Reaction & Review | Resident Evil: Death Island

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're gonna be closing out this marathon with an animated film from 2023. That movie is "Resident Evil: Death Island".

Now, if I had to summarize my experience on all of the CG "Resident Evil" movies I've seen up till this point throughout this marathon, I would say it mostly ranges on sorta average. The first movie, "Resident Evil: Degeneration", was OK, despite it being heavily flawed. The second movie, "Resident Evil: Damnation", I did enjoy as a fun popcorn flick. And the third movie, "Resident Evil: Vendetta", which I reviewed earlier this month, was a bit disappointing. It wasn't an awful movie or anything, it just wasn't really that impressive to me. And of those movies that I've seen, only one of them has been worth holding on to. And even then, I'm not totally if that film is gonna hold up on repeated viewings. But hey, I probably shouldn't muddy things up here too much, because I still think there is something here that's worth watching, especially if you're a big fan of the "Resident Evil" series.

Which then brings us to tonight's movie, which is also the most recent entry in this lineup of the "Resident Evil" movies. Now, as per the case with the other films, I don't really know much about this one, outside of what little I read on the back of the DVD case. From what I read, another outbreak ensues, and apparently, it leads into all of our characters meeting up on Alcatraz Island. And when I say "all" characters, I'm talking about all of the main characters from the "Resident Evil" games, along with a newcomer, and also fan-favorite, in Jill Valentine. Now I have a little bit of experience playing as her in Resident Evil: Revelations and I also know she's playable in the Resident Evil: Remake. However, I didn't necessarily play as her, because I chose Chris in my first playthrough of the game. But aside from that, my experience with the character doesn't go beyond that. So, I'm hoping that this movie will make her stand out, despite everyone else being in this movie.

Now, I have no idea if the film's gonna be any good or not. It might be, but I am gonna be a little bit cautious here, considering how disappointed I was with "Resident Evil: Vendetta". Still though, I am gonna hold out hopes here in this movie being good. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good 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: Death Island".

14 minutes later

You know, guys, normally, I find a lot of jump scares to be rather predictable, but that time, a moment ago, actually *kinda* worked. I really wasn't expecting that to happen, but...damn, they kinda got me there.

16 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here, and I'm curious about this, too. So, Chris, Jill, and Claire went to Alcatraz Island thanks to a tourist boat that helped guide them there. And almost all the other guests there eventually turned into BOW's as well. So my question is that if they had turned into BOW's, why didn't the other 3 turn into them as well? The only explanation I can think of is because they're well prepped, or perhaps maybe Rebecca injected them with some sort of vaccine that prevents them from turning into BOW's. I don't know, and it doesn't really make much sense now that I'm thinking about it, but it is something I'm a little curious about.

16 minutes later

All right, I have another question that sorta ties into the previous movie. Now I mentioned, then, that one of Aria's family members had survived at the end of the movie. Is this woman the same person that was from the previous movie? And if it was, then why exactly is she working for our villain here? I could've sworn that they were setting up something else prior to the ending of "Resident Evil: Vendetta" with her. Now granted, I am kinda happy that they are sticking with continuity here with this movie *if* that is indeed the case, but I still am wondering why and how exactly did she end up working with our villain on Alcatraz Island? I don't know, and it's something that is sorta bugging me a little bit, you know what I mean?

15 minutes later

Wait, so let me if I understand this. Blake ordered Maria to let Jill go while everyone else is suffering because he thinks his plan of releasing his bio-drones will come to fruition. But unless Jill finds a way to stop all of them being released to the world, or Rebecca is able to give the other members the vaccines before our other heroes turn into BOW's, then his plan is completely flawed. Granted, I understand it might become difficult for one person, like Jill, to stop the bio-drones from hatching all by themselves, but if she does end up stopping them, or, like I said, if the other heroes get the vaccines from Rebecca, then Blake's plan is kinda screwed. Don't you think if he let Maria go after Jill, then his plan would be even more foolproof? Perhaps maybe that's just me, but then again, I have something resembling a brain, and Blake kinda lost his a long time ago. Just saying.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Resident Evil: Death Island". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well...I believe I can start off by saying this. While my feelings on these particular set of movies have been somewhat average, I can say that this movie was probably the best out of all of them. Now, mind you, when I say it's the 'best', I'm not saying that the film is great or anything. It's sort of on the same popcorn movie level feel that "Resident Evil: Damnation" achieved. However, I can say that say this movie felt like a satisfying conclusion to these particular set of films. Well, at least until another film like this one is made, thus completely destroys what I just said. Hypothetically speaking, anyway.

So, with all that in mind, let's get into the review proper by talking about the writing. Now earlier, at the start of this thing, I asked why exactly weren't Chris, Jill, and Claire immediately infected, when all of the other tourists at Alcatraz Island were? And I didn't really know why at the time, because I felt like that either seemed like a plothole, or somehow, they just had some sort of vaccine injected into them before they got to the island so that they wouldn't be infected as easily as the tourists were. Well, the movie actually did explain that. See, in this film, our villain, Dylan Blake, has a plan on releasing these bio-drone insects that are able to scatter across the world and infect anyone with the virus of his choosing. And they do so by stinging their neck, which causes them to turn into BOW's, which is how the tourists got infected so easily. Granted, I'm not totally sure why, later in the film, they weren't infected sooner when they were all eventually stung by these bio-drones, but I'm just going to assume that they all had stronger immune systems. Mind you, I totally understand that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'm just gonna roll with that, because that honestly makes the most sense to me. So, it's just something you have to take for what it's worth.

