Resident Evil: Vendetta

[This review will contain spoilers for the film, as well as a few aspects of the previous games the characters appeared in.] Right off the bat, I think I should establish that your overall enjoyment of this film will vary based on what type of Resident Evil fan you, as I cannot imagine you’d be watching this movie if you weren’t. If you’re a fan of the classic PS1 era of the series, where survival is key and you never know just what might pop out of the darkness, you’re going to absolutely loathe this movie. If you’re a fan of the goofier titles like RE4-6,where the protagonists fight in active volcanos, have unlimited golden eggs in their pockets, and can punch boulders into place, you’re going to absolutely adore this movie. I’m sure you can tell based on my score what category of fan I happen to fall into. Resident Evil Vendetta is an absolutely no-holds bar blast from start to finish, and at an hour and a half too, it’s pretty much all killer no filler until the credits roll. It doesn’t have the extremely photorealistic animation that Infinite Darkness has, or the compelling side characters that Damnation had, but it more than makes up for it with some of the most insane-balls to wall action in the entire franchise. The main villain, Glenn Arias, is that he’s so down bad for Rebecca Chambers, that he’s literally willing to infect the entire planet with a virus just so he can smash. This is due to the fact that Rebecca is identical to his deceased wife, who somehow is identical to Chambers sans the blonde hair. None of this is explained. Glenn’s villainous plot is also aided by his two surviving wedding guests, Diego & Maria Gomez. Except Diego has been transformed by the A-Virus, turning him into a Hulk-like monster with superhuman capabilities and transformations. Maria on the other hand, just wears latex and jiggles around. None of this is explained. During the final battle, Chris is aided by is BSAA team and they pull up to fight a transformed Glenn in a military chopper. Nadia, one of the team members, opens the back hatch to reveal that she has the same railgun Jill Valentine once used to defeat Nemesis back in Resident Evil 3. In a moment of pure-fan service, she charges up the weapon and blows a hole through Glenn’s chest…except the beam keeps going and immediately tears through the five skyscrapers behind him, blowing up and no doubt killing thousands off-screen. None of this exp- Do you see what I’m getting at? This entire film is packed to the brim with such pure and utter chaos that it makes Resident Evil 6 look like Barney & Friends. Characters will pull off such insane stunts to the point where it’ll feel like you just gave Michael Bay your Resident Evil action figures plus Red Bull then told him “Go Nuts!”. Leon Kennedy drives his motorcycle up an entire skyscraper elevator just to drive it at the final boss, then flip off of it, and THEN shoot the engine in mid-air to blow it up. Chris Redfield gets an entire Oldboy-esque sequence where he fights with a M4A1 Carbine bayonet combo and absolutely wastes an entire platoon of zombies without breaking a sweat. Rebecca Chambers gets to make o-faces while drinking mocha lattes and gets damsel-ed for the entire second half of the movie. Poorly written female characters? Now I know I’m watching a Michael Bay movie! All in all, this is a movie makes it abundantly clear within the first 15 minutes that you’re not going to be watching it for the “art” of it. You’re going to be watching it because you want to see some absolutely insane zombie action staring your favorite Capcom characters, and on that front Residenr Evil Vendetta goes above and beyond to make sure the viewer’s having a good time doing it. Just leave your brain at the door, and you’re bound to have fun…just be sure that the zombies don’t much on it while it’s out.