Series Review: Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness – Season 1 (2021)

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the CG-animated “Resident Evil” movies, with “Resident Evil: Damnation” being my favorite of the bunch. So when it was announced that we were getting a new animated series for the franchise, I got excited. And now it’s here, on Netflix, and I watched the entire thing. So let’s talk about it.

Ladies, gents, and non-binaries… “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness”.

A few years after the outbreak in Raccoon City, we once again meet up Leon Kennedy (Nick Apostolides) and Claire Redfield (Stephanie Panisello) as they’ve moved on to new positions in the world. And we follow them as they look into strange goings on involving bioweapons and horrific drawings, leading them down a dangerous path of horrors and conspiracies. So yeah, the setup treads familiar ground if you’re a fan of this franchise, which is fine, as long as it’s handled in an interesting and enjoyable way. Sadly, that’s not quite what’s going on here. I’m not saying that it’s outright poor, I didn’t dislike the story here. But it’s done in such a dry way, lacking the personality and unique charisma that makes “Resident Evil” into what it is. There is no real suspense, there’s not much (if any) excitement in how it could pan out, there’s not really any sense of fun, and at no point does it feel like it needed to be a “Resident Evil” story. On the whole, it’s a passable thriller narrative for a rainy Sunday, but sadly I never got truly invested in it.

The characters in this are… fine? Much like the case of the story, they lack a lot of personality. Leon is neither the naive optimist of “Resident Evil 2” or the snarky legend of “Resident Evil 4”, he’s just kind of a quiet tough guy who never shows much sign of any charisma.  Nick Apostolides does a good job with the performance, but it just feels slightly underwhelming when the material he has to work with is so… plain. Claire comes close at times of showing off some of the determined charm that I loved in “Resident Evil 2”, but never quiiiiite gets to go the distance on it. At least I can say that Stephanie Panisello does a good job with her performance. The other charaters… again, very plain, doesn’t get much, if any interesting development. They’re just kinda there. At least I can say that the supporting cast, featuring people like Ray Chase, Jona Xiao, Billy Kametz, Brad Venable, and more, all do very well in the roles.

The score for this series was composed by Yugo Kanno, and I think he did a good job with it. It doesn’t necessarily do much to stand out, but it has enough nice little action, horror, and drama flourishes throughout to at least give the show an enjoyable enough soundscape.

Based on the “Resident Evil” game franchise published by Capcom, “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” was created by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, with Eiichiro Hasumi handling direction. And now comes the part where I can finally pile praise upon the show. This show has some spectacular animation. Going for this sort of semi-realistic style can be a gamble, but I think they pulled it off. Character movement is fluid and natural, making me believe each action that happens. And the sheer amount of detail they managed to put in the show is absolutely insane. Individual hairs on characters’ heads, creasing in fabrics, subtle details in metal, there’s just a ridiculous amount of detail in everything throughout this show, which is just mindboggling to me. How can you pull this level of detail off? But yeah, this show is really well animated.

Keep in mind that the show just came out, so these ratings will change over time (not on this blog though, I’m too lazy to edit shit as time goes on). On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 56% positive rating. On Metacritic it currently has no rating. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7.3/10.

So yeah, despite my excitement for it, “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” isn’t quite as enjoyable as I had hoped, with its biggest weakness being a lack of personality and identity. It has an okay plot, mediocre characters, good performances, good music, and terrific animation and direction. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” is a 6.20/10. So while very flawed, it can at least be worth a watch.

My review of “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” is now completed.

Well, damn…

Series Review: Dragon’s Dogma – Season 1 (2020)

I love animation. I love video games. So the two smashed together should be heaven, right? Right? Why are you so quiet?

Ladies and gents… “Dragon’s Dogma” season 1.

Ethan (Greg Chun) lives a nice, relatively quiet life with his wife. This peace doesn’t last however when the entire town is destroyed and Ethan’s heart gets eaten by a giant dragon. Shortly after our hero finds himself resurrected by a mysterious magical lady (Erica Mendez), and vows to find and slay the dragon that ruined his life. It’s a mostly classic fantasy/revenge setup with elements that we’ve seen before. Where it tries to stand out somewhat though is in its storytelling… keyword being tried. The idea with each episode is that as Ethan travels the country in search of the big spooky lizard, he encounters different monsters and situations mirroring the seven deadly sins (which can even be seen in each episode title). And while they have some wonderful ideas for how that will work, I feel like they undercooked this heart steak a bit. While the show’s fast pace keeps it from getting too stale, it does hurt the storytelling. Nothing really gets to simmer. They have interesting developments and ideas within each episode, but I never feel as invested as I could be given the interesting subject matter. So instead of getting the nuanced fantasy narrative that I know the crew’re striving for, we get a story that never reaches its full potential, bar one thing in the final episode.