As for our characters, I want to start by talking about our villains. It's sort of a mixed bag here when it comes to our villains, because, on one hand, you have Dylan Blake, who is actually a somewhat decently developed villain, though he's not exactly great either. Mostly because when he's with our infected heroes, he just monologues his entire plan to them and kinda drones on quite a bit while Rebecca is coming to the island with the vaccines for them. Now granted, some of the stuff he says, you can *kinda* see it from his perspective. Because he says that the people that our main characters work for aren't really doing the world justice, and claims that there really is no good or evil, because what with him was that he was forced to kill a friend from his past that was infected. So he's gonna use the bio-drones to turn the people he wants into BOW's, and everyone else will eventually just die off. Now yes, you could argue that his motivations are kinda one-noted and selfish, but I kinda see it as a PTSD thing, where he's constantly on the edge of committing suicide a couple of times while also getting flashbacks as to how he was forced to kill his infected friend. So, while his plan is pretty formulaic with how the other villains lined up, he at least has something resembling a decent backstory. However, the one thing that I find odd is that he basically admits that he's continuing the work of what Glenn Arias, the previous movie's villain, was doing. Because Dylan says that he and Arias had been doing business together. And I find that odd, because there was no hint of that at *all* in the previous movie that Arias was working with someone else, other than his own family.

Speaking of his family, that brings me to the other villain of this story, Maria. Now I kinda didn't spoil it too much back in my review for "Resident Evil: Vendetta", but she was the only surviving member of Aria's family that survived at the end of that movie. And because of Dylan's supposed ties to Aria's family, Maria ended joining him in her quest for revenge against Leon for killing her father. And it's right here that I'm gonna come out and say that she is quite possibly the most *boring* fucking villain I have ever seen in *any* "Resident Evil" media ever! She is incredibly stoic and has no other kind of motivation other than avenging her father. And while I won't spoil anything else about her, I am gonna say that her payoff in this movie completely sucks, and it, again, makes me wonder why they even teased something with her in the previous movie? You really could've just teased something else and it probably could've had more impact than anything Maria did in this movie. Oh sure, she's a capable fighter, as proven in this movie, but so what? Her character sucks and you feel nothing for her. The other characters, though, are OK. And I'm specifically talking about our main characters. Most of them have the exact same established personalities that they've had from the previous movies, save for Jill, who's only making her first appearance in this movie. Leon, I can say, though, is back to how he acted in Damnation, since in the previous movie, he acted like a fucking emo because fuck you, that is why.

Now beyond all that, the writing here is still fine for what it is. And I will say that, when compared to "Resident Evil: Vendetta", it feels much more engaging here than it was for that film. And the action, while nothing special, is still rather decent, assuming of course you're use to that from the "Resident Evil" series. I know some people still prefer the horror aspect of it, however, I don't mind both aspects of it being combined, as long as it's done well. And for this movie, despite a few flaws, is still decent for it tried to do. And as for the acting, it's also really good, too. Nobody here sounded like they phoned it in or sounded like they didn't care. Everyone here turned in good showings for what they had to work with, and it shows. And I honestly can't say much more than that without sounding like a broken record.

Animation is also really good, too. One of the studios that had a hand in making this movie was TMS, and I've mentioned them before *way* back in the day when I reviewed "Lupin The 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure", but they are the ones behind such classic shows like "Animaniacs" and "Batman: The Animated Series", to name a couple of them. Now admittedly, I have no idea how much they contributed to this movie. It's possible they may have created the battle scenes in 2D, while some of the other animation studios recreated those action sequences in 3D. Mind you, this is just a pure guess, and I'm mostly likely gonna be wrong on that. However, regardless of all that, the movie looks beautiful. The character models look really good, and I can also say that I didn't notice Chris's stupid haircut as often like I did in the previous movie. I don't know why it bothered me much then, it just did for some reason. But anyway, I'm not gonna let stupid bullshit like that interfere with this review too much. Like I said, the character models are really good, and everything is animated very well, too. The only minor complaint I kinda had with it is when you got to see one of the bio-drones up-close for a brief moment. I have no idea if it was done in CG or not, but it looked terrible, and probably would've been less-needed had that shot not have happened. However, like I said, it's only a brief moment and you're not gonna notice it too much since it's a minor detail overall. However, being the keen eye that I am, I kinda tend to notice the smaller details most of the time. But anyway, the animation here is great.

Sound-mix is also mixed good, and the score overall is, unsurprisingly, very forgettable. However, considering the previous movies also had forgettable music, it's nothing to be surprised about. So I'm just gonna chalk this one off to being a status quo thing for this particular set of movies. It's not bad, per se, it's just forgettable is what I'm trying to get at here, in case anyone may ask that.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Resident Evil: Death Island"? If you enjoyed the previous CG "Resident Evil" movies, or if you're just a fan of the series overall, then you're mostly likely gonna have a fun time with this. Like I said earlier, this movie is the definition of a popcorn flick. Where if you're able to shut your brain off for about 90 minutes, then this movie will definitely provide that kind of fun entertainment for you. And as for myself, I will say that the movie certainly has it's fun moments. However, I'm not totally sure if it will be worth watching a second time. It *might* be, but I would have to think about whether or not it would be worth watching again at all. I still have "Resident Evil: Damnation" on my shelf, so I might hold onto it for the time being. And who knows? It might actually be really fun to get through with that aspect of it being a popcorn flick in mind. But for now, I'm gonna go and watch something else. And you know what? Since I just mentioned "Lupin The 3rd" while talking about TMS, I'm gonna go and rewatch "The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure" right now, because it's been a while since I last watched it for this review. So that's what I'm gonna go do next after I get done with this review.

And with that, guys, the second "Video Game Movie Marathon" comes to close for Reaction & Review. Don't expect me to do a 3rd one of these particular marathons, since the selection for more video game movies has kinda thinned itself for me. And there are many of them I don't really want to watch. If I do cover more video game movies, they'll most likely be reviewed on it's own time rather than be tied to another marathon. But anyway, guys, I'm done rambling on. Until next time, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Slender Man

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2018. That movie is "Slender Man".

