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Resident Evil: Vendetta shows why the long-running franchise, while respected for longevity, is always met with skepticism.
Summary
Taking place after Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil: Vendetta is about the revenge of Glenn Arias (John DeMita), a bioweapon arms dealer. With him releasing a new virus which turns people not only into zombies but controllable ones, naturally, he must be stopped. But the feeling is mutual.
For, you see, Glenn has his own bone to pick with our heroes. Take Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill) who has come up with a vaccine to his weapon before it is even widely available on the market. She has to go. Then when it comes to Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman) and Leon S. Kennedy (Matthew Mercer), they remind him of a dreadful day. The day a drone dropped a bomb on his, Glenn’s, wedding, and killed one of his last reasons to care about humanity.
Highlights
The Action Was Something
Resident Evil: Vendetta begins with a 15 minute behind the scenes look at how the film was made. In that we see how the fight scenes went from motion capture into CGI and boy was the finished project something. Not good enough to make up for the rest of the film, but still noteworthy in terms of visuals.
Criticism
Corny Dialogue
Showing, on two different occasions, after something bad happens, a character on their knees yelling “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” is a bad sign of things to come. But, in general, there is something very camp about the interactions between characters. Which I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not. I mean, the good thing about it was that some of the people in the theater laughed, but I wasn’t one of them. I figured between the writers or voice actors, people were just trying to get to the end without asking too many questions.
It Isn’t For People Not Familiar With The Series thus Far
Noting this isn’t the first animated Resident Evil movie, but the first in almost 5 years, you’d think there would have been some sort of reminder about what has happened thus far. Especially since the game this is supposed to follow also came out 5 years ago. Yet, despite the use of 15 minutes to show how the game was made, there was no catch-up.
On The Fence
The Sound
One of the things which was both odd and good about the film was its sound. Good in that things like the gun shots helped keep you awake. Bad in terms of things like footsteps seeming far too loud and not matching the footwear. One example would be Rebecca walking down a hall and the movie trying to create tension. However, the sound Leon’s boots made while he was in a morgue sounded barely different from the sound Rebecca made in a university hallway with her barely covers the toes kind of shoes.
Overall: Negative (Skip It)
I got a screening pass for this so I watched this in a theater. With that in mind, I thought I’d be more focused and not as distracted as if I watched this online. However, I found myself wanting to check my phone, take a nap in the cozy theater chair, and do anything but pay attention. Yet, like the character in A Clockwork Orange, I was trapped and tortured.
Which isn’t to say the movie is horrible but surely just made for fans. So if you are like me and have an interest in Resident Evil, but aren’t necessarily keen on playing the games, prep to be lost. For even with 15 minutes wasted with a making of feature, there is no attempt to catch you up really. They just give you a reference point to where the movie is on the timeline and that’s it. Afterwards, it is just corny dialog, lots of bullets, lots of zombies, and you coming to terms that like the live action franchise, this was probably made more so to make money than enrich the story of the Resident Evil universe.
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