Resident Evil Vendetta

A botched rescue mission puts BSAA agent Chris Redfield on the hunt for an elusive arms dealer named Glenn Arias.  When Arias deploys a new kind of bio weapon based on the T-Virus, Chris’ mission leads him back to a pair of old friends: former member of S.T.A.R.S Rebecca Chambers and DSO Agent Leon S. Kennedy.  All three have faced the terror of bio weapons for years since the catastrophe of Raccoon City and all three have a personal stake in this mission.  Can they confront their demons before Arias follows through on his vendetta against the world?

Resident Evil remains to this day one of the most popular franchises in video game history.  A staple of the survivor horror genre, the series has been known best for blending pure terror and strategic gameplay for an unforgettable experience.  In recent years, however, later entries have gone more bombastic, dropping the survival horror in favor of survival action.  One could say this began with Resident Evil 4’s game changing brilliance but more so with the less impressive Resident Evil 5.  Wherever you place the change, the CG films made around these games have followed suit.  Resident Evil Vendetta, ergo, feels in the same vein as Resident Evil 5 or the much reviled 6 and less in the better vein of Resident Evil 2 or 4.

I will say this about Vendetta, it is definitely the best looking of the trilogy of Resident Evil CG Films (after Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation). No longer do character models like Leon look stiff unless theyre in an action sequence.  The detail and facial expressions on everyone look great, especially the oh so cute Rebecca Chambers (making a welcome return after not being in the main series spotlight since Resident Evil 0).  Me personally, I’m a passing fan of the franchise but ive played 4 and 5, so I’ve gotten to spend time with both series protagonists Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield and I’ve always wanted to see them in action together.  Well, Vendetta gave me that wish and them tearing through a hallway of zombies like John Wick is admittedly fun as hell…except it’s as far removed from the classic, claustrophobic feels of the original games as can be.  It’s hard to be concerned for anyones safety when these two Anime supermen have unlimited ammo and a near invincibility cheat on them at all times.

Seeing Chris, Leon and Rebecca aside, the rest of Resident Evil Vendetta feels lazy, slow and forgettable.  When you boil down the villains main goal, it’s both ridiculous and laughable and…do I dare say recycled.  I don’t know, Arias’ plot feel like a retread of a plan even popular series antagonist Albert Wesker would balk at.  Even Leon’s story arc feels like a rehash of Chris’ from Resident Evil 6, which this film takes place right after.  Was having Leon a miserable drunk really necessary to move the plot along?  Most of the action is held off until the last 30 minutes of the film and what comes before is either standard fare or head scratching over the top.  For example, Leon racing down the freeway on a motorcycle evading two Zombie Dogs with immense durability…yeah this does feel like the worst parts of Resident Evil 6 doesn’t it.  The villains themselves, forgettable too.  There’s Arias, the aforementioned Poor Mans Wesker and he’s got two henchmen as well…who are only memorable in that one is Resident Evil’s attempt to copy the look of Batman’s Bane…and the other looks like a vampiric Nina Williams from Tekken.  When the action gets going, at least its somewhat entertaining.  To get there though, you have to suffer through waves of boring dialogue and tropes that are so tired and overused by this point.  I found myself looking at my watch at one point realizing I was half an hour into the movie…and nothing substantial had happened and there was still an hour to go.

Resident Evil Vendetta, at the end of the day, is a straight up, mindless action flick, which will make fans of the franchise again long for the glory days of Resident Evil-Resident Evil 4.  It’s good to see Chris, Leon and Rebecca once again but they have deserved better for a long, long time.  Familiar evil plots, cliché villains, action that’s needlessly over the top.  It’s not that Resident Evil cant be a fun series, it is, those games are legendary for a reason.  But Vendetta follows the examples of some of the franchises lowest points and I feel like by the time the studio realized it, they were too far along in its production to fix it.  The only question is…is what we have in Vendetta and it’s two predecessors at least better than the live action movies?  Eh, that’s a debate for another time.

Resident Evil Vendetta gets a 5/10.