Now admittedly, I might be stretching this one a bit. Because it actually started off as an internet meme from a website by a forum user who goes by the name of Eric Knudsen. Which later then got stupidly popular as it eventually got it's own video game, and was also partially responsible for the near-tragedy that happened in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 2014. Where two 12 year old girls held down one of their classmates and ended up stabbing them multiple times. And when they were interrogated by the police after their capture, they said it was done for the Slender Man, and that they were afraid that their families would be killed by it if they didn't commit murder. And no, guys, I am not kidding, *that* is the demented bullshit that they came up with. Now, I am not gonna question the validity of any of their claims, since, after, all, it came from the mindset of two half-retarded chimps who decided to commit murder in the name of some stupid myth. All I'm gonna say is that I am almost baffled by the fact that this myth became popular for slightly infamous and stupid reasons.

And speaking of which, as I just mentioned, the myth became super popular to where it eventually got it's own video game, which was called Slender Man: The Eight Pages. Now, I have never played that game, and after watching the scant few playthroughs of it, I have no desire whatsoever to do so. In case you've never played it, the goal of the game was to collect 8 scraps of notebook paper with drawings on it in a dark forest. And you had to quickly collect them while avoiding contact with the Slender Man. Otherwise, well...he gets you. Although, I don't think it really matters anyway, since he still gets you regardless. Admittedly, it has been quite a long time since I last looked up a playthrough of it on YouTube, but what I can tell you that I remembered about it was that the whole game was just a cheap jump-scare fest. And it didn't help things when almost all of the playthroughs that I watched had people with their webcams turned on as they pretended to get "scared" while playing the game. My theory is that they just wanted the cheap views for their videos, however, I understand that would probably make me sound dickish, so take that for what you will.

Now the other thing I wanted to comment on before I start watching the movie is something of an oddity about the film itself. You see, the original Slender Man game came out in 2012. Then a year later, came it's sequel Slender: The Arrival. And then afterwards...nothing else. Well, in terms of video games anyway. He made some sort of appearance in another movie in 2015, followed by the movie I'm gonna be covering tonight. And the reason why I'm calling this an oddity is because the popularity of Slender Man died down at the tail end of 2013 right to the beginning of 2014. And even with a re-release of Slender: The Arrival for modern consoles, almost nobody gave a shit about it. So, for Sony to release a Slender Man movie in 2018, long after the fad had died off, seems kinda stupid and really foolish to me.

But hey, you know what? Perhaps maybe I'm just nitpicking here. This movie could still be pretty good, despite me not being a fan of the Slender Man mythos. And if last week's review is anything to go by, it certainly has a chance of being worth watching. But the only way I'm gonna find out if the movie is any good 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 "Slender Man".

10 minutes later

OK, I have a question that I'm sorta curious about. So our four main characters, all of which I should mention have gone nameless, have just watched a video on how to summon the Slender Man. Um...who exactly made that video? I mean, for all we know, it could just be bullshit made up by some person who may just be making it up. Furthermore, how exactly would they know how to summon this stupid thing to begin with by closing your eyes until you hear the bell tolling 3 times? I really want to know, guys, because I feel like we're missing some context here as to how exactly this was all made to begin with, you know what I mean?

14 minutes later

So now our 2 main characters are sneaking inside of Katie's house to find out how exactly she disappeared, while our other main female character distracts her father at the front door. Even though earlier on, Katie's father illegally broke into one of our main character's house to find out if his daughter had been hiding there. So...I guess the lesson here is that it's perfectly fine to illegally go inside someone's home in order to find out what happened to your missing best friend. God...this movie is already stupid as shit, and we're not even at the halfway mark yet.

14 minutes later

So, guys, I got some good news. We actually got another name for one of our female leads! And her name is Chloe! *And* she also got turned into a victim of the Slender Man. I really wish I could give a fuck about this character, however, I have been given no reason to care about her, because she was completely shallow and lifeless. In fact, all of our female leads have no real personality or depth to them at all. So unless one of the remaining two develops a personality at some point, I'm probably gonna find no reason to care about them until they get taken by the Slender Man.

1 minute later

Oh...never mind, Chloe is actually still alive. I'm not sure how the fuck she *is* still alive, but then again, it's possible the Slender Man may have possibly just fucked her mind, I guess. But still, I will admit, I completely jumped the gun there.

13 minutes later

OK, that was...sorta interesting to see her face going completely blank like that. Still don't really give a fuck about the character herself, but hey, at least it's kinda something.

20 minutes later

You know, guys, I totally get that this movie is trying to be all tense, weird, and creepy as hell...but I still don't fucking care. I don't care because this movie has become boring as shit, and it's honestly starting to drag, too. I really want this movie to end soon, but if this is the pace it's gonna go at, then it's gonna be a fucking chore to get there!

The Review

Well, that ending was shit. Anyway, guys, that was "Slender Man". No...shut up, movie. I'm done listening to your bullshit propaganda about how "scary" the Slender Man is suppose to be. Holy shit, was that ever a chore to get through...so yeah, I guess if that was any indication, this movie fucking sucked. Granted, I kinda had a feeling it was going to suck, but I still kinda wanted to like it, even if I wasn't really a fan of the Slender Man mythos to begin with. However, in the end, all I got was a shitty movie based off a stupid myth.

So with that in mind, let's get into the review proper by first discussing the writing. And I want to start off by talking about how the myth is set up in this movie, because it sorta ties into why I'm not a fan of the mythos. Essentially, the movie tries to justify that Slender Man is basically like a virus, in which it corrupts a person's mind and soul to where they slowly descend into madness. And by the end of the movie, we get a narration which explains that the more it gets talked about, the more the mythos stays alive, thus I'm assuming Slender Man will always be around. And by the end of the movie, I had a revelation as to what exactly Slender Man is suppose to be, at least according to this film. Do you want to know what Slender Man is actually suppose to be? Well basically...he is essentially a mute version of Freddy Krueger from "Nightmare On Elm Street". Except, with Freddy, he actually had something resembling a personality and a more interesting backstory. Slender Man doesn't have any of that. Now yes, you could attribute most of that to Slender Man being mute in the first place, thus is the reason why he doesn't have an actual personality. However, I don't find the backstory of how Slender Man came to be very interesting at all. It just feels really dull and tacked on, and I'm even less interested in it now than I was beforehand.

