Resident Evil’s animated movies offer interesting insight into the franchise’s world that can’t be gleaned from the games alone. There have been a few duds, but Resident Evil Damnation is a welcome return to form for the series’ animated movies, offering plenty of fun and fan service while tying up loose ends after Vendetta.
Resident Evil Damnation
Before “Resident Evil: Degeneration,” there was a 19-minute animated feature called “Biohazard 4D-Executer.” It took Leon and Ada’s story from “Resident Evil 4” and presented it as a third-person rail shooter. It’s a neat idea, but with only 19 minutes to work with, it couldn’t do much else.
That’s not a problem for “Biohazard 4: Incubate,” a 90-minute animation movie that summarizes the events of “Resident Evil 4.” It does a great job of bringing the story to a wider audience, and it helped me appreciate the game more. It’s even got a boss form that fuses with a zombie shark, which is basically the Resident Evil equivalent of Shadow of the Colossus’ Lady Dimitrescu. That alone is worth the price of admission.
“Resident Evil: Degeneration” is a new full-length feature animated movie in the series, following the events of “Resident Evil 6.” Claire, Chris, and Jake are separated, trying to figure out what’s happening while avoiding the undead. There are a lot of callbacks to the series’ past, and the episodic Infinite Darkness explores Leon’s time as a government agent and Claire’s activities between the events of “Resident Evil 6” and “7.”
“Resident Evil: Damnation” takes place between the events of “Resident Evil 5” and “6,” and “Resident Evil: Vendetta” is set between the events of “Resident Evil 6” and “7.” Both are excellent films, but they’re ultimately sequels to previous films. “Resident Evil: Death Island,” however, is a retelling of the events of “Resident Evil: Vendetta” that doesn’t fill in the blanks to “Resident Evil 7.”
“Resident Evil: Death Island” is Resident Evil’s most memorable and entertaining film media in a long time. It’s a shame that it’s been almost two years since “Resident Evil: Vendetta,” but the film’s events take place one year later and the film doesn’t have any impact on “Resident Evil 7” either.
Dylan Blake, the main villain, is one of the most chaotic and chilling antagonists in Resident Evil history. The film has references to previous installments, as well as great moments between the cast. The action scenes were well-choreographed and had seamless animations, despite being primarily CG-rendered.
If you’re a fan of the franchise, you should definitely check out Death Island. It’s astronomically better than other recent Resident Evil adaptations and a great standalone story in its own right.
