Leon S. Kennedy (voiced by Matthew Mercer) returns in Resident Evil: Damnation. He's been summoned from his vacation to travel to a small Eastern European country to investigate rumors of B.O.W.s (Bio Organic Weapons) being used. Upon his arrival, he finds a country involved in the throes of a rebellion. Leon is immediately captured by two freedom fighters, Buddy (voiced by Dave Wittenberg) and JD (voiced by Val Tasso). However, when government forces interfere, chaos ensues and Leon finds himself on the run. He also quickly confirms that B.O.W.s are present. And he learns that the locals are infected with las plagas, a deadly virus which causes the host to be violent and also allows them to control the bio organic monsters. Meanwhile, President Svetlana Belikova (voiced by Wendee Lee) meets with Ada Wong (voiced by Courtenay Taylor), who has had run-ins with Leon in the past, under the false pretenses that Ada is there to help the country. As the fighting and the presence of B.O.W.s escalates, Leon realizes that he may have to ask for help if he hopes to escape the country alive.

Resident Evil: Damnation is an interesting attempt to please different factions of the Resident Evil fanbase, but it may end up satisfying no one. The story plucks characters and plot elements from various games. Leon Kennedy appeared in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4. Ada Wong also appeared in Resident Evil 2. The "lickers" -- skinless monsters with long tongues --, which are the featured predator in Resident Evil: Damnation made their debut in Resident Evil 2. However, the "las plagas" contamination comes from Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. The threat which appears during the movie's finale resembles Mr. X from Resident Evil 2. Pulling components from over a decade's worth of games shows that the makers of Resident Evil: Damnation A) knew the Resident Evil universe, but also B) wanted to try to please fans of the series.

Unfortunately, they forgot to include any sort of story. The movie opens with a lot of narration explaining the upheaval in Eastern Europe and how the Eastern Slave country came to be. We then follow Leon as he's dropped into a city in this territory. He fights some "lickers", gets captured, gets free, runs around, fights some more "lickers", and then it ends. This is intercut with a fight scene between Ada Wong and Svetlana Belikova. Writing the synopsis for this movie was a true challenge, as we only get scant traces of a true cohesive story here. Movies like this are usually sequels to or prequels to a game, so maybe this was setting up a story for the upcoming Resident Evil 6. Otherwise, we get monsters, rebels, a girl-fight, and very little else. The original Resident Evil was the first video game that I every played with had a complete storyline, so it's disappointing to see one of the movies be so shallow.

Does an action/monster movie really require a decent screenplay? The answer to that is undoubtedly yes. The action scenes in Resident Evil: Damnation look fantastic and there's no denying that the final battle includes some cool shots, but the final result simply feels like a series of scenes tied together with no real link. Will I ever see a movie which truly reflects the Resident Evil games. These animated films come closer than their live-action counterparts, but they still fail to get it quite right. Parts of Resident Evil: Damnation will appeal to Resident Evil fans, but the movie is a disappointment.

Resident Evil: Damnation...is it just me or is Svetlana Belikova kind of hot...on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD which runs at an average of 28 Mbps. This must be a digital-to-digital transfer, as it is gorgeous. The picture shows no grain or defects from the source material. The image is razor sharp and crystal clear. Although this is 2D, the picture has a superb amount of depth and the characters are nicely separated from the backgrounds. The level of detail is well-done and we can see minute details on the characters. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. When watching a show like this, one is reminding that all of these sounds had to be created. The sound is very detailed and the stereo and surround channels are very active during the action scenes. The audio shows many layers and we can pick out specific sounds. The audio during the finale is especially good the booming subwoofer effects really add to the fight scenes.

The Resident Evil: Damnation Blu-ray Disc contains a selection of extras. In the "Conceptual Art Gallery", we can view dozens of pictures either individually or as a slide-show. These range from pencil drawings of the characters to detailed sketches of the backgrounds. "Las Plagas: Organisms of War" (7 minutes) is a PowerPoint-like "presentation" from Dr. Gibson (who we met in Resident Evil 2) which describes the history and symptoms of the "las plagas" virus. (They should have put this in the movie for those who hadn't played Resident Evil 4.) "The DNA of Damnation" (30 minutes) is a making-of featurette which contains comments from the filmmakers and artists behind the movie. (Who speak Japanese with subtitles.) Along with these interviews about the story and characters, we get some concept art, early CG work, and a look at the motion-capture stage. The GAG REEL (6 minutes) is simply scenes from the movie with weird alternate dialogue.