And speaking of being not interested, let's about talk about the next big problem with this movie, which would be it's characters. I'm gonna repeat this point once more, as I've done many times in the past, and I'm probably going to continue repeating it until filmmakers actually start to take notice of this shit. If you are attempting to make a straight-up serious horror movie, then you *need* characters that are worth caring about! Oh, and also, make sure they have some kind of established names from the start, so the viewer can find out who is which. Because when this movie started, I had no idea who our main protagonist's names were because the movie didn't establish any of that, outside of one character named Katie Jensen, who was the first person who went missing thanks to the Slender Man. And it wasn't until later on until we finally got to know the rest of these character's names. The black chick is named Chloe, one of the girls is named Wren, and the other one's name is Hallie. But even by that point, I didn't fucking care about what happened to these stupid bitches, because *none* of them have any sort of depth or personality to their characters. So by the point that they slowly descend into madness, you're not gonna give a fuck about *any* of them because the movie doesn't give you any reason to care about them at all. Which is why, again, it's essential for movies like this to make you give a reason to care about it's characters! And when you fail at that, then you have a really shallow movie with no fucking characters to care about, and you're just hoping that the Slender Man will just kill them off as soon as possible so that movie can fucking end.

At least, that's what I *want* to say, if this thing were actually written better. But then that comes into the next problem with this movie, in which it has no sense of direction whatsoever. It starts off simple, when they discover that Katie goes missing and that they're trying to find a way to bring her back safely. Which then leads them into a dark forest in which they were told earlier that they must give up something that's very near and dear to them, whether it's like something that they made when they were younger, or in the case of Chloe in which she had a picture of herself as a child with her Dad a few months before he passed away, that kind of stuff. Now I could easily tell you what the Slender Man really wants as to what our main characters hold near and dear to them, however, the movie doesn't really hide this plot twist very well, and if you don't figure that out for yourself by the time that they reveal it, then you're about as stupid as this movie is. But anyway, going back to my original point, the movie starts off with that, but shortly after Chloe idiotically gets herself victimized by Slender Man, the movie goes off in it's own directionless route, in which it constantly switches scenes back and forth between Wren and Hallie. With Wren, she tries to do a bunch of research on Slender Man's history, while with Hallie, it's more all over the place with her, as she's seen spending time with her boyfriend and her little sister. And both characters little side quests are suppose to correlate with one another, however, it turns into one big fucking mess, because you have almost no idea as to what's going on, or why you should even care about their struggles with Slender Man.

And on top of all that, the pacing in this movie is fucking horrible. Now admittedly, it actually starts off OK, in which they actually get the plot rolling about Slender Man, which roughly takes about less than 10 minutes to get to. But as the movie slowly started to back away from the main plot about Katie Jensen's disappearance, the film's slow ass pacing comes to a grinding halt. And it's especially bad towards the last half hour of the movie, where it just *drags* on for so long. And by that point, I completely lost interest in the whole movie because it decided to have a slow boil. And normally, I would be fine with this, if the movie was actually interesting and I actually gave a shit about what was going on in it. But with this movie, I can't get myself invested when the movie itself is boring as shit and it has no characters to care about. So any sort of tension this movie was trying to build up ultimately feels completely slow and uninteresting as a whole. And the movie is only 90 minutes long, too. It shouldn't *feel* long with that kind of runtime, but this movie found a way to drag itself on for way too god damn long.

So yeah, guys, the writing in this movie is horrible from every direction. We have lifeless characters, coupled with a lifeless, directionless story that goes on for way longer than usual, and it just makes for a horribly made movie. Now believe it or not, as much as I can rail on this horrible fucking writing, I can actually say that the acting was pretty good. Mind you, none of it is great, but I can see that the actors were trying to make this horrible script work in their favor. And for the most part, they certainly do a pretty good job at it. So I gotta give them a lot of props for certainly trying as hard as they possibly could with the horrible material that they were given to work with. It's a pretty rare sight to see that kind of thing here, but hey, they certainly did try.

Special effects in this movie are mostly decent. There were a couple of visuals that look kinda cool, like when you see tentacles coming out of a girl's body. It might have been one of the main characters, however, I don't really remember if it was them or not. Slender Man himself looks OK...at least, until towards the end where the CG comes into play, and it honestly looks terrible. And I know that they tried to hide it as much as possible, considering it took place in the dark, however, I could still see it, and it just doesn't look really good at all. So, outside of some shitty-looking CG, the effects here are decent for what they are.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting, though, is honestly a mixed bag at best. In some cases, it looks perfectly fine, as long as it's shot during the daytime. However, almost any scene that's shot during the night feels like it's gotten darker. So whenever you see a character enter a dark room, the darkness will envelope them to near pitch blackness. Or like when our characters first enter the dark forest where the Slender Man is at, the shadows around the forest will make the scene look darker than usual, and it might get difficult to view some of those scenes because of it's darker lighting. Mind you, it doesn't totally get in the way of the whole movie, but it's definitely noticeable, and the lighting could've been fine-tuned a *lot* better. But anyway, setting aside the questionably dark lighting, the sound-mix here is mixed well. And the score here is also just a typical generic horror movie score that's been done many times beforehand, so it's nothing ultimately special and really forgettable.

So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Slender Man"? No. In no way can I recommend this movie at all, unless you're somehow still fascinated by the Slender Man mythos. But even then, it's best you just play any of the games and stick with those. Besides which, all of the problems this movie has are too much for me to not recommend this in any way, such as the story being stupid and confusing, the pacing being mostly shit towards the latter half of the film, the characters are all shallow and shit, it's really just a horrible movie all around. Now is this the worst the horror film I've ever seen? Fuck no. I've seen far horror movies for this series and on my own time, and this is not one of those. However, it definitely is an awful film and I seriously cannot even recommend this to anybody else other than it's fans. I'm not a fan of it, and this movie certainly did not win me over whatsoever. So I'm gonna go and watch a better horror movie, preferably a horror comedy of sorts, since I prefer those over straight-up horror movies. I think I'll just go and watch "Stitches" again. That one is always pretty good to me, so I'm gonna go and watch that next, and forget that I ever wasted time on this movie at all.

