Directed by Takanori Tsujimoto, whose live action credits include the Hard Revenge Milly films and Bushido Man, the 2017 animated feature Resident Evil: Vendetta, written by Makoto Fukami (who penned the Psycho Pass series), opens with a dramatic scene that does a really good job of setting up what is yet to come. In this scene we see a man about to be wed when a smart bomb is dropped from the sky, killing everyone in the wedding party except him. Well, it turns out that this guy is an arms dealer named Aries and that the bomb was dropped by the government. Arias (voiced by John DeMita) doesn't take kindly to this, and he wants revenge.

He decides that the best way to get this revenge would be to unleash some tankers onto the streets of New York City containing a nerve agent/gas of some sort that will turn anyone who breaths it in into zombies. To make this happen, he not only kidnaps Rebecca Chambers (voiced by Erin Cahill) but dresses her up in a wedding gown too! It seems her blood holds the key to making this work. Enter Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman), a highly skilled solider who puts together a team to stop Arias and save Rebecca. Along for the ride? None other than hard drinking troublemaker Leon Kennedy (voiced by Matthew Mercer). Soon enough they're in a race against time to save not only Rebecca, but all of New York City as well, while Arias' unholy creations wreak havoc all over town…

That opening scene sure is dramatic! It works quite well actually. From there the movie gets fairly predictable, even formulaic in spots, but there's enough here to keep us moderately intrigued before the next action sequence kicks in. It's those action sequences that really steal the show, however. There are an amazing scene where Leon is chased down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway by some of those zombie dogs that pop up now and again throughout the franchise that is remarkably impressive. When Chris and Leon make it into Arias' hideout and come face to face with the zombie hordes that stand between them and their target, the bullet play here is as well choreographed as anything out of a John Wick movie. The action is tight, tense and very bloody. Impressive stuff. If you won't leave this wowed by the story itself, at least the visuals and the carnage go a long way towards making up for it.

The voice actors used for the feature do solid work here, they never seem out of character or to far removed from the scene at hand. The computer animation and motion capture work used to bring the story to life is also really strong. There are times where the movements of the characters seem a little less than human and times where the eyes don't look as lifelike as you might hope they would but these instances are surprisingly few and far between. In fact, there are times where the animation is so good that at first glance, it almost looks real. This attention to detail is evident not just in the creatures and characters that populate the story but also in the backgrounds, the weapons, the vehicles and the costumes as well. It's quite an impressive looking movie, and it sounds just as good as it looks. The feature benefits from a strong instrumental score from Kenji Kawai (the same man who scored the original Ghost In The Shell) and from impressive sound design in terms of the effects that are used throughout the picture. Turn this one up when you watch it, for maximum effect.

Video:

Sony presents Resident Evil: Vendetta on UHD in an HEVC / H.265 transfer in 2160p framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. The HDR enabled disc, presented with Dolby Vision (which unfortunately my player doesn't support), looks very good even if there isn't a massive difference here between the 4k UHD disc and the included Blu-ray disc (which uses an AVC encoded 1080p transfer, also framed at 1.78.1). As you'd expect for a completely computer generated feature there's not a trace of damage or dirt to find, the image is spotless. There are no noticeable compression artifacts on the UHD at all and some scenes really exhibit some excellent depth (a shot with some candles on a table looks almost 3-D). Black levels are nice and colors are beautifully reproduced here (as you'd expect, this is the area where the UHD most obviously surpasses the Blu-ray disc), and this is in spite of the fact that large portions of the movie take place inside dreary looking labs and underground bunkers and what not. The only noticeable flaws detected during viewing was some minor banding in a few spots and some minor shimmering , but they key word there is minor. So while this isn't a massive leap forward for UHD over Blu-ray, the 4k transfer does offer some noticeable improvements in the areas you'd expect it to.