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.
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