The Resident Evil live-action movies range from passable to terrible (though I admit that I was entertained by the first four movies when I first
watched them). The direct-to-video animated
movies, on the other hand, are sensibly enjoyable for what they are. It’s probably because, unlike the Milla
Jovovich movies, they are set within the games’ universe.
Now, I’m not really a big fan of
the franchise, and I only played some of the earlier games a few times. But I’ve gotten familiar and somewhat fond of its most popular characters – namely Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker,
Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, and Ada Wong (seeing them interact
with Alice is one of the few things I liked about the live-action movies) –
because, though I don’t play modern video game consoles, I do watch plenty of
video game cutscene compilations and gameplays in Youtube. Hence, because they feature the games’
characters and the narrative is tied up with the games’ continuity, I
appreciate the animated movies more.
Resident Evil: Vendetta, as it is titled, is set between Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
It involves Chris Redfield pursuing a mad arms dealer named Glenn
Arias, who has figured out a way to weaponize zombies and who intends to spread
his modified A-virus to the populace.
Chris then recruits Rebecca Chambers and Leon S. Kennedy to help him
stop Arias.
Actually, it isn’t an
excellent movie. The pacing is wearisome
at times, the voice acting wavers occasionally, the characterizations don’t have much depth, and the plot isn’t novel. But the action? The
action is awesome! Especially
because there’s some serious amount of jawdropping gun fu involved in it. There’s a sequence where Chris and
Leon go John Preston (from Equilibrium)
and John Wick on the zombies. And the
duels between Chris and Glenn Arias are excitingly kickass.
To be honest, I had lot of
problems with this movie during the first two acts. But its action-packed third act was apparently
enough for me to melt them all away.
Resident Evil: Vendetta isn’t perfect. It can even be argued that it isn’t a
good movie – that it’s mostly empty, boring, and clichéd. But I think, as a direct-to-video film, its
great action is sufficient to make it worth watching. If nothing else, it’s much more fun than Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (which
has some of the worst action sequences I’ve ever seen).
No comments:
Post a Comment