Where the story does falter… the characters don’t do much to help. I will say that Ethan, our main protagonist, does have some interesting stuff going on. Each episode we see some mild developments on his side, and it does make him a somewhat compelling character. And Greg Chun does a great job with his voice work there. Then we have the pawn (also known as Hannah), the mysterious magical lady I mentioned earlier who resurrected Ethan. She is a little bit of a blank slate, only there to serve as a somewhat logic-driven sidekick to Ethan. There is great potential with her character, but it’s never fully achieved. At least Erica Mendez does a good job with her performance. The rest of the cast aren’t necessarily as great though, because most of them attempt some form of British accent (‘ullo gov’nah), with a majority sadly falling flat on their face.

The score for the show was composed by Tadayoshi Makino, and I think his music here is great. It is of course based in a lot of the brass, strings, and piano we have heard in fantasy before. But Makino puts his own spin on it to some degree, making for a score that is exciting, emotional, and ear candy of the highest degree.

Based on the 2012 video game from Capcom, “Dragon’s Dogma” was animated by studio Sublimation for Netflix, with Shinya Sugai handling direction. Aaaaaand I have mixed feelings. Lookign at the overall shot composition, you can tell that these guys have a good eye, there’s a lot of good “camera” movements and nice ideas for stills. This is however brought down by the studio’s choice to go with a pseudo 3D style of animation. Now, in the few instances I’ve seen this styles pop up in other things, it hasn’t been very good. And while it certainly looks slightly less shit than some other instances of this weird 2D/3D amalgamation, it still doesn’t work. All the characters look lifeless dolls, and movements look really janky. This is almost even worse with some of the creatures in this show, who get these pretty murky textures draped over them, which makes them look really bad. There are moments of good animation however. Fleeting moments of regular, hand-drawn 2D animation. And it’s a shame that these are such brief moments, because those instances look amazing. But overall, the animation here isn’t great.

This show’s gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a critic rating of 100%, but an audience rating of 50%. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6.3/10.

While it has a lot of potential for greatness, Netflix’s “Dragon’s Dogma” sadly doesn’t live up to the potential. It has a mediocre plot, okay characters, good acting, great music, and bad animation. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Dragon’s Dogma” is a 4.89/10. So sadly I’d have to recommend skipping it.

My review of “Dragon’s Dogma” is now completed.

Hopefully the game’s better…

“Devil May Cry 5” E3 Trailer

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. Once again it is that time of year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, more commonly known as E3, is in full force and trailers are coming out left and right. I know that there are those of you out there who aren’t into video games, but that won’t stop me from writing about them. I love video games, and E3 gives me plenty of trailers to talk about. So let’s get into it.

First trailer we’ll be talking about is for a franchise that I almost thought was dead. But after months of rumors and speculation, we finally have a trailer for “Devil May Cry 5”. The latest part in the Japanese hack n slash action series follows Nero (Johnny Yong Bosch), the protagonist from “Devil May Cry 4”, as he goes on a journey to kick some demon ass. We get CGI cutscenes and even small increments of actual gameplay. And it looks like it will be the fun, fast-paced, over-the-top style of the previous games with the same crunchy combat that fans love. And as a fan of “Devil May Cry”, I am excited for this new game. I love the world, I love the insanity of it all, and this just looks like it will be a lot of fun. “Devil May Cry 5” is set to be released in spring of 2019.

What are your thoughts (if you have any)? Are you excited for “Devil May Cry 5”? And do you like the other games in the series? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments.
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017)

As I’ve made clear on this blog a couple of times, I really enjoy the animated “Resident Evil” movies. The live action ones can burn in hell, but that’s a different story for a different day. So I was of course excited when a third entry in this series was announced. So I waited and a couple trailer came out and they got me excited and now the movie’s out and I’ve seen it so now it’s time to talk about it.

Ladies and gents… “Resident Evil: Vendetta”.

When a vengeful black market dealer is about to unleash a deadly virus upon New York City, BSAA agent Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman) has to enlist the help of Leon Kennedy (Matthew Mercer) and Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill) to try and stop the villainous man. So now we have our standard “Resident Evil” plot. And using the word “standard” doesn’t have to be a bad thing, because every “Indiana Jones” movie follows the same formula (and you know it), and people (mostly) love them). Same with “Resident Evil”, you can usually guess the story beats of each one, and that’s fine because they always find some way to hold onto you. And while the plot here isn’t bad, I just found that it didn’t really grab me. I was entertained, and thanks to the short runtime the pacing never let up more than it needed. But this plot overall just went by, never really grabbing me along. It’s just… fine.

