Resident Evil: Death Island [Blu-ray]

Reviews

tea-rex

He gets a very nice one-on-one fight sequence with one of the main villains and spends just as much time spitting out one-liners as he does fighting the good fight. Hunnigan also features via voice-over only. Her outfit is completely impractical (heavy cleavage focus) and the fight she has with Leon, despite being a death match, seems unnecessarily sexually charged thanks to the camera angles and intimate physical moves she uses. Each character (aside from Chris, who's main purpose seems to be worrying about Jill) seems to have their own purpose throughout, but ultimately, all common goals seem to converge around Jill Valentine and her mental anguish and trauma.

As you might guess from the picture on the box, Jill is very much the main character for most of the film, whilst Leon, Chris, Claire and Rebecca are more or less side characters, though some remain centre-stage in their own ways. Claire is rather predictable in the role of rescuer, doing her best for the bad guys and good guys alike, and there is one heart-wrenching moment when something bad happens to her (and others), though the film falls short here in exploring what Chris's emotional reaction to this is, given Claire is his sister all said and done.

This review contains spoilers for not only this movie, but other Resident Evil games and films! You don't technically need to have seen the previous Resident Evil CGI films to follow this one, but as it does contain returning characters and villains, it does help to know what happened previously. All in all, it's an enjoyable ride and as Jill and Leon are my favourite Resident Evil characters, I loved watching a film in which they starred side by side. There are some very nicely choreographed fight sequences and they were wise enough to give Leon almost as much platform as Jill, but not quite as much.

Rebecca Chambers also features, though mostly as the brains behind the scenes agent/scientist, but is ultimately more of a side-character until a critical moment arrives where only she can save the day - a point in the plot which felt very predictable and contrived, to be honest. Leon and Chris also have some good co-op team work moments towards the end and most importantly (for me as a female fan), at no point does it feel like the men are converging to 'rescue' the damsel in distress (Jill) so much as they are allowing her the space and support to work through her issues in her own time. He seems far more concerned with Jill than his sister (or himself, for that matter).