“Resident Evil: Death Island” continues the migration of this long-running video-game adaptation/series to the CGI universe. It’s a continuation of the storyline of the bio-weapon zombie series “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness,” and judging from the clips of that 2020-2021 CGI production, it’s another step up in creating photo-real characters and action in computer generated (animated) imagery.
The story, the “characters” and the dialogue? They’ve devolved into one big king-sized can of Costco corn. It’s a movie rife with tired zombie movie tropes and cliches uttered by actors “playing” somewhat less-plastic-looking “realistic” characters.
“Sometimes the nightmare sticks with you, and if you’re not careful, it’ll swallow you up!”
“I will make you pay for killing my father!”
“The infected must be shot on sight! Terminate with extreme prejudice!”
The “talking villain” (voiced by Daman Mills) walks with a cane and has a mania for Russian Roulette, and soliloquies.
“Is there even such a thing as ‘evil’ in the food chain?'”
The story follows a couple of timelines — one in the past where we see that first Raccoon City (those Japanese and their idea of what North Americans name their metropolises) outbreak test a couple of commandoes sent to evacuate Umbrella execs — and a “present” where a new “bio weapon” outbreak, delivered by bio-drones and including actual monsters, is traced to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
“Death Island” it is.
The combat tac gear always dresses female fighters tops and pants/shorts from the Tomb Raider collection. And the characters are just computer-generated archetypes — the burly soldier, the mop-topped “agent,” the pinup scientists, lady soldiers and villainous henchwoman.
Very video game and seriously dumbed-down as a movie.
As for the animation, most action beats in big screen blockbusters are CGI-dependent, and this movie’s versions of those — complete with Bugs Bunny physics in their unsurvivable (and helmetless) motorcycle crashes — are pretty convincing. The most photo-real moment is a brief snippet of the bad guy loading a revolver for another round of Russian Roulette. The pistol and the hand fumbling bullets into it are as close to the real thing as any CGI human-and-human-activity I’ve ever viewed.
In the rural North Carolina town where my mother retired, there’s one fan of this series who catches my attention each time he drives by. A decade ago, he painted up his black ’90s Ford Taurus in Umbrella Corp. logos and slogans. I see this car most every time I visit — parked at this Subway or McDonald’s where he’s working, in a trailer park I bicycle by where he seems to live.
At this point in the Milla Jovovich-born “Resident Evil” as filmed entertainment enterprise, these movies are for that guy. Probably not that guy alone, but definitely a smaller and more devoted audience.
The rest of us moved on when Milla finally did. CGI leaps forward in “realism” be damned, this beast was beaten to death years ago.
Rating: R, bloody violence and a little profanity
Cast: The voices of Nicole Tompkins, Matthew Mercer, Stephanie Panisello, Kevin Dornan, Erin Cahill, Cristina Valenzuela and Daman Mills
Credits: Directed by Eiichiro Hasumi, scripted by Makoto Fukami. A Sony film released on Netflix.
Running time: 1:30
