Resident Evil Damnation: Review
As somewhat of a spin-off from the game franchise, this CG film which is directed by Makoto Kamiya, takes place in Europe as we find Leon S. Kennedy once again right in the middle of the action. He sneaks into Eastern Slovakia to investigate and confirm rumors that the locals are using B.O.Ws (Bio Organic Weapons) in the civil war that’s taking place. Upon dealving deeper into the city he notices that they are indeed using B.O.Ws but in a way that hasn’t ever been seen before. They are being led around and ordered like pets by a man known as Alexander Kozachenko. He found out a way to do so with an experimental lab created parasite called Las Plagas. The parasite is being used as a weapon against President Svetlana Belikova and her government agenda. After uncovering the truth Leon must now make his way out of the warzone. There’s only one thing in his way, The Tyrant.
Resident Evil Damnation takes some of the best features of the games (the cutscenes) and makes it into a full feature film. The quality of this film has been greatly improved since Degeneration in almost every aspect. The story was crafted in a way that referred back to the game franchise at times but didn’t fully rely on it so it gave it a perfect chance to be a stand alone film. The funny thing that I noticed between this movie and the also newly released Resident Evil Retribution was that Damnation, with it being entirely CG, stayed closer to reality (well as real as you can get) and embodied what Resident Evil is than the live action RE Retribution where you had Alice flying through the air and doing acrobatics that seemed somewhat silly. The inclusion of the Las Plagas was pretty interesting to see and I’m glad that they gave you bits and pieces of the backstory on them. They also made it viewer friendly to where you didn’t feel lost if you haven’t played any of the games. This was a great movie! It’s everything that the live action Resident Evil franchise should be but isn’t. A definite purchase!
The special features on the bluray (although there weren’t many) were pretty interesting. There’s the usual concept art gallery that gives you a look into early designs of characters and scenery that was pretty neat. There were a few Capcom game trailers in there for the gamer community and a Gag Reel. The Gag Reel isn’t anything like the “Toy Story” type where they actually animated the character flubs. This one is more like funny alternate takes of certain scenes which were still entertaining to see. The best special features were Las Plagas: Organisms of War and The DNA of Damnation. The Organisms of War feature is basically a short film from the perspective of a doctor looking through classified files. It’s great because it gives you a better understanding of what the parasite is and what it does. The DNA of Damnation was the most intriguing to me. It shows what it takes to accomplish the motion capture performances in the film and that there’s actually a whole lot of acting and time involved.
Great Film and great features all around!
Resident Evil Damnation is available now on Bluray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
