[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.
LoLombandicoot
July 23, 2021
Recommended
Resident Evil Vendetta uses great animation, crazy action, and a fun plot to capture the essence of the games it is based on (that being RE 4, 5, and 6). While I do think the more horror focused games are the superior batch (besides RE4, the greatest game of all time), I still unabashedly love the later games. And Vendetta manages to come off as an extension of that style of Resident Evil. The story fits right into the universe. The arms dealers, evil organizations, etc. creative a global pandemic for their own gain is very familiar and the villain is as wacky an antagonist theseries has seen since the Ashfords. Though, I think the villain's motivation could've just been revenge when the film takes it a step further in the cuckoo direction.
The movie also earns points on character usage. We get to see Chris and Leon team up. It's a treat anytime we get to characters we know encounter and interact with each other. We even get to see Rebecca Chambers again, who hasn't been too involved outside of two games.
Now, to easily the best part of this movie. The action is what carries this movie. There are several intense scenes that are a marvel to watch, from hand-to-hand fights to explosive motorcycle chases. Great choreography and over-the-top levels of action make this well worth a offers a somewhat funny premise.
ReResting_Bonfire
February 12, 2021
Mixed Feelings
Didn't even know before that this film even existed. I only discovered it by accident. Apparently he doesn't have a particularly big reputation. However, I cannot understand its lack of range. For every fan of the Resident Evil series, the film is clearly a piece of gold. Story has never been the yellow of the egg in Resident Evil, but here the style of the game series is well taken up and continued. The animations are very solid, as are the whole action scenes. Can't complain about anything in the area. The characters were also well hit and staged. 2 of the big biohazzard favorites can beseen fighting in the spotlight here.
The streak is clichéd on every bet, but it doesn't make it any less likeable. Zombies, explosions, action and a badass protagonist. In the scheme, you have everything here.
In overall, this is probably the best Movie of Resident Evil. And its easy for me to say this, because I am not a Fan of Resident Evil (Movies) at all.
PePenguinsBurnRed
June 20, 2017
Recommended
At first I was gonna rate this very low based on "feeling" like the story was completely random, But later realized it was an original story so I couldn't completely knock it for that. Unless you're a hard core Biohazard fan and know the entirety of the story behind it, you get the sense of "whats going on? Was there a movie before this I should've watched?" STORY: Again it's an original story, But a rushed story none the less. It follows a very cliche story line that leaves the ending really lacking. You can kind of relate it to a Fetch Quest ina video game, go here do this, retrieve that, come back, mission complete and do it again somewhere else. In latent terms, boring.
Visuals and Sound:
So everything looks nice and pretty and you cane see that with every Biohazard movie that comes out it looks significantly better than the last. I wish I Can say the same for the sound though, at some parts in the movie it gets really low so you have to turn it up only to turn it back down during action seens when its too loud. Which if you're a movie fanatic will really annoy your sound system.
Characters:
It's kinda hard to even review the characters because they hardly speak at all.... This possibly could be a personal thing based on the fact that I watch a lot of dialogue heavy shows and it just felt like they hardly said anything. Not too include all the grunts and moans.
Enjoyment/Overall:
Biohazrd Vendetta is a good way to kill an hour and a half. There's a lot to be desired and maybe we'll get that if they decide to make a next one.
Bonus:
Too my knowledge this is the very first time I've seen REALLY close CQB (close quarters combat) in anything Biohazard/Resident evil related. Not too say the resident evil movie franchise didn't have this but per the rules I can't give spoilers so you'll have to watch and see what I mean when I mention this. But it's really well done and amazing!