And with that, guys, 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.

Reaction & Review | Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1994. That movie is "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie".

Now as I've made mention before in my first "Video Game Movie Marathon", I'm not really that big into fighting games. I will, of course, play Smash Bros on my own time and sometimes at tournaments during conventions. But aside from that, and a couple of other fighting games that I play on my own time, I'm not really that big into the competitiveness of fighting games. And the same could be said for video game movies based off fighting games. Now admittedly, I've only seen a handful of fighting game movies. Things such as the first two live action "Mortal Kombat" movies, that shitbag DOA movie I reviewed a couple of years back for this series, and the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie that I still watch to this day because of it's cheesy awesomeness.

And speaking of which, tonight, I'm actually going to give the "Street Fighter" series some spotlight, as I'm gonna be watching the animated adaptation of one of the most popular fighting games ever made. Now in terms of my history with "Street Fighter", I've barely had any interaction with this series. I believe I may have played one of the games on the SEGA Genesis, although I don't know if it was Street Fighter II or not. I do sometimes play as both Ryu and Ken as guest stars in Super Smash Bros., although they're not really my favorites when it comes to characters I play with. The only other time I've had any interaction with the series was both with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the wildly underrated Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars for the Nintendo Wii. On an off note, I would *love* it if Capcom were to remaster the latter game for the Switch. As much as I'm against ports for the Switch, considering most of them looked very lazy to me, I would love to see a remaster of that game on the Switch and give it some more spotlight. That game was awesome, and I would highly recommend it to anybody that owns a Wii or Wii U and play it for yourself. Mind you, the game itself is out of print, so finding a physical copy of it might prove to be difficult, but totally not impossible, since I still have my copy back when I bought it years ago.

But anyway, I'm getting far off topic talking about an obscure fighting game, I should really be focusing on tonight's movie. Now I have heard positive things about this movie, so there is a chance this thing could be really good. But I also have to keep in mind that I said the same thing about the "Tomb Raider" film from 2018, and, well, we all know how *that* turned out. But still, I am hoping for this thing to be really good. And the only way I'm gonna find that out 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 "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie".

16 minutes later

Well, guys, I am able to say one thing so far. The music in this movie is great. Every single piece of music that's been used so far has felt very original and I'm really digging it as well. And so far, the movie has been rather good, and I'm hoping it continues to stay that way.

19 minutes later

All right, I have a really stupid question that I know is very trivial, but I want to ask it anyway. Why exactly is the terrorist organization called Shadowlaw instead of Shadaloo? Was it because the name sounded too hard to pronounce, so when they translated the film into English, they went for a more simpler name to pronounce? Or was it because it sounded cooler for some stupid reason? Again, I know it's a very trivial thing to be complaining about, but it is something that I'm a little curious about is all.

19 minutes later

OK, that fight sequence between Vega and Chun-Li was really awesome, even if it was in Chun-Li's rather small apartment. Still, at least it made for a really awesome fight scene, so I'm totally cool with that.

18 minutes later

I know I've already mentioned this, guys, but once again, I'm *really* digging the music for this movie. It really is that good. I may have to give the soundtrack a listen to at some point, but it's starting to grow on me more and more as I continue watching this thing.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. Well, um...where to start with this one? Well, I can say this much. As someone who's not really into "Street Fighter" in general, I am willing to say that this movie was fucking amazing! It really is. Which is kinda surprising, because while I did go into this thing hoping for it to be good, I was still a little bit cautious, considering my stance on the series and everything. But all in all, it really did surpass a lot of my expectations as a movie and I'm willing to admit, it impressed the hell out of me, which is awesome to see.

So now that I've gotten my general impressions out of the way, let's actually get into the film itself here by discussing the writing. The writing here is really solid and very easy to follow. Bison is trying to recruit strong fighters for his terrorist organization known as Shadowlaw, and he does so by sending out these cyborg monitors that keeps track of all of the powerful fighters from around the world. He's mostly looking for Ryu, but considering he's on the move all of the time, he instead targets Ryu's close friend Ken, who he later ends up brainwashing instead, considering Ken's fighting style is very close to Ryu's. Which then leads into a showdown between the two later on in the movie. And on the other side, you have our other heroes like Guile and Chun-Li trying to locate the homeworld of Shadowlaw and basically try to destroy it before they can enact their evil plan. And like I said, it's really to follow despite the fact that the story can kinda go all over the place. So you won't be confused as to what's going because of the film's simplicity of it's storytelling. And what makes it flow better is the pacing. This movie is about 107 minutes long, but it honestly just goes on by. It doesn't feel like it's overstaying it's welcome, but it also doesn't feel too short either. It has a very good length that gives enough breathing space to tell it's story while also showcasing the fight scenes. I'll talk a little bit about those later.

I do want to comment on a couple of minor nitpicks. One of those I'm gonna talk about later on when I talk about the technical stuff, but I do want to start with one thing that sorta bothered me a bit. Now as I mentioned earlier, I'm not really the biggest fan of "Street Fighter", so my knowledge about the series is sort of limited. But one thing I noticed that kinda bothered me a little bit was the fact that the terrorist organization is called Shadowlaw and not Shadaloo. Now even though I'm not entirely a fan of the "Street Fighter" series, I do remember Bison's organization being called Shadaloo in the games. So I don't entirely know why they decided on calling it Shadowlaw in this movie. And what I find rather funny about this is that even the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie, as far as it was from being accurate to the source material, was able to use the Shadaloo name for it's adaptation. Now admittedly, I don't know if it was a translation issue from when they were dubbing the movie into English, or if that was somehow also an issue in the original Japanese version, but either way, it is something that could potentially get to you, especially if you are a "Street Fighter" enthusiast. Myself personally, it's not too big of an issue, but again, it is something that you could potentially notice, even if you might have limited "Street Fighter" knowledge like I do.