The characters here, while not as great as in the last animated “Resident Evil” flick, are still interesting and pretty entertaining. Chris Redfield here is still the tough, determined, meathead that he’s always been. And while it’s weird not hearing Roger Craig Smith doing the voice, I do think Kevin Dorman does a good job in the role. Leon Kennedy in this is still the badass motherfucker that we know him as, with some of that cocky attitude still intact. Sure, they play him a bit more serious in this than in the last two movies, but he’s still entertaining as a character. And Matthew Mercer is of course once again great in the role. Rebecca Chambers is a character that we haven’t seen since 2002’s “Resident Evil: Zero”. And in this, instead of being a member of the STARS team, she’s a scientist. And she’s pretty cool, even though she doesn’t get to do a lot of cool stuff. And Erin Cahill is really good in the role. And the villain of the movie, Glenn Arias, they try to make sympathetic in a way that I won’t spoil here. And while I kind of understand his reasoning for doing what he does, as a villain he was just fine. John DeMita was good in the role though. So overall it’s a well acted movie (even if the dialog is often… not great).

The score for the movie was composed by Kenji Kawai and I think he did a great job with it. His score is cool, tense, and badass, often elevating scenes that wouldn’t have been as great without the music. And overall the score is just great, making for some good ear candy (the end credits song being a standout).

“Resident Evil: Vendetta” was directed by Takanori Tsujimoto and I think he did a solid job. Sure, he doesn’t build a lot of suspense with his directing, but he still brings a lot of flair and energy to it. Which also brings me to the animation and holy shit, this animation looks awesome! It’s detailed, fluid, and just looks all kinds of great. Especially in the facial animations which look terrific. And the action scenes too, while not subtle in the slightest (in fact they’re loud and kind of ridiculous), look awesome. They’re so much fun and just brought a big, dumb smile to my face. And is this movie scary? Fuck no.

This movie came out very recently and is very niche, so it doesn’t have a lot of scores on the sites I usually go to. Sure it exists on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, but it has no score on either site. And if scores are added to the sites, then I won’t edit this post. But on imdb.com it has a score of 6,3/10.

“Resident Evil: Vendetta” is a dumb action-thriller for fans of the games and animated features, and as one of those people I thought this movie was really fun. It has an okay plot, good characters, great performances, great music, great directing, and great animation. My only flaw with the movie is that the plot didn’t really grab me in any way. Time for my final score. *Zombie moan*. My final score for “Resident Evil: Vendetta” is an 8,99/10. So while it’s flawed, I’d definitely say that it’s worth buying!

My review of “Resident Evil: Vendetta” is now completed.

Good to finally see Chris in one of these. I love Leon, but it’s nice to get good ol’ Redfield in a movie.

“Castlevania” trailer!

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen. Another interesting trailer has come out, so let’s talk about it.

So we finally have a trailer for Netflix’s “Castlevania”, an anime series based on the very popular video game franchise of the same name. Now, first things first, I honestly thought they’d make it a live action series, mainly because there was nothing (as far as I know) that said “This show will be animated”. I’m not complaining, just taken a little bit off guard. Anyway, so what’s this about? Well, it’s about a man named Belmont (that’s his last name, his first name’s unknown) who is going on a quest to kill Dracula… because Dracula’s a hugh dick. Simple plot that they could do som fun things with. So what do I think of this trailer? Holy fuck, I am excited! I haven’t really played the “Castlevania” games that much, but the few times I have, I’ve enjoyed them. And this looks like not only a good representation of the games, but it looks like it could be an overall fun show in itself. Like an animated “Game of Thrones” but with vampires. Funny thing about statement is that Richard Madden from “GoT” played a role in the last game, “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2″… hmm. Anyway, speaking of the animation, wow, it is gorgeous! So yeah, I am really excited for this show! “Castlevania” is set to be released on July 7th, only on Netflix.

So what are your thoughts? Are you excited about “Castlevania”? And have you played any of the games? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments!
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)

Guys… it’s another Month of Spooks review. And it also happens to be for a sequel to the first movie I reviewed for the Month of Spooks this year… holy shit. So let’s just get into it!

Ladies and gentlemen… “Resident Evil: Damnation”.

