Review of Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017) by Meritcoba — 03 Dec 2017

I wrote a review about this turd of a movie a few days back and was more lenient than I should have been. Resident Evil: Vendetta is a disastrous bad movie which deserves a resounding zero if it wasn't for the animations that by current days standard are well done, but will no doubt be outdated in a few years time. Vendetta should not have been made. This movie lacks almost anything worthwhile and does not in any way push the bar. Why make an animation movie that is even worse than the normal ones made by Anderson?

The story. A dude with a grudge against some government (the US one probably because the story unfolds in the US) plans to exact revenge by unleashing a virus on the populace because that government bombed his wedding for he was a nasty piece of work. He is that elegant refined evil dude that are the one out of two main bad guy-types that anime has managed to produce. He has the usual side kicks. The leather clad vixen and the brutish thug. He has the usual riches. He has the usual score of devoted followers. He has the usual knowledge of everything(except when the plot doesn't want him to.) He is the usual brooding type. As usual he is omnipotent and omnipresent, just like the bearded guy, but without the omni-benevolence.That is, until they plot requires him to be otherwise. Such characters are not persons, they are targets. And therefore, like targets, they are without personality.

The heroes are nothing remarkable either. The rough and ready fighter and the reluctant brooding sarcastic warrior. They team up to rescue the world from the zombies and the girl from the evil bad dude. The girl is, as usual in stuff like this, there to be put in danger so as to be saved. Her function is to be pretty, to be put in danger and to claps her hands in joy and exclaim, "My heroes." The dialog is atrocious. You know what these guys will be saying and how they will say it. And the makers of this movie do not digress in any way of the well trodden route. Anyone could have written this, you just grab a few comics and copy and past the dialog right into this movie and you are done. Actually that must have what they did.

The upshot is that there is nothing to connect to. Everything and everyone is cliché, but in a remarkably bad way. The way in that you simply do not connect and thus not care. This movie just utterly fails because you don't care about any of it.

The style and graphics are equally soulless. If you take for instance Sin city of A scanner darkly, they try to use the possibilities that animations can bring to table. Different and unusual styles, colors and angles; powerful imagery. What does this movie do? It tries to mimic reality in every detail but makes a pastiche of everything. It says probably art direction in the credits. What art? What direction?

This movie can best be seen as the back-story to a computer game. It would still be uninspired, style-less, soulless and lame, but then the player gets to play with guns and shoot monsters. Which is more than half the fun. But with this movie you have to passively watch this stream of uninspiration being pumped out. And there is nothing to take away the chilling realization that you just witnessed something astoundingly bad. If that is what you like then, by all means, go and watch it.

If you want to have more fun; go watch paint dry.