MOVIE REVIEW – Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy are back in the blockbuster CGI movie that supposedly takes place between Resident Evil 6 and 7, but after watching the film I am not sure where Resident Evil 7 would fit into this whole lore of the Resident Evil series. Still, this movie luckily (or to some weird people unluckily) has no connection to the Paul W. S. Anderson movies but instead unites once again our two favorite heroes to battle it out against a mad scientist who is on the warpath against the world, with the use of zombies.

I was surprised by the running time of the movie as I thought this would be the usual barely one-hour cinematic movie, without any quality to it. As the anime industry has this problem where they chuck out an OVA sometimes to rake in cash from fans of a franchise, but the OVA is minimal in the effort. So after sitting down with my pessimism in front of the TV, and I watched this weird movie. In 90 minutes my frown turned to smile … and even laughter as this film jumps the shark so many times.

Death, horror, and alcohol

The story of Vendetta takes place after Resident Evil 6, with the world safe again, Chris is leading the BSAA to rid the world of terrorists and the mad scientist that are still trying to use zombies as a WMDs. Meanwhile, Leon Kennedy is off the grid after a raid goes sideways and most of his squad members die.  The main antagonist is a mad scientist called Glenn Arias (Aka Albert Wesker is dead, so here’s a stand-in) who is trying to destroy the world through a new virus, as one day the US government decided to step in and with extreme prejudice take care of Arias. Sadly this went down the toilet, and Arias swore vengeance on the world.

It is a pretty straightforward story, and there’s not a lot of twists to expect from it. We do have some neat cameos, and references, plus Rebecca Chambers is back from the old RE games looking stunning as ever. Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy are also excellent, but even though the movie has a running time of 90 minutes it does not really provide that much depth to those two characters. In fact, none of the characters evolve throughout the movie. Sure Leon has a bit of PTSD and alcoholism, but that subplot gets dropped in five minutes after Rebecca give a pep rally speech to both of them in the middle of the movie. Secondary characters also die faster than you could say Game of Thrones, and quite bloody, and gruesomely.

Regarding story and characters, there is not much to look for in Resident Evil, and maybe fans of the series will enjoy the interactions between the characters.

Lights, camera, John Wick?!

The Resident Evil series has evolved over the many many years regarding gameplay. From its fixed camera perspective to going third person shooter with Resident Evil 4, and going full blown action adventure with a hint over the top kung fu in Resident Evil 6. Vendetta is while not a video game, it still adds some superb action scenes to the franchise, which are both memorable, and over the top. The last twenty minutes are a gem, with so much Gun-fu, and action that I could not stop smiling. It felt like the writers and director loved The Raid and John Wick so much that they just mixed up their formula with zombies, and it worked.

While the action is sweet, if the animation is not the best then it would fall apart at the seams. Here it is a mixed bag, but compared to the previous two CGI movies the animation is good. The characters and backgrounds are well detailed; the animation is fluid with barely any issues when watching the movie. The blood and gore are not bad, though some scenes did have a bit of a lighting issue when it came to the violence. Also, there was one part in the movie where either the budget just got slashed, or the team did not know how to properly do the scene so that it does not look fake – this was near the end of the movie with Leon and a motorcycle. Let’s just say that was the low point of the movie regarding effects and animation. That last twenty minutes though are just… watch it – insanity.

Revenge!

In the end, Resident Evil Vendetta is a fun movie, which has a thin plot, but so much action, and fun that most modern movies would blush in embarrassment (it also feels a lot better than a John Wick sequel). If you have the time to burn, watch Vendetta. It might not be a masterpiece, but it is one of the best action movies of the summer.

-Dante-