Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Resident Evil: Vendetta 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 17, 2017

The Resident Evil live-action movie franchise may have just come to an end with the release of The Final Chapter, but the series remains a long-standing sensation that seems to have no end in sight for its video game new releases and remakes and in the arena of CGI moviemaking where there appears to be no quit, either. The franchise, which got its start on the original PlayStation back in 1996 as a third-person Survival Horror/Action game, has evolved into one of the most recognizable brands on the entertainment marketplace, having crafted a number of games and films that intermix storylines and characters and, by this point, has developed a living, breathing world of very well-realized characters and plot scenarios, culminating, perhaps, in the well-reviewed virtual reality component of the latest video game, Resident Evil: Biohazard. As for the new CGI movie, the third of its kind following Degeneration and Damnation, it's a bit more difficult to classify. Familiar faces abound, but the movie has the feel of an origins story even as it's not exclusively billed as such. It plays perhaps as more of a "what if" in the same world but regardless of labels the film delivers all of the action and zombie grotesqueness one would expect of entertainment bearing the Resident Evil title.

Chris Redfield (voiced by Kevin Dorman), known to his peers as a "hero" and "expert on the living dead," is assigned to lead a team charged with taking down a criminal mastermind named Glenn Arias (voiced by John DeMita) who has created a dangerous bio-weapon that turns humans into killing zombies who, unlike others, know the difference between ally and enemy. That makes them particularly dangerous, and little does the team know that even more horrors await. The mission fails, but Redfield does come to the rescue of a former soldier, now a scientist, named Rebecca Chambers (voiced by Erin Cahill), who has intimate knowledge of the virus and its deadly consequences. The pair then teams with a troubled, drunken man named Leon Kennedy (voiced by Matthew Mercer) to take down Arias and his virus before it's unleashed on the world.

Vendetta is a bleak film, stylistically and thematically alike. While it's as gory and grotesque as one would expect -- it's filled with blood, zombies in various states of physical decay, and packed with horrifically bloodied and mutated creatures -- it's the dark dramatic center that truly makes the movie scary. The grim core gives the movie substantial weight as the central villain is explored in greater detail. Easily one of the most diabolical yet complex and, in a very basic, raw way, sympathetic characters the franchise has seen, Vendetta's Glenn Arias stands as one of Resident Evil's great antagonists, a deeply flawed man to be sure but one who seeks retribution and revenge for a past wrong and a broken heart, literally and figuratively if one looks at it the right way. Reprehensible yet strangely relatable at the most fundamental core level, the enemy's humanity adds several layers of depth and intrigue to the film that so many similar movies are often lacking. Kudos to the writers for creating a living, breathing villain rather than a simple foil and basic propellant for the violence, gore, and gunfire.

Certainly, though, that violence, gore, and gunfire play a major factor in making the movie an entertaining and enjoyable ride beyond the well-versed core narrative. The movie is nasty in a good way, complex in its depictions of violence and unafraid of not necessarily pushing envelopes -- the zombie genre has been pushed about as far as it will go -- but embracing the mayhem and gore but folding it into the film rather than making it a centerpiece. The violence compliments the story and the story the violence. It's a harmonious little project that's been smartly assembled from familiar pieces and new ones as well, making it well worth any franchise fan's time. Add in terrific digital animation that's cutting edge and looks like a top-of-the-line modern video game cut scene (if not better), supported by quality voice work, and Vendetta can certainly stand up in quality to any of the Resident Evil films, live action or its digital predecessors, and makes a nice compliment to the ever-evolving and expanding video game universe as well.

Resident Evil: Vendetta 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date. Also, Resident Evil: Vendetta features Dolby Vision. We are currently not able to review Dolby Vision but we are studying equipment options and will be upgrading in the near future.

