Set before the events of Resident Evil 7, Chris (Kevin Dorman) is sent on a missing to track down arms dealer Glenn Arias (John DeMita). Arias has made a reputation for himself as not only a provider of B.O.W.s, but ones with a unique addition beyond Umbrella's classic T-Virus creatures, these monsters can be directed towards a specific enemy. While Chris himself makes it out of the mission, he is the only member of the BSAA team to do so, and now he is hell-bent on tracking down Arias and stopping him before the man's plans can come to fruition.
Meanwhile, former S.T.A.R.S. agent, Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill), has left her para-military life long behind her and has shifted to a more scientific path. While on the brink of a cure to the latest T-Virus variant that seems to be cropping up, her lab is attacked. Thankfully Chris and his new team show up to save Rebecca and her research. It seems that Rebecca's possible cure has gotten many people's attention, including the people who plan to use that new variant for ill-gotten gains.
With Chris and Rebecca back together just like the old days, they decide to recruit Leon (Matthew Mercer) and take down Arias once and for all. Before it's all over, they will face down a myriad of monsters and even get some insight into Arias' history and personality.
Resident Evil: Vendetta comes with three discs. One disc contains the 4K UltraHD version of the film, as well as a gallery comparing the CG characters to the actors they are based on. The other two discs are Blu-ray and while one contains a mix of the movie and some special features, the third is just extras. The Blu-ray disc containing the movie has a gallery of concept art and three featurettes, one about what goes into creating the creature at the end of the movie, another that goes into detail about the different aspects that set the movie's mood and look, and the last focuses on motion capture. As for the special features that are on the bonus disc, these include an overview of the main characters in the movie, as well as a featurette about the design directions the filmmakers chose. The last bonus is a recording from the Tokyo Game Show where the first teaser trailer was released, as well as a brief interview afterwards with the filmmakers. Be ready for a lot of subtitles with these special features as most of them are in Japanese.
One aspect that I couldn't help noticing in Resident Evil: Vendetta was how good the human characters looked. While I tend to be aware, and wary, of the uncanny valley problem, I didn't notice any such effect here. I'm not sure if it's just an increase in the quality of the film's CG over Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation, or if the 4K resolution just made that much of an impact, but either way the film looks fantastic and never feels off. Vendetta feels like the best of the CG movies to date, and not just because of the higher visual quality either. The story is good, the characters are solid, and there are some pretty cool fight scenes. All-in-all, a great package all around. If you're a fan of the franchise, then you won't want to miss this installment, even if you haven't watched the first two animated films.
