If you prefer the Resident Evil CG movies to the live-action ones, you’ve also got a new movie to look forward to in 2017.
I suppose it’s only fair that if I’m going to talk about the new live-action Resident Evil movie, I should also cover the new computer-generated one. After all, fans of the game franchise typically speak more highly about the ones not made by Paul W.S. Anderson – after all, they come out of Japan, they’re produced by Capcom, they take place in the same universe as the games, and they remain faithful to the spirit of the games, whatever that means at this point. Cynically, they seem to come out close to the time that a new game is arriving in stores, but maybe that’s just coincidental.
The new film follows movie-and-sometimes-game protagonist Leon Kennedy, who has been the lead of the previous two movies, Degeneration and Damnation, as well as Chris Redfield. Based just on the trailer, it would appear that the new movie takes place largely in a zombie-invested mansion, harkening back to the series’ roots and the Spencer Mansion, and will be an original story written by Makoto Fukami. It has been directed by Takanori Tsujimoto, who takes over for Makoto Kamiya, the director of the previous two installments.
Biohazard: Vendetta – an English title is still pending, but it’ll presumably just be Resident Evil: Vendetta – will be released theatrically in Japan in the spring of 2017. There isn’t currently a North American or UK release date, although chances are high that it’ll be released directly to home video later in the year.
