movie was that it was a decent film for what it tried to accomplish on it's first outing. However, it was sorta boggled down by a few things, such as the animation looking a little bit dated, especially involving Leon, who aged the worst when it came to his animation. The characters were all flat and kinda lifeless, save for Claire Redfield. And the story, while somewhat cliched, probably would've worked better as a standalone game in the "Resident Evil" franchise rather than turning it into a movie. That being said, the movie is still worth watching, if at least once, especially if you are a big fan of the franchise. Just don't expect anything special out of it when it comes to it's story.

Which then leads into tonight's movie, which is also the sequel to "Resident Evil: Degeneration". And much like with the first film, I don't really know a whole lot about it. I know Leon is one of the returning characters from "Resident Evil: Degeneration", along with another fan-favorite in Ada Wong. So that should be something interesting. And speaking of Leon, I'm hoping that this movie will be able to improve on his animation. Because, again, his character animation in "Resident Evil: Degeneration" was mostly terrible. So I'm hoping for that to improve here, and I'm also hoping for this movie to be better than Degeneration. But the only way I'm gonna find out as to whether or not this movie will be worth watching at all is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Resident Evil: Damnation".

14 minutes later

You know, guys, I totally understand that this woman is suppose to the President of Russia and everything. And I would probably take her words more seriously if her Russian accent didn't keep disappearing on her while she's talking. Seriously, guys, this might possibly be one of the most fakest Russian accents I've *ever* heard in a movie in a long time.

13 minutes later

OK...well, I wasn't expecting that BOW's mouth to open up like that. Luckily, Leon was there before it could kill JD like that. Kinda wish we could've seen what this BOW was gonna do, but, hopefully, we'll get a chance to see something like that later, you know what I mean?

5 minutes later

O...K, so you guys happened to remember that I was hoping what exactly these BOW's were gonna do after they opened their mouths? Well apparently, I seemed to have gotten my answer questioned, as one of them took something disgusting from their mouths and shoved it into this soldier's own mouth. Don't ask me what exactly, I have no idea what the hell she just placed inside his mouth. But.........oh, so I guess he just turned into one of them now. Interesting. Not exactly what I was expecting, but still rather interesting.

15 minutes later

Well...shit, I actually sorta liked that character. It's kind of a pity he's dead now, because, outside of Leon, there's not really anyone else who is all that likable. Mind you now, I'm not saying the movie's gonna suck because this character's now dead, I'm just saying it's kind of a pity that he didn't stick around for much longer. But so far, guys, despite that, the movie's still pretty good and I'm hoping it stays that way for rest of the film.

11 minutes later

OK, that was actually sorta cool. I really liked how Ada was able to pull out a hidden knife from the stilt of her high heel in order to get out of her own predicament. Granted, her character's been kinda samey since Resident Evil 4, but you know what? I am willing to grant her that much. Her getaways are pretty creative, sometimes.

20 minutes later

So after all that, this giant monster is *still* fucking alive? Then how the hell are you suppose to kill this thing now?! I'm certain this type of monster appeared in one of the past "Resident Evil" games so I'm sure someone might answer that question for me better than I can. But if an explosion from a gas tank is not the answer, then I would love to know how the fuck you stop these monsters indefinitely. I'm *really* curious about that now.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Resident Evil: Damnation". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where do I begin here? Well, I am gonna start by saying that, when compared to "Resident Evil: Degeneration", this movie is definitely leaps and bounds better than that movie. Again, I want to reiterate myself by stating that "Resident Evil: Degeneration" wasn't a bad movie, it was just heavily flawed is all I'm saying. And while this move does have some flaws, it's mostly minor, compared to the first of these CG animated movies. So if anything else, this movie definitely improved itself, as a sequel should, and I'm quite happy to see that here.

So with that said, let's start this off, as usual, by talking about the writing. Writing in this movie is mostly really solid, but I do have a couple of minor criticisms in regards to something I was thinking about earlier. First of all, I made an error in my assumptions that the monsters I was referring to way early on were called BOW's. Specifically, I'm talking about the scene involving a Russian soldier being held down by a group of the plagas, in which one of them inserted, I'm going to assume a plagas egg, into the soldier's mouth. And earlier, I referred to the plagas as BOW's. And that is a mistake on my part, because the BOW's are actually these fast flesh-looking monsters that Ataman, one of our main characters, is able to control. The plagas are basically the same creatures that appeared in Resident Evil 4, and they're apparently back in this movie. Now the reason why I find this to be odd is because I genuinely thought that they were all wiped out by the end of Resident 4. But then again, I do remember them appearing in Resident Evil 5 after I went back and replayed it again recently. So I can just chalk that up to my knowledge about the "Resident Evil" series being mostly shit. However, in my defense, I did state back in my review of "Resident Evil: Degeneration" that my knowledge about the series lore isn't all that great since I've been playing them out of order, and there's a lot of things about the series that I still don't know about. So again, it's just something that you have to bare with me on here, and if you feel the need to correct me on something, by all means, I'm welcome to that.