Leon Kennedy (Matthew Mercer) is back. But this time he has traveled to an eastern European country to try to destroy a bunch of biological weapons being used over there. While there he meets with resistance fighters Buddy (Dave Wittenberg) and JD (Val Tasso), two men who may not trust Leon, but still more or less works with him to stop the bad shit. And that is a pretty basic plot that still holds up thanks to some interesting little nuances throughout combined with really good pacing. Sure, this isn’t some Oscar worthy storytelling by any means, but it still really works as an interesting and entertaining plot with good pacing.

The characters in the movie are all pretty interesting. Leon of course, being a main character since “Resident Evil 2” is of course as great as ever, even if he has some cheesy lines. But Matthew Mercer delivers them so well that I simply enjoy hearing the lines. But I’m also a “Resi” fan, so I expect there to be cheesy writing that gives me a dumb smile. But Matthew Mercer is genuinely great in the role, as the cool and experienced agent. Dave Wittenberg and Val Tasso are really good in the movie as their respective characters (Buddy and JD), even if their Slavic accents fluctuate in quality a bit. We also got Courtenay Taylor as legendary “Resi” character Ada Wong and she is great in the role… not much to say about that really. The actors in the movie do very well.

The music in the movie was composed by Rei Kondoh and Shusaku Uchiyama and I think that it was really good. It wasn’t really groundbreaking in any sense, but it fit the movie very well and made a lot of scenes even more exciting. And the end credits song “Carry On” by Anna Tsuchiya was pretty good as well. So this movie had some good music!

Since this movie is animated (like the previous one), I guess I should talk about the animation. So how is it? Pretty fucking great. The animation has increased in quality significantly since “Degeneration”. Facial movements are less stiff and look pretty great. And the hair on the characters looks fantastic. Body movement has also increased in quality, now flowing much more organically. The action scenes look terrific, and are very exciting. I’ll also mention that if you enjoy blood and gore in movies, then I think you’ll appreciate this one… because we get that stuff in here.

It’s difficult to see how this movie has been received because it barely exists on the sites I use for this section. But at least it exists on imdb.com with a score of 6,5/10.

“Resident Evil: Damnation” is one of those rare sequels that somehow surpasses it’s predecessor. With an interesting story, good characters, really good acting, really good music, fantastic animation, great action, and great pacing. Time for my final score. *Cough*. My final score for “Resident Evil: Damnation” is a 9,77/10. So it of course gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Resident Evil: Damnation” is now completed.

Let’s hope next year’s “Resident Evil: Vendetta” turns out to be as good…

Movie Review: Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen… and welcome to the first official post for the Month of Spooks! I know that it’s October 2nd today, but I’m at least starting way earlier than I did last year when I half-assed everything. Anyway, this is the first of *insert amount* posts that will be released by me and some of the poor souls who decided to take part in this. So far, there are three people involved. And if you feel left out, don’t worry, since it’s so early in the month you can still enter by messaging me on twitter and then we’ll talk about it. Anyway, done with that clumsy intro… let’s get into the review.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Resident Evil: Degeneration”.

Set between the events of “Resident Evil 4” and “Resident Evil 5”, this movie tells the story of returning characters Leon S. Kennedy (Paul Mercier) and Claire Redfield (Alyson Court) as they after a zombie outbreak at an airport have to stop an angry man looking for revenge from causing a lot of destruction and death. And that’s basically all I can say there without getting into spoilers. With that said, this is a pretty interesting plot. Sure, it is relatively predictable, especially if you’re a “Resident Evil” fan (like I am), but it’s not bad. I enjoyed seeing where the plot went throughout the movie. The only real problem I have with it is that towards the middle of the movie it slowed down and slightly ruined the pacing. I felt like the movie came to a halt. Luckily it picked up again a few minutes later, but I still felt that slower bit. So overall the plot is pretty good, with that slower stuff near the middle.

The characters in the movie are all fitting pretty snugly into their respective roles. Leon Kennedy has always been a capable guy, and it still shows here. First time we saw him he was a police officer, first day on the job. Second time, he was a bit more cocky and confident. And here we have someone who is a lot more calm, hardened, and overall cool. Paul Mercier who voiced him in “Resident Evil 4” (AKA the best one) returned to do the voice in this movie and he is great in the role. His vocal performance is really good and fits the character perfectly. Alyson Court as Claire was really good, playing this character who knows what she’s doing, but isn’t perfect in every way. And then we also get a lot of other supporting voice performances from various veteran voice actors. And they all do a good job.

