Since Umbrella Corporation’s untimely demise by the combined efforts of Albert Wesker, Chris Redfield, and Jill Valentine in 2003, a new biotech firm has begun research on the T-Virus: WilPharma, which is being protested against for vaccine trials in India. The company is publicly supported by slimy senator Ron Davis, who is either a very blubbery human being or a very small beluga whale. Claire Redfield arrives in an airport in Harvardville (seriously? Harvardville?) to pick up a friend’s niece, and within minutes, a zombie-filled plane crashes into the terminal and the undead shenanigans begin anew! The marines are called in, as is Leon S. Kennedy, who still works directly for the President. The two former Raccoon City stars, along with some new friends, discover a new monster (it’s the G-Virus this time, kiddies) and an interesting conspiracy along the way. The consequences of these events will be felt in RE5, I guarantee it. Sadly, Wesker’s hand does not appear to be in this particular pie, but you can bet he benefited from the fallout.
If you’ve watched any of the movie’s multiple online trailers, you’ve probably thought to yourself, “that doesn’t look a whole lot better than a modern video game cutscene.” In fact, that’s basically true. The setpieces, though, are really spectacular and epic in scope. The human characters suffer from a non-stylized look, and that Uncanny Valley rears its ugly head. It’s not that the characters don’t look or act believable, it’s that they don’t match the stunningly realistic environments. Some of the animation, most of which was mo-capped, is unnaturally fast, but in general, the movie looks wonderful. It takes a few minutes to acclimate yourself to the portrayal of non-zombified human characters, but once you accept the aesthetic, you’ll be fine. It’s interesting to see what the modelers did with Claire and Leon. Claire’s original RE2 and RE: CV models are low-res and blocky, so the developers had to basically build her from the ground up, and they did a wonderful job. Leon, however, already has a perfectly acceptable model from RE4, but they changed his facial structure significantly here. He has a longer face and smaller eyes. It sounds like small potatoes, but it’s very distracting for those familiar with RE4. Leon is also the worst actor—while every other character displays a range of emotions in both their facial geometry and body language, Leon is immobile. The best character is undoubtedly Angela, a Special Response Team member who befriends Leon. She has depth and soul, and there’s a subtlety in her movements that’s lacking in the other main characters.
Sadly, the film is lacking good special features. There’s a lengthy and interesting “making of” documentary, but I was really jonesing for some concept art or animatics, neither of which is included here. There are two RE5 trailers which we’ve probably all seen before by now. The Blu-Ray disk has some PiP (Picture-in-Picture) stuff, but it’s not especially noteworthy. By the way, I recommend the Blu-Ray version if you have the means—as the film is completely CG, it will look better there. My rule with Blu-Ray is this: If the movie is animated or relies very heavily on CG-effects, go with it. Otherwise, you won’t be missing anything on the DVD. Blu-Ray is a superior technology for displaying digital effects. A movie like Wall-E will look mesmerizingly awesome on Blu-Ray. Some Like It Hot will look no different than the DVD you already own.
I hope Capcom continues down this road. Resident Evil has a great cinematic quality to it, and seeing a movie in the years between game releases could be a great way to give fans their zombie kick. If you like Resident Evil, I highly recommend Degeneration.
