RESIDENT EVIL: VENDETTA (2017)
Blogtober Qualifications: Leon Kennedy, zombies, virus outbreaks, a major female character looking a lot like someone's dead wife
*Potential spoiler warning for the Resident Evil game series*
Top BSAA agent Chris Redfield (voiced by Kevin Dorman) is the only survivor of a failed mission to find and capture bio-weapons merchant Glenn Arias (voiced by John DeMita). He barely makes it out alive, but not before Arias has time to show off his newest weapon. Dubbed the A-Virus, it creates zombies, of course. But it can also keep the undead from attacking certain pre-designated targets, essentially allowing the zombies to be controlled.
Meanwhile, Professor Rebecca Chambers (voiced by Erin Cahill) has been working to develop a vaccine to that exact virus. Fortunately she manages to do so, and not a moment too soon, literally. Arias' agents attack Rebecca's lab, and everyone inside is infected and killed except Rebecca. Before long she teams up with Chris in an effort to take down Arias, but first Chris says they need to speak to a real expert.
Enter DSO agent Leon Kennedy (voiced by Matthew Mercer), who has seen more of his fair share of viral outbreaks. It takes some convincing, but Leon agrees to work with Chris and Rebecca, and the three set out to take down Arias and his organization once and for all.
So this review has me excited for two big reasons. For one, it's the first time a former Power Ranger has been featured in Blogtober, that being Rebecca's voice actress Erin Cahill. For those who weren't there, she played Jen, the Pink Ranger in Power Rangers Time Force, all the way back in 2000. Here's to even more Rangers being featured in future.
The other reason I'm excited is LEON SCOTT KENNEDY.
I admit I've never been the absolute biggest fan of Resident Evil. I've played almost all of the main games in the series (including both Revelations, not including Code: Veronica and VII), and I've finished a few of them. I've also seen both of the other CG movies, and vehemently avoided the live action ones. If I were to make a list of my favorite game series, it probably wouldn't crack the top ten, but it would be relatively high.
Resident Evil 4, on the other hand, is one of my favorite games ever. I played it on Gamecube when I was 15. I later bought it on Wii, PS3 and PS4. It was to my teenage years what Bloodborne would later be for my adult self. And while I love the game for what it is (even though a lot of its best aspects would be copied ad nauseum until they were ruined for a while), one of the main reasons why it's stuck with me for so long is its main character: Leon Scott Kennedy. I also played Resident Evil 2 (Leon's first game) when I was younger, so that probably helped too.
Leon Kennedy may well be my favorite character in all of fiction. Ever. It's a big statement to make, I know, but to back up my claim, I'll just let you know that while watching the movie and while writing this review, I was accompanied by my Leon POP figure. Like, I had him next to me, to add to my enjoyment. Y'know, like a child.
Anyway, enough about Leon Kennedy for now. How's the movie?
Well. It's... enjoyable. But be prepared to turn your brain off.
So first of all, from what I understand, the animation for this movie was done by a different studio than the two before it, and it shows. I'm not sure what the problem is, but the models are often stiff, and the facial expressions aren't always appealing. It's fairly subtle, but it's definitely there if you're looking. I got used to it after a while, though.
The story is very Resident Evil. Bad guy makes new virus, releases it into a new place, good guys have to stop it, all while going through silly action scenes. Or rather, I should say, it's very much like what Resident Evil had been for the last few games before VII brought it back to the series more serious horror roots.
Now, I like Resident Evil in pretty much all of its incarnations, at every point along the horror-to-action scale. I don't like 6 at all, but that's more to do with problems with the game itself rather than the level of action. That being said, this movie definitely leans towards the 6 end of the scale, with big, dumb, almost pointless action set pieces and choreographed fight scenes. Most of it is just good fun, but two scenes in particular stuck out to me.
One is an exceptionally stupid scene where Leon is being chased down a highway by some zombie dogs. So sure, zombie dogs are a pain in the neck. But suddenly they're this monstrosity that you have to run away from on a motorcycle, putting at risk the lives of innocent highway traffickers. I could understand if it was some sort of upgraded zombie dog, or if there were, like, twenty of them, but no. It's just the same zombie dogs we've been seeing since Resident Evil 1, and there are two of them. Multiple cars explode, killing the people inside, and at one point Leon throws a grenade at the dogs! In traffic!
The other really dumb scene is a close-quarters shootout between Chris and another character and oh boy is it silly. It's extremely choreographed, which I know sounds silly because it's CG, but it doesn't look natural at all. They're taking swings at each other, reversing attacks, then firing shots at where the other person was instead of where they will be. At one point they literally circle each other, firing at one another's feet. It looked like something out of Metal Gear Solid, but at least in MGS they'd be talking about genes or AI or something while they do it. Zero virtues are extolled while this silliness is foisted upon us.
Now for the hard part. So this whole time I've been talking about how much I love Leon, and I do. But I have to admit, I don't really like the way he's portrayed in this movie. Leon is a character that has gone through a lot of crap for the past twenty years. But now, all of a sudden, because of a relatively minor tragedy (that happens offscreen, no less) he's crawled inside a bottle and doesn't want to fight anymore. He's drunk and angry and dismissive of the other characters, which is extremely out of character. He gets over it, of course, but the problem then is that he just becomes bland. There's no hint of the awesome lameness that makes him such a great character.
And unfortunately, everyone is bland. There was a lot of hullabaloo about the return of Rebecca Chambers to the series' canon for the first time since Resident Evil 0 way back in 2002. She's my wife's favorite character, so we were pretty excited. The problem is that she doesn't really get to do a whole lot. I mean, sure, she's a professor now, and no longer a (supposedly) badass special ops officer. But you'd think she'd at least get to fire a gun. Once? No?
Still, I loved the joke about how her "coffee" (loaded with sugar, caramel, and chocolate chips) is actually just a dessert, because I have literally said that same thing to my wife. Multiple times.
Instead she's more or less a damsel in distress, which is really unfortunate. Rebecca gets a lot of undeserved scorn because of the perception of her uselessness. It's too bad this movie does nothing to shake that perception.
Chris is here too, you guys. His hair is terrible, and so is his goatee. Chris' hair used to be sweet, I dunno what they were thinking here. My theory is that he's creeping into his 40s and trying to do things he thinks will make him look younger. A pre-midlife crisis, maybe.
Glenn Arias is trying really hard to be Wesker, but he doesn't quite nail it. Still, I like his suit.
Overall, I still enjoyed my time with the movie. I'd personally rather watch Degeneration, the first CG movie, but I'd watch this one again. It's dumb, but it's a fun kind of dumb, and with the series' shift to more serious fare, it might be awhile before we get something like this again. Not to say that's necessarily a bad thing.
Oh, and if you're curious who's carrying the titular "vendetta," I'm pretty sure it's everyone. It's everyone's vendetta.
Tomorrow we'll still be in the realm of CG movies, but this time we'll be looking at something that should be fun for the whole family. We'll be seeing all the classic monsters, and hopefully having a good time along the way.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Rush: 2112 (1975)
Playing - Banjo-Tooie (2000)
Reading - B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Exorcist (2016)
Watching - Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
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