The original score for the movie was composed by Tetsuya Takahashi and it is pretty good. It’s not something that will stick out in my mind long after the movie is done, but it’s also not bad. It’s an orchestral score that works for the various scenes in the movie to help elevate the scenes to a minor extent.

Seeing as this is an animated feature, we have to talk about the animation. And it is really good. Sure, there are stiff character movements and facial expressions throughout. But for a 100% CG movie that aims for a more realistic feel, it looks great. Not as great as a movie like “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children”, but still really good. I mean, when I was watching the movie I didn’t go “Yeah, that looks like shit”. The animation is really good, if a bit stiff at times. That said, the action in the movie looks great, I was really entertained by it. Especially towards the second half, where the movie goes full-on “Resi-Cheese”. Also, it’s not really scary, but it’s at least decently tense at a few points.

It’s difficult to find what people think about this movie, since it barely exists on the movie sites I usually utilize. Oh well, at least imdb properly has it. On that site it has a score of 6,6/10.

“Resident Evil: Degeneration” is a pretty interesting movie. It has a pretty interesting plot (with a slow part near the middle), good characters, good voice acting, good music, and really good animation. So now it’s time for my final score. *Zombie moan*. My final score for “Resident Evil: Degeneration” is an 8,99/10. I’d say that it’s worth buying.

My review of “Resident Evil: Degeneration” is now completed.

You’re probably gonna get more enjoyment out of this if you’re a fan of the games. But if you’re just a normal person looking for a good movie… yeah, you might get some entertainment here. Also… let the Month of Spooks officially commence!

 

“Resident Evil 7” Gameplay Trailer

Hi guys, it’s me again. About a month ago I posted about a bunch of trailers that came out of E3 this year. First off, huge thank you to anyone who liked and commented on those posts, I really appreciate the support. Anyway, enough with the mushy stuff, back to the point. Now, one of the trailers I posted was the announcement trailer for “Resident Evil 7”. And in that post I said that the trailer didn’t really look like “Resident Evil”… so does this gameplay trailer fix that? Let’s check it out.

So in this we seem to follow a young woman from the first person perspective. And she leaves some kind of recorded message (or phone call) to someone named Ethan. And then we see her trying to sneak through some dark, abandoned place, trying to survive the psychotic, possibly possessed woman prowling the area. Okay, let’s talk about the positives of this thing first (because people like happy stuff). This looks genuinely scary, something that “Resident Evil” hasn’t really been since a few parts of “Resident Evil 4″… which came out in 2005. So that is cool. Also, the graphics look absolutely stunning and the sound design sounds pretty good despite only being a short preview of the game. Okay, now for the negatives, *sigh*… this does not look like “Resident Evil”. It’s the same problem as that initial announcement trailer from E3. I get that Crapcom wants to go in a new direction, but come on… give us something that makes it feel like it’s actually tied to the “Resi” franchise. I’m not asking for those huge, ridiculous action bits from “Resident Evil 6”, but at least something that ties it in to the actual franchise other than the name. Yes, this looks interesting and I would want to play it… even though it’s not “Resident Evil”.

So what do you guys think? Are you excited for this new “Resident Evil” game? And do you think that Crapcom are moving in the right direction with the series? Leave any and all answers in the comments.
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer.

“Resident Evil 7” E3 trailer

Hello guys, here I am again with my covering of E3 stuff that interest me. So… let’s ee what we have here!

After four years we have finally gotten an announcement trailer for “Resident Evil 7”. And from the looks of it, this game might actually be scary. You know, compared to the last few games and those shitty Hollywood movies and I’m gonna move on. I am a fan of this franchise, having played most of them (At least main series, never got into spin-offs really) and enjoyed them in some way. Sure, numbers 5 and 6 weren’t that great, but I still kind of enjoyed them. My personal favorite though has always been “Resident Evil 4”, it’s a perfect balance of both action, creepiness, tension and reinvigoration. And like I said, the last few weren’t that great, but I still always look forward to a new game to see what they’ll do with it. And with this one it seems like it will go back more to the survival horror style of the original game and it’s Gamecube remake. Sure, the trailer doesn’t really tell us anything about the game itself other than “look forward to some creeps, people”. Here’s the interesting thing though: If I didn’t already know that this was the “Resident Evil 7” trailer, I would’ve almost mistaken it for a new “Silent Hill” or possibly “The Evil Within 2” (The latter of which I really wanted to see at this year’s E3). But yeah, this looks really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.

So what are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to this new “Resi” installment? Are you fans of any of the previous games? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments.
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!