That said, I am gonna start with a big positive, which is the characters. And I want to start with Leon himself. Now if you'll recall, one of my biggest complaints that I had with "Resident Evil: Degeneration" was that Leon felt incredibly bland and boring as a character. Mostly because, he came off as very stoic and didn't really come off as jokey like he was Resident Evil 4. Granted, he was still a somewhat serious character in that game, but he was able to work in some wisecracks here and there, which saved him from being bland. But for whatever reason, his character in "Resident Evil: Degeneration" felt rather off-putting to me, and I just couldn't find a reason to care about him at all in that movie. This movie, however, almost does a complete 180 on his character. They go back to his roots of what he was like in Resident Evil 4, and it's definitely a welcome change. He has a pretty good balance of telling wisecracks and being serious when he needs to be. And it makes his character that much more appealing, unlike how he was in the first movie. So that's definitely a positive. Our other characters in this movie kinda range a bit. JD is probably the second best character in the entire movie. He has a passionate interest in seeing America, and his personality also makes him stand out, as well. Our villains are really bland and forgettable, though, and it felt like their ending seemed rather rushed and inconclusive. The only other character I can really make mention of is Ada Wong, and she really is no different than how she acted in Resident Evil's 4 and 6. Where she plays up as the cool and mysterious spy, and, to be honest, it's kinda boring and tiresome. And unless she has had a massive character arc, then her character is still pretty one-dimensional if this movie's anything to go by.

One other thing I will say about this movie is that it's very well paced. Because, going back to another issue I had with "Resident Evil: Degeneration", one of the other problems that movie had was that the story structure felt like it was a little all over the place. Where the first half hour or so felt like a prologue, the remaining hour or so was split into 2 different storylines, and it really felt like, to me anyway, that they could've just turned the movie into an actual "Resident Evil" game instead. This movie, on the other hand, felt more cinematic, if that makes any sense. Now yes, there are moments in this movie where you could feel like it was playing itself out as a video game, but those moments are more restrained. And because of that, the pacing in this movie felt like it had a more natural feel to it. Which is kinda funny to me, because both movies have almost similar runtimes. With the first movie, it was 96 minutes long, where with this movie, it's 100 minutes long. So really, it's not *that* big of a difference in the long run. But still, this movie feels like it had much better pacing than the first movie, and, to me anyway, that is also another positive I can take out of this.

So yeah, guys, when it comes to this movie's writing, it's definitely much better structured and it has a better sense of where it wants to go. And coupled with the fact that Leon's character has massively improved from the first movie, it's definitely a big plus, in my opinion. Now with that said, let's get into the acting. The acting here, for the most part, is actually pretty good. One of the big changes from the first movie to this one is that Paul Mercier is not voicing Leon in this one. Instead, he's being voiced by Matt Mercer, and Mercer is usually a really good voice actor, so I don't really have any complaints, since his voice is pretty close to how Mercier sounded like when he voiced Leon. I wasn't that big on Ada's voice in this movie, at first, since she sounded really robotic. But as the film went on, she did sound a little more natural, and the actress that was voicing her was able to work with what she was given, despite her character being really samey. The only one who I had a slight problem was whoever they got to voice the Madame President. And this one stood out to me because the character is suppose to be Russian, however, the actress was not able to retain a consistent tone when it comes to her accent, because the accent kept disappearing almost each time she spoke her dialogue, and it just felt somewhat unnatural when listening to it for the majority of screen time she had in this movie. But other than that, the acting here is mostly fine, and I can't say anything else about it.

Animation in this movie is also really good. And I'm pleased to report that Leon's animation in this movie has also improved, as well. Where unlike the first movie, he felt like an NPC there that just stood there talking with little to no movements in regards to his animation. Here though, he moves more like a human being would. Minus some ridiculous stunts here and there, the movements are mostly fine. And that includes all of the other human characters, too. Nobody has any awkward movements as far as I could remember, and the fight scenes are also really good, too. So yeah, the animation is definitely an improvement from the first movie. The sound-mix is also really good. The score here is incredibly forgetful. Nothing about the music is going to memorize you in any way. But then again, the first movie didn't really have any memorable music, either. So it might just be par for the course for this movie series, unless they up the music in some way with the other two movies I'm gonna be covering next month for the marathon.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Resident Evil: Damnation"? Yes, I can most certainly recommend this movie. Mind you, I'm mostly recommending this one to just fans of the "Resident Evil" series. Non-fans are probably gonna have no idea as to what's going on. And I'm not sure if I could recommend this to newcomers of the series. I would probably recommend playing any of the games first before you even think about watching these particular movies. But for anyone else that are fans of the series, then I would most definitely recommend it to them. It has a good mixture of horror and action, and the characters are mostly really likable, with maybe an exception here and there. But yeah, guys, overall, I can mostly recommend this movie, provided, of course, you are a fan of the series. And as for myself, I'm definitely gonna be holding onto this movie for my DVD collection. And hopefully, it'll get better with repeat viewings. Now...with that said, I think I'm gonna go and watch another horror movie. Um...you know, I think I'm gonna go and re-watch my copy of "Freddy vs. Jason". I love that movie to bits, so that's what I'm gonna go do right after I get done typing this review up.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.