Now with that in mind, our characters here are mostly fleshed out and are very likable. Mind you, a lot of the characters in this movie are mostly just cameos, and a lot of them don't really play that much of a factor into the film. So you'll have characters like Cammy, Dhaslim, Dee Jay, Zangief, and Blanka as a few good examples of characters who make a short appearance and don't have any roles beyond that. Then again, considering the film is a little over an hour and 40 minutes long, there is only so many characters you could put in within that runtime, and the movie does a good enough job to provide as much fanservice as they possibly could. On the subject of characters, I sorta brought up the subplot where Bison captures Ken and brainwashes him to fight Ryu. And there is where the movie really centers in on our characters, specifically Ryu and Ken. Throughout the movie, you get to see flashbacks during their younger days when they were training and not as buff as they currently are. This is where most of the development happens between the two, and it's great. You really do feel the bond between Ryu and Ken's friendship and what ultimately ends up happening when the two reunite to battle against each other. And that also includes the moments between Guile and Chun-Li since they also get a decent amount of screen time together. So yeah, writing wise, in terms of who they included as our main and supporting characters, it's really good stuff.

So now that I've given enough praise for the writing being really good, I can also say the same thing about the movie's English dub, too. The English cast for this movie is really well put together. Just about everybody here sounds perfectly casted for their roles, and they do a really good job at it. Even the ones who I mentioned earlier involving characters that get a very short appearance in this movie, they also pull off really good performances here, too. Bison's voice actor is probably the one that stands out the most to me, because it has a slight hint of what Raul Julia gave to the character in the 1994 live action movie. Granted, I understand that it's probably not fair to compare two different performances like that. However, I couldn't help but make the comparison. And while Raul Julia's performance as M. Bison will never be topped in my opinion, the voice they chose for Bison also sounds pretty menacing, as well, and perfectly suits the character. And like I just said, everybody else here sounds great, so it's a win-win situation for this English dub. Now granted, there is an option on the DVD and Blu-ray versions to switch over to the Japanese dub on the off chance you don't want to listen to an English dub, however, I would still recommend the English dub, since that's the version I watched first and it is very good, overall.

Animation here is fantastic from just about everywhere. The art-style is also really good, too. Every character here looks exactly how they looked in the game, and it's great to see these characters feel like they came to life in an animated movie. And since we're talking about a series that is mainly a fighting game, the fight scenes are also animated very well. A lot of the moves feel like they also came from the video game, and they look really cool in action. I normally don't ever get a chance to comment on the fight choreography in an animated film before, but with this movie, I had to make a special exception. So anyway, in any case, the animation and the art-style for this movie is great.

Before I get to the sound-mix and everything else, there is one other minor nitpick that I wanted to comment on, and that would have to be the subtitles. Now I understand that since I watched the English dub, I shouldn't be expecting very many subtitles, unless there's a word in Japanese and there's a small English text that's suppose to translate what it says. However, this movie kinda has a bit of a problem with not translating certain words into English. Now I should mention that most of the Japanese text you see in this movie is mostly regulated to the opening and ending credits, and I don't really have much of a problem with that. But what sorta did bug me a bit is that when there's a scene that's suppose to take place in a new location, the text will pop up, telling you what the name of that location is. Except, the text is all in Japanese, so I honestly didn't know what location a scene of the movie is suppose to take place in. Now you could probably guess a couple of them on your own, such as when a scene is suppose to be taking a place in either India or Las Vegas. In fact, I remember someone uttering the words "Las Vegas" before the scene actually cuts to Las Vegas. But for every other place, I honestly couldn't tell you where a scene is suppose to take place at. So a scene could possibly take place in something like Thailand, New York, or China, but I couldn't tell you if those are the right locations or not because all of the text that's suppose to tell you the location of the scene is entirely Japanese. And unless you know Japanese yourself, you're gonna be left wondering where the hell a scene is suppose to be taking place. And I honestly think they could've taken the time to at least translate that much just so it would be a little bit easier for English speaking audiences. But aside from that one minor gripe, guys, the locations themselves look great, regardless of what scene the movie's suppose to be taking place in. And it's not really that big of an issue, unless you really think about it for too long.

Sound-mix here is mixed really well. The music, both in terms of it's score and soundtrack is great. The score itself is great, because it uses a bunch of different music such as rock, hip-hop, and I think possibly taiko drums as well as a few examples. Admittedly, I'm not sure if that last one is at all accurate, since I'm not really a drum expert, but I will say that they sounded pretty cool. And the soundtrack itself is also really good, too. Personally speaking, I prefer the score over the soundtrack, but I still think it's pretty good for what it is.

Overall, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie"? Oh, absolutely yes, guys, this movie is great! And I'm saying this as someone who isn't really a fan of the series. It really is that good! So it's very well possible that this movie could please non-fans of "Street Fighter". Then again, I also watched and enjoyed the 1994 live action movie as well, despite not being a fan of the series then as well. So really, it's just take it or leave it. But anyway, I can definitely recommend this to fans of the franchise, assuming of course they haven't already seen it yet. The animation is great, along with the voice acting, story, and great music. And for anyone who wasn't really a fan of the live action "Street Fighter" movie from 94, then this will definitely be more loyal to the source material for fans of the series. So yeah, I can totally recommend this movie, and I'm quite happy myself for picking a copy of this movie up at a convention last year, and it was totally worth the wait to cover it for this series. And I'll definitely be holding onto this movie by adding to my DVD collection. Now, since I just got done mentioning "Street Fighter", I'm gonna go and rewatch the 1994 movie again, because I love it so much, and hell, I might even marathon both this and the animated movie back-to-back if I'm ever in the mood. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go do next after I get done typing this review up.