The 2160p/HDR-enhanced presentation, presumably baed on the reported 2K digital intermediate, offers an image not dramatically dissimilar from its Blu-ray counterpart, but it is one with some positive benefits over the basic 1080p picture. The digital animated details appear a bit more firm and more revealing. Skin textures are noticeably improved, showcasing more intricate and intimate pore details along the way. The tactical gear -- straps, webbing, gloves, and the like -- show a bit more complexity and depth of textural accuracy. The movie's rather drab settings wouldn't appear to offer a substantial alteration in color but larger splashes of more intensive shades, such as orange fireballs and red blood and gore, do produce more punch and nuanced color depth. A good example is an explosion that occurs right before the title sequence, which comes fairly far into the movie, somewhere around the 17-minute mark. Those hoping to escape the shimmering and jagged edges found on the Blu-ray are out of luck. The UHD is still full of such visual intrusions.

Resident Evil: Vendetta 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Resident Evil: Vendetta's Dolby Atmos soundtrack is quite good, riveting, even, in the sonic arena. Gunfire tears through the stage with superb pronouncement and positioning, as it did in the Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Here, though, the low end is noticeably more thunderous while the sense of place is greatly enhanced. Bullets seem to rip through at many different angles and with much more spatial precision. It's uncanny how swift, hard, and aggressive bullets tear through, particularly when a helicopter blasts from overhead in the opening act. With the addition of the top layer speakers nowhere in the soundstage is safe. Zombie moans and groans are more fundamentally frightening here, too; the addition of the added back channels is particularly helpful in creating a more seriously intense sense that they're shuffling towards the back of the couch, for instance, opening up the stage even further to the terrifying signal of pending death. It's a fantastic track, incredibly full and handling all of its diverse needs -- action, zombies, music, miscellaneous -- with incredible precision and, more, amazing spacing that expands the stage significantly over 5.1. Dialogue lip sync does look a microsecond off at times, but it's not particularly troublesome.

Resident Evil: Vendetta 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Resident Evil: Vendetta contains the usual Sony UHD fluff: cast and crew images and a collection of categorized moments from the film (2160p/HDR/Atmos): Leon Kennedy, Rebecca Chambers, Chris Redfield, and Zombies. All other supplements may be found on the included Blu-ray discs as listed below. No digital copy is included.

Disc One:

• Audio Commentary: Director Takanori Tsujimoto, Executive Producer Takashi Shimizu, and Writer Makoto Fukami discuss the film in detail, including all of the basics: story, characters, development, structure and pace, and plenty more. In Japanese with English subtitles.
• CGI to Reality (1080p): A two-part feature. The Creature (13:55) and Designing 'Vendetta' (10:10) explore crafting some of the film's key visuals in great detail. In Japanese with English subtitles.
• Motion Capture Set Tour with Dante Carver (1080p, 11:03): Carver gives viewers an intimate tour through the world of motion capture and explores how it works on the set of Resident Evil: Vendetta. Several interview snippets are included, some humorous. Mostly in English with some Japanese, all of it subtitled.
• Stills Gallery (1080p): Images consist of conceptual artwork for the film.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:38).
• Teaser Trailer (1080p, 1:40).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Disc Two:

• BSAA Mission Briefing: Combat Arias (1080p, 5:06): A detailed military ops assignment briefing (essentially a story summary) that tells Arias' story and lays out the mission to bring him down. It also looks at villains Diego and Maria Gomez and heroes Chris Redfield and his team.
• Designing the World of 'Vendetta' (1080p, 3:31): A discussion of the movie's structure, characters, digital animation, faithfulness to the game series, visual effects and shot composition, and more. In Japanese with voice English translation overlay.
• Tokyo Game Show Footage 2016 (1080p, 13:06): The film's creative team addresses the crowd and fields some questions about the film with a trailer kicking things off after introductions. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Resident Evil: Vendetta 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Resident Evil: Vendetta is certainly no classic or anything of the sort, but it's a surprisingly well-rounded digitally animated film that features a harmonious blend of operatic violence, disgusting (in a good way) creature and gore effects, and a quality, deep and detailed villain who more than any other component makes the movie stand taller than others of its kind, live action or digital. Sony's UHD is very good, delivering strong video, extremely enjoyable and intensive Atmos audio, and all of the supplements from the two-disc Blu-ray package. Recommended.