Common Sense Media Review
By Jose Solis
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Gore, violence in video game-based animated zombie sequel.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Resident Evil: Damnation
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
RESIDENT EVIL: DAMNATION sends U.S. agent Leon S. Kennedy (Matthew Mercer) into the Eastern Slav Republic, a former Soviet state tearing itself apart in civil war. He goes in alone to confirm rumors that someone has unleashed bio-organic weapons on civilians. Washington orders him to evacuate almost immediately, and he stays anyway. Underground he meets Buddy (Dave Wittenberg), a schoolteacher who picked up a rifle for his people, and he finds creatures that President Svetlana Belikova (Wendee Lee) insists don't exist. Ada Wong (Courtenay Taylor) arrives hunting a parasite sample for reasons she keeps to herself.
Is It Any Good?
Only devoted fans of the video games will find much to enjoy in this gory, sluggish animated sequel. Resident Evil: Damnation drops viewers into its world without explaining where the zombies came from or how any of this began, so newcomers have little choice but to surrender to it, and director Makoto Kamiya reaches for political relevance by inventing a conflict that hands Russia and the United States a common enemy, which conveniently spares the film from saying anything about real ones. The American soldier arrives to save the world while the fictional post-Soviet characters fill the villain slots Hollywood assigned them decades ago, a strange inheritance for a Japanese production to accept without argument.
The CGI looks like a video game, and whether the animators meant it as homage to the source or simply worked fast and cheap, the gore is the only element that fully delivers, arriving in quantities that will satisfy anyone who came for it. At 100 minutes the film drags and repeats itself while Matthew Mercer does serviceable work as Leon S. Kennedy, a hero interchangeable with the protagonist of nearly any shooter, which suits a movie that never wanted him to be anyone in particular.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Resident Evil: Damnation treats patriotism. Where does love of country stop and violence in its name begin, and do any of these characters see the difference?
Leon disobeys a direct order to leave because civilians are dying. When does refusing an instruction become the right thing to do?
The film runs on Russian and American stereotypes. What do those shortcuts let a story skip, and what do viewers lose when a movie portrays a whole country that way?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : January 1, 2012
- Cast : Matthew Mercer , Dave Wittenberg , Wendee Lee
- Director : Makoto Kamiya
- Studio : Sony Pictures
- Genre : Horror
- Topics : Fantasy ( Monsters )
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : for bloody violent content
- Last updated : September 23, 2026
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