Resident Evil: Vendetta 720p - (2017 Lang: English)

Nice! This is a true Resident Evil movie, unlike Paul W S Anderson's abominations!

Just returned from the theatre. With the movie still fresh in my mind, I'm writing these thoughts.

This is a true Resident Evil movie by Capcom, unlike the abomination franchise by Paul W S Anderson and Milla Jovobitch, both of whom I hate with a passion. I will not talk about them. Back to this movie.

The mansion at the beginning of Vendetta is fantastic. The location is reminiscent of the creepy mansion from the original game. The suspense of the bedroom scene is so well done. The idea of the boy's remote toy truck... brilliant!

The corridor scene of Chris and Leon killing the walking dead is awe inducing. Great action! And the motorbike chase scene with the zombie dogs, fantastic! You can't go wrong with Leon on a motorbike.

Now, I say this from the perspective of a fan. There seems to be a major plot hole. Later in the movie, the toxicity of the A-Virus is intensified. But why is it that the enhanced virus takes 20 minutes to take effect, whereas the normal A-Virus takes only five minutes? Glen Arias, you said the virus was made stronger, right? Well... Not that much stronger, it seems...

Also, my complaint with this movie is the absence of Ada Wong. Be sure to bring her back next time!

The story is set in between the events of Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. BSAA agent Chris Redfield is tracking Glenn Arias, a death merchant who is on a mission of vengeance against the U.S. government for killing his family and wife at their wedding. Chris and his fellow agents infiltrate a mansion in Mexico, after Cathy White, their undercover source who was following Arias' organization, vanished along with her son, Zack. Inside the mansion, Chris' fellow agents are ambushed by aggressive zombies (Zack included) and death traps, with Chris being the sole survivor and barely making it out alive. Chris then comes face-to-face with Arias outside the mansion and engages him in CQC, only to be swiftly defeated. He then finds out that Cathy has become a zombie, who now obeys Arias. As Arias leaves with his associates, Maria and Diego Gomez, the BSAA arrives just in time to rescue Chris by slaughtering Kathy and the remaining zombie horde with Chris vowing revenge on Arias.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Chambers, now a professor at a university specializing in vaccine development, a former member of Chris' S.T.A.R.S. unit and survivor of the infamous mansion incident, studies a new virus coined Animality virus or "A-virus", that is capable of laying dormant inside any individual until the right trigger is presented. She identifies three component to the virus: the base virus, the trigger virus and the vaccine. The research labs are soon attacked by Maria, who releases the virus via aerosol form. While her colleagues quickly turn into zombies, Rebecca is able to formulate a vaccine that she administers on herself immediately thereby being immune to the gas. After fending off some zombies, Rebecca is then rescued by Chris, who briefs her on Arias's plan and motives.

Rebecca recognizes the zombies loyalty to the host and makes the connection to the Las Plagas, the bioweapon used by the Los Illuminados, with the remaining members of the cult providing information to Arias in developing the virus. Both identify the need for an expert on the matter and makes contact with Leon S. Kennedy in Colorado. But Leon is hesitant to join their mission after his fellow officers were ambushed and turned into zombies from receiving poor intel about Los Illuminados. Chris and Rebecca try to get Leon on board the mission, but the trio are soon attacked by Maria and Diego. They succeed in capturing Rebecca, while Leon and Chris team up to plan a rescue operation and decrypt Arias' plan of a large-scale attack on New York City.

Arias intends to make Rebecca his bride as she shares a striking resemblance to his late wife. It is also revealed here that Diego and Maria are father and daughter, and close friends of Arias who also survived the wedding massacre. He develops a new strain of virus that is not affected by the vaccine and injects it into Rebecca. Arias then challenges Chris to rescue Rebecca within thirty minutes, which is the time that requires the virus to take full effect. As Arias' associates initiate their attack on New York City by releasing the gas form of the virus in vehicles, Leon and Chris' new BSAA team, consisting of DC, Damian and Nadia, manage to destroy the vehicles, contain the virus and defeat Maria, although Damian is brutally decapitated by zombie dogs in the process. Chris then infiltrates Arias' safe house, defeats Diego and rescues Rebecca. In the terrace, he is confronted by Arias, and a brutal gun-kata and Close Quarters fight ends with Arias falling through the glass terrace below to his demise. Diego then arrives and, despite being badly injured after being defeated by Chris, merges with Arias to form a new Tyrant monster. Chris is no match against the Arias-tyrant until Leon joins the fight after working his way through the safehouse, mowing down zombies. With the assistance of DC and Nadia, they manage to trap the tyrant, at which point Chris finishes off the Arias-tyrant with a grenade launcher. They are then able to locate the antidote that Arias kept and cure Rebecca before the thirty minutes is up.

The epilogue features Maria being alive and vowing vengeance for her father & Arias' death.

This movie is everything that I wanted from a Resident Evil film; campy tone, over the top villain, ridiculous action, and effective horror. The movie is by far the most outlandish of the Resident Evil films, including the Milla Jovovich ones, however, this does not detract from the experience. You just have to be willing to accept to the insanity of Leon being thrown 100ft into the air by a monster before diving and kicking said monster in the face. The movie features the returns of fan favorites Leon, Chris, and Rebecca and all characters are used effectively. Leon is the scene stealer with his absurd stunts and motorbike skills.

The highlights of the movie were the opening in the mansion as that managed to capture that classic feeling of dread when you'd encounter a zombie in the classic games as well as the hallway scene in which Leon and Chris use their Resident Evil 6 martial arts and destroy a horde of zombies. The fight choreography was amazing- some of the best I have ever seen in any movie - it was very reminiscent of John Wick.

This movie feels like a love letter to all of the aspects of gaming that Resident Evil has encompassed over the years. The mansion at the start is genuinely creepy while the action toward the end is reminiscent of the RE6 style of stunts. It was also nice to see characters like Chris in situations in which there was nothing to fight which allowed us to see the human side of Chris.

It feels like a large budget B-Movie which is exactly how Resident Evil is supposed to feel in my opinion. The animation was top-notch besides some problems with the lip-sync which is to be expected in a Japanese movie that has been dubbed in English.

However, the movie is not without flaws, I felt as though the story was a little rushed and not all plot lines were fully resolved (did Leon ever help that guy's family?). Chris' new voice actor, while mostly okay, had some moments where he seemingly forgot how to act ('He's a merchant of DEATH.'). All of the BSAA redshirts were underdeveloped which was unfortunate as they seemed legitimately interesting. Rebecca has some fantastic moments near the start but is quickly pushed to the side once Leon is introduced. The plot was very predictable but this is to be expected as Resident Evil isn't exactly fine-art.

None of these problems really detracted from my viewing experience but I do feel as they could have all been easily resolved so it is a shame that they were present. The movie did deliver essentially everything that I wanted and expected and I left the theater feeling very happy that I had watched the movie.

I would recommend to anyone who likes Resident Evil and can accept the crazier action of the later games. Non-game viewers might not enjoy it as much due to the fact that the movie assumes you know the world and characters.

Fantastic B-Movie Action!