And with that, guys, 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.

Reaction & Review | Resident Evil: Vendetta

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2017. That movie is "Resident Evil: Vendetta".

Now if you've been following this marathon up till this point, then you'll know that I have reviewed the first 2 CG "Resident Evil" movies for this marathon. And so far, I would say both movies have produced positive results. Granted, the first movie wasn't great, and it was definitely flawed, but I could still find some enjoyment out of it. The second movie was definitely an improvement and I enjoyed that one quite a bit. So, needless to say, I am enjoying myself with this series of movies.

So now this leads us into the third movie, "Resident Evil: Vendetta". And much like with the previous two films, I don't really know much about the plot. I've heard this movie might take place after Resident Evil 6, though I have no idea how accurate that claim really is. Plus also, it's been years since I last played Resident Evil 6, so I wouldn't be able to confirm it even after I get done watching the movie. What I can tell you about the film is that it features established characters such as Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and Rebecca Chambers. And in regards to the latter character, I do remember having a little bit of experience playing as her in Resident Evil Zero, which was a prequel game to the Resident Evil Remake. I didn't hate Zero, however, it was definitely a game that I didn't feel like it was worth replaying a second time, what with it's difficulty, choice of enemies, and a certain weapon that kinda pissed me off in regards to it's usage. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't played the game yet, but let's just say that it wasn't exactly a happy experience for me.

But anyway, I'm not gonna sully things up too much here by talking about that game. I should just focus on tonight's movie. I'm certainly hoping that it will continue this positive trend I've had with these movies. However, I could also see this thing taking a massive dump in quality, and could possibly end up sucking as well. That said, I'm still hoping for the best here. And the only way I'm gonna find out as to whether or not this movie will be any good 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: Vendetta".

13 minutes later

O...K, I wasn't expecting those soldiers to die by going through those sharp invisible wires. Almost reminds me of what I saw from "Audition", where the woman used some sort of metal wire to slice through human skin. Except here, there were a bunch of them hanging around the hallway like that. That was definitely unexpected.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I understand that this is all suppose to be interesting and everything. However, part of me is not finding a reason to care because I still have no idea who our villains are, I don't know why this woman that works with our villain, Arias, placed a virus that turned almost everyone there into BOW's, and I still have no idea why Leon hasn't shown up yet apart from the opening prologue that lasted about a minute at best. Guys, I'm waiting for *any* kind of explanation to happen, and until I get that, everything that I'm seeing right now feels kind of pointless.

9 minutes later

I think I figured it out, guys. I now know what kind of character Arias is suppose to be. He's basically this movie's version of Albert Wesker, except he doesn't have any of the charm, personality, or intrigue that Wesker had. And based on what I heard a little earlier about him, I'm not really having any high hopes for his character to improve. Now it could happen, and hey, there's still another hour left in this movie for his character to get interesting. But as of right now, I really don't see that happening.

16 minutes later

OK, I have a *big* question here, and it's been bugging since I learned about Arias's backstory. So, a Smart Bomb was dropped at his wedding, thus killing his entire family and his wife. Don't ask why, the movie still hasn't really explained that part. But anyway, the question I had on my mind is that if his whole family and wife had died, then how the fuck is *he* even still alive?! He was right in the middle of that blast, so how the hell did he even survive that, but not his family or wife? I want to know this, and I'm hoping this movie attempts to explain that sooner rather than later, because it's something that *really* shouldn't be ignored.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Resident Evil: Vendetta". Let me shut the movie off here...OK. Oh boy, um...where to even to start? Well, I believe I can say that one of my predictions came true. I was hoping for this thing to continue the positive trend I have had with these CG "Resident Evil" movies up till this point. But I also mentioned that this thing could also just take a dip with it's quality, and it's very well possible that the movie could lean towards that way. Well, I was right on the latter option, because this movie unfortunately dials it back with it's quality to a point where it becomes disappointing. At least to me, it does.

So with that in mind, let's start this review off proper by discussing the writing. Now I want to make a claim that the "Resident Evil" series, as a whole, whether it's the games or the movies, never really had the greatest of writing. Now yes, I understand I'm making this claim despite the fact that I haven't played enough of the games to make this sort of statement, but just based on what I've experienced, the writing in "Resident Evil" has never really been that great. And this movie is no exception. It has all of the things you would expect from the "Resident Evil" series, a story that deals with a virus outbreak that is turning people into BOW's, we have a villain that wants to dominate the world with these BOW's (I'm gonna talk more about him in a minute), and we also have some establishing characters coming into this movie so that they can stop the outbreak, kill some BOW's, and save the world. It's very formulaic, but it does work most of the time. And if you have been, or are a fan of the "Resident Evil" series by this point, then you should know what to expect, and you most likely won't notice or either care about the flaws that this movie has. However, for me, personally, I just feel that none of it really impressed me all that much here. OK yes, they also really amp it up with the action scenes here, but it still didn't really wow me all that much, as I've seen better action sequences done better in other action movies. So, at least on that end, I could just chalk this thing up to being a mindless action film that could entertain some people, but not me, since I prefer a little more substance with most of my action movies.

But let's set that aside and talk about one of the biggest problems this movie has, which is our characters. And I'm gonna start with the main villain himself, Glenn Arias. Now I mentioned earlier that this guy was essentially this movie's version of Albert Wesker. And I stand by that statement, because he essentially has the same goals in which he wants to take over the world by using controlled BOW's so that no one would be able to stand in his way. And I also stand by the fact that this guy has none of the charm or interest that Wesker had. Do you want to know why? Because Wesker actually had some level of buildup throughout the games that he was featured in up until Resident Evil 5. This movie, however, is Arias's only single appearance, and I have no reason to care about him whatsoever. The movie tries to give him some kind of backstory, but it quickly falls apart the moment you start to think about it. As I mentioned earlier, a Smart Bomb dropped on his wedding and killed everyone at his wedding, including his wife. Why did this happen? Well, fuck you, that is why. That would be the short answer. However, as I was thinking about it, it never really occurred to me as to why Arias was even targeted to begin with. Specifically, what was he like prior to his wedding? And why exactly did someone need to drop a Smart Bomb on him of all things? Was there an outbreak that was going on at the time? Not to my knowledge, since his wedding looked rather hunky-dory to me. And even then, how exactly did Arias come to the conclusion that it was Chris and the BSAA that were responsible for the Smart Bomb, which would then lead to his "revenge" against them? How exactly did he take over the new Umbrella to unleash his plan? Guys, there are so many questions I have about this, and *none* of them ever get answered. So it really leaves me feeling empty about our main villain, because his backstory is too stupid and convoluted that it really doesn't make any sense if you start to pick it apart like I did.

