Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Battle of the Damned Blu-ray Movie Review

This release shouldn't catch too much hell.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 7, 2014

Imagine if a filmmaker sat down over the course of a day or two and watched Land of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Escape from New York, and either a Robocop or Terminator movie. Imagine that he then decided to make a low-budget mash-up of all of these movies. There's no doubt the end result would look an awful lot like Battle of the Damned, the latest and, frankly, one of the coolest direct-to-video Action films to come along since the likes of Universal Soldier: Regeneration (also, coincidentally, starring Dolph Lundgren, albeit in a much more limited role). While there's obviously nothing new here -- it's little more than a post-apocalyptic shooter with a name in the lead role and a basic action-framing plot -- the picture satisfies its core requirements and does so with surprisingly decent special effects and precious little nonsense getting in the way of bloody human-on-infected and robot-on-infected mayhem.

"Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, obliterate the infected."

Sometime in the future, the biotechnology industry has exploded and settled in Southeast Asia, where laws are lax and companies are free to do as they please. When one firm releases a deadly pathogen, a city is quarantined and surrounded by military. Scattered survivors remain amidst an overwhelming population of zombie-like "infected" humans who possess only basic motor functions and a craving for meat. Max Gatling (Dolph Lundgren), a retired special forces soldier, is hired by a wealthy businessman to sneak past the military blockade and locate his wayward daughter Jude (Melanie Zanetti). Max finds the girl but also makes several additional discoveries, including both a band of survivors with whom Jude has been living and a small army of Japanese-manufactured robots that relentlessly battle the infected. Both may either help or hinder Max and Jude's plan of escape.

When filmmakers create DTV Action films, they should take a cue from Battle of the Damned. It's far from perfect, but in a genre that's become a home for murky, brooding movies with unnecessarily complex plots and way too many characters, Battle of the Damned proves largely refreshing, still packing in just a little bit too much exposition and a little too little action, but it comes closer than many of its peers at building a more fundamentally satisfying Action experience. It features the requisite jerky handheld camera, a fair bit of raw gunplay, a moderate amount of gore, and a large amount of blood (mostly caked on the so-called "infected" and, then, the robots that kill the infected). Aside from a rather slow expository middle stretch packed with a bit too much plotting and characterization, but not to overkill, the film showcases plenty of violence in a classic brawn-over-brains sort of way, allowing core action elements to propel the movie and get the audience's adrenaline pumping just enough to leave it on-edge for the next battle.

At its budget, Battle of the Damned really impresses. The film lacks the scope of even the midlevel 1980s Action films to which this one harks back, but that's an understandable compromise. The film doesn't elicit much of a wasteland, end-of-days feel, either, substituting empty, mostly motionless backgrounds for a true sense of destruction and hopelessness. Yet it works in context, anyway, particularly if audiences gear up for a lower-end experience and keep expectations in check. In those places where the film does spend a little money, the results pay off in spades. Costuming is excellent for a budget film, as are the various gore and infected makeup effects. The key lies with the robots, however, and even as they sometimes move about the stage with an obvious clumsiness, they look far better than expected and are certainly a large step up in believability from the ultra low-end stuff SyFy and Asylum continue to produce. In fact, some of the models used in close-ups look downright terrific for budget creations. Lastly, the cast is rather strong. Lundgren impresses as usual. Give him props for refusing to phone in his DTV performances and, better, to pick and choose amongst the better projects rather than settling for reputation-harming dreck. Even as he's largely been relegated to DTV land, he still gives his most and commands the screen with a legitimate presence and skill rather than a name and face alone.

Battle of the Damned Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Battle of the Damned features a modern genre-standard high definition transfer. The HD video source material is rather clean and precisely detailed. The image captures all of the basics with the expectedly high level of precision, from faces to the textured military-style gear Max and his men wear in the film. Likewise, backgrounds reveal even, discernible small details, though the lack of a real sense of a crumbling civilization means less in the way of raw, jagged textures to enjoy. Image clarity is consistent, as is sharpness. Colors are drained to favor a cold, gray overlay. The image rarely finds a splash of bright, vibrant colors, but skin textures, hair, and blood are nicely contrasted against that darker backdrop. Black levels give no cause for concern, nor do flesh tones. The picture sees a hint of banding and noise here and there, but not enough to cause a distraction. This is a fundamentally sound presentation from Anchor Bay.

Battle of the Damned Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like its video counterpart, Battle of the Damned's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack serves the material well. Anchor Bay's latest lossless presentation provides authoritative music and gunfire, which comprise the bulk of the track's needs. Music is delivered efficiently and accurately, falling into place across the front and enveloping the listener with a healthy surround support. Gunfire hits hard and proves effective at pushing the action forward with punishing volume and intensity. Additional scattered effects impress, too, whether a blaring car horn heard early in the film or the rush of infected plowing through the soundstage on a few occasions. Dialogue plays firmly and clearly from the center. This is a rather basic but nevertheless charged-up soundtrack that's the quintessential listen for the modern DTV Action flick.

Battle of the Damned Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Battle of the Damned contains only one supplement. Battling the Damned (HD, 6:40) features several minutes of raw on-location footage.

Battle of the Damned Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Battle of the Damned is an imperfect movie in an imperfect direct-to-video marketplace, but it's significantly better than most, an honest action-first entertainer with solid visual effects and a good lead performance from Dolph Lundgren. Genre fans shouldn't expect miracles, but they should expect an honest effort and a fun watch out of a movie that may remind longtime fans of DTV Action flicks of a good little film from the 1990s titled A.P.E.X. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Battle of the Damned features solid video and strong audio. Unfortunately, only one supplement is included. Recommended to DTV Action fans.