Resident Evil: Vendetta is a fun, action-packed popcorn flick.

 

Continuing on with our celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Resident Evil franchise, we come to the third CGI movie and one that was kind of divisive in terms of its reception. Vendetta had a ton of talent behind it, including composer Kenji Kawai, director Takanori Tsujimoto, executive producer Takshi Shimizu, screenwriter Makoto Fukami and supervisor Hiroyuki Kobayashi. On top of that all-star team, you had the legendary Kensuke Sonomura as the man behind the action sequences within the movie. All of the ingredients were there for success. I have to admit, I loved Vendetta the first time that I watched it. The rewatch just reaffirmed that for me. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a fun, enjoyable kickass experience. 

Following an unsuccessful mission at an old mansion in Mexico, Chris Redfield enlists the aid of Rebecca Chambers, now a scientist, and Leon S. Kennedy in order to stop vengeful arms dealer, Glenn Arias. Much like Redfield, Kennedy had suffered the loss of his team and it seemed to be caused by the same adversary. Glenn Arias, the scorned arms dealer, plots his revenge against the world after his wife and family were murdered via a bombing at his wedding. In his arsenal, he has created a new type of virus that lays dormant in every living being until activation and allows the zombies to be controlled. Whilst plotting to stop the weapons dealer, Chambers is kidnapped by Arias, forcing our two main protagonists to track them down and get her back. At the same time, they must race to save New York from the chemical attack unleashed by Arias.

Whilst there is a large focus on action, particularly in the latter half of the movie, there is some elements of horror thrown in for good measure. Take for instance, the opening sequence where a body bag containing the body of a member of Leon S. Kennedy's team suddenly reanimates. Then you have the Mexico mansion mission sequence. It's one big homage to the original Resident Evil video game with some shots being re-created. Despite it being a homage, it's still an original thing and not a complete knock-off though. 

The movies move along at a brisk pace, which might actually put some old-school fans of survival horror off. At the same time, it ensures that viewers are never lulled into boredom with some appealing visuals or gripping action always on screen at any given moment. A downfall of the swift approach is that the story has not a lot of time to breath and that also means that there are some conveniently explained jumps through the movie, nothing too egregious of course. There is also the fact that Vendetta is the movie that makes it apparent that there is a lot of focus on revenge stories, for better or for worse.

I mentioned in my Damnation post about just how much better the CGI looked when compared to Degeneration. Well, the leaps in technology since Damnation means that Vendetta looks even better, the animation being much smoother and more polished. A vast improvement can be seen in the facial expressions as the characters even blink in Vendetta as opposed to the lifelessness of the characters in Degeneration. I think that going for a somewhat realistic yet still stylised look worked out rather well. 

The most impressive aspect of the movie at least for me, are the action sequences. Having Sonomura as action director was always going to be a major asset and it shows in the final product. He crafted some tremendous sequences that go above and beyond anything previously seen in the franchise. Perhaps Damnation is up there with it though. Regardless, the hallway fight sequence in which Chris and Leon team up to fight off a horde of zombies using John Wick style gun-fu and martial arts is amazing. There's also a couple of expertly choreographed one-on-one sequences that are just as badass. There are of course, moments in which the rule of cool must be applied such as some things Leon is capable of doing with a motorcycle. Par for the course for the franchise at this point. 

I liked the design for Chris Redfield in this movie. He resembled himself and didn't look like an imposter, unlike the one that showed up in Resident Evil 7. He's the badass hero us fans of the franchise have come to know and love over time. He's dogged and determined, whilst also protective. It was nice to see him and Rebecca interacting once again, it had been a while.

Leon is as badass as always. Effortlessly cool, having that swagger with some of the underlining moments of seriousness juxtaposed with the one-liners. His design is closer to that of his Resident Evil 6 look and in truth, it's a neat appearance for him. Surprisingly, he is absent for most of the first half, but he gets to kick some major ass in the second.

We hadn't seen Rebecca Chambers since Umbrella Chronicles and so, her inclusion was a really delightful surprise. We get to find out that following her being the S.T.A.R.S. medic in the Spencer Mansion incident, she has become a very competent scientist with a focus on vaccines and virus research. Her outfits are also rather neat, with one resembling an outfit she wore in the games. She gets a rather horror focused introduction in an exciting sequence, although I admit that she should know enough by this point to make better decisions and act swifter. 

The villain of the movie, Glenn Arias, is a vast improvement over Degeneration's Chris Miller and Frederick or Damnation's Svetlana. I think the team worked hard to ensure that he was given enough screen time to cover his backstory in order to give him sufficient motivations for his action within the narrative. He turns out to be a rather efficient martial artist and hand to hand combatant, being able to take on the protagonist in a one-on-one fight. It's rather surprising and almost as if he's placed in a Wesker-like level. 

Unfortunately, not everyone got enough time to truly shine, leaving some characters lacking backstories, explained motives or sufficient characterisation beyond surface-level. It's a sad truth, although I do like the designs of characters like Damian, DC, Diego, Maria and Nadia. 

I'm not a musical expert or anything of that nature, but I thought that the orchestral musical score really enhanced everything, making the coolest moments much more epic and the dramatic much more emotional. Kenji Kawai famously worked on Ghost in the Shell and Ringu and he delivered big time for Vendetta. 

Overall, I had a blast rewatching Vendetta and it's one of my favourite CGI movies. I highly recommend it to fans of the action-focused video games, those who enjoy zombies being taken down in stylish fashion, fans of Chris, Leon and Rebecca and those who just enjoy a good movie that you can simply turn your brain off, kick back, relax and enjoy.