Now, setting aside our villain, what about our other characters? Well, admittedly, they don't fall into the stupid category that Arias does in terms of having a retarded backstory, however, that doesn't really help things much since almost all of our characters are about as bland and shallow as they come. Chris has no real personality other than that he's a soldier for the BSAA. Leon, for some reason, goes back to his roots of acting how he did back in "Resident Evil: Degeneration", where his character was seriously boring as shit. And I feel like it's gotten worse here, because when he first gets introduced in this movie, he basically feels very emo about some events that happened at the beginning where his team got killed in a small outbreak and ends up blaming himself for what happened. And it just feels very out of character for him to be acting like this. Now admittedly, I don't know where this movies takes place, timeline wise, in the "Resident Evil" series, however, the very fact that he feels more emo in this movie just feels like a huge downgrade when compared to the previous movie in the series, which was "Resident Evil: Damnation". Rebecca Chambers is kinda just there, really. She has no defining character traits other than that she is a professor developing the vaccines and that she use to be a part of the medical team back during the early days of "Resident Evil". And one other thing I should mention is that I kinda made an error earlier when I said Aria's family was killed. However, that's not *entirely* the case. There's a couple members of his family who somehow end up also getting turned into BOW's. And without spoiling too much, by the end, it looked like they were teasing something with one of them. However, aside from the fact that they are also bland as shit, I have no idea if what they actually teased here is gonna play any part in the other "Resident Evil" movie that I plan on covering later this month. And if not, it makes me wonder why in the hell they would even go this route if they weren't going to do anything with it? However, I will withhold my judgement for when I eventually get to that last movie.

But yeah, guys, when it comes to this film's writing, it's definitely weaker when compared to the other CG "Resident Evil" movies. Granted, I don't know if it's weaker than Degeneration was, since I felt like that movie felt really cliched with it's writing. Which is probably gonna sound hypocritical, considering this movie is working with all of the cliches and tropes that you would see in the "Resident Evil" series. That said, I would probably give the slight edge to this movie over Degeneration, because I feel like there was a bit more effort put into Vendetta. It's just effort that I didn't really care for. But anyway, with that said, let's actually get into the acting. And the acting here, I will say, is decent for what it is. It's not that great, and I feel like whoever they got to voice Rebecca Chambers definitely felt the weakest of the bunch, but I can see that the acting here was OK for what the actors had to work with. So on that end, I can at least say the acting here is decent for what it is.

Animation here is also another positive. I will say that this movie, when compared to how the previous two movies looked, looks great. It definitely has that more realistic look to it. Which kinda makes sense, given that the previous two movies in the series felt like they came from video game consoles of the time. For Degeneration, it looked like a PlayStation 2 game, and for Damnation, it looked sorta like a game you would see on the Xbox 360 and PS3. This movie, while it may also just look like a cutscene from one of the newer games, definitely looks great. The character models are really good. Although admittedly, and this is just a minor nitpick, I'm not really the biggest fan of Chris Redfield's hairstyle. I don't know what it is exactly, but something about it just felt rather off to me almost every time he appeared on screen with it. However, that is just a minor nothing that almost nobody is gonna care about except me, because I kinda tend to notice the smaller details sometimes, and that one stood out to me the most. So it's just something you have to take for what it's worth.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The score and soundtrack is also decent for what it is. However, I can't really call it memorable, since I couldn't think of a single piece of music here that I could imagine myself humming to or even remembering within a few hours. It's just there for the sake of being there. So again, it's just something you have to take for what it's worth. However, "Resident Evil" isn't really known for it's memorable music. At least, not on my account, it hasn't been. So yeah, the score here is still decent, just nothing memorable overall.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Resident Evil: Vendetta"? Um...well, like I said, if you've been a fan of the "Resident Evil" series up till this point, and you've enjoyed the previous two CG animated movies, then you're probably gonna find that same amount of enjoyment here. The story is still the same formulaic thing we've seen done before, and if you like seeing you're favorite characters in this for fanservice, then you're probably gonna enjoy this just fine. However, if you're somebody new to this series and you want to get into these particular movies, then this one is definitely *not* a starting point for you. Like I mentioned before, you should probably watch both Degeneration and Damnation before getting into this one. And even then, it's best you play any of the games first before you even consider watching these movies. Which probably isn't saying a whole lot, considering the timeline of these movies feels a little all over the place. But still, I could recommend this thing for fans of the "Resident Evil" series. Newcomers or casual fans should probably avoid this thing, at least for now. And as for myself, well, I really wanted to like this movie more, but with it's characters feeling really bland and shallow and the story not really being really interesting, I'm probably not gonna be giving this movie a second viewing. Which is a bit disappointing to say, because I could see some level of potential here. However, it just wasn't enough to impress me, so I'm not gonna be holding onto this movie for my DVD collection. And on that note, I'm gonna find something from there to watch, since I want to watch something better. And since I mentioned my reference for action movies earlier, I think I'm gonna go and watch a different and better action movie. Hmm...got it! I'm gonna go and re-watch "First Blood" again. Hell, I might even marathon a couple of the "Rambo" movies while I'm at it, since those movies have some really good action in them.

And with that, guys, 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.