Resident Evil: Vendetta, the franchise’s latest CGI film, recently hit home video, and has been solidly received by fans. Some of have criticized the movie’s somewhat inconsistent tone and simple story, but the characters and action scenes have been praised. Overall, Vendetta is a decent continuation of the franchise, and ComicBook’s own Jim Viscardi sat down with producers Hiroyuki Kobayashi and Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge) and director Takanori Tsujimoto (Bushido Man) to see where the series might be going next.
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First off, Shimizu cleared up why Resident Evil: Vendetta is basically half horror and half action.
“The movie starts in the mansion, which a homage to the first game, and I wanted to have a very creepy horror film. I was to be the director, but I couldn’t take the job because of my schedule, so Mr. Tsujimoto was assigned. He’s more of a master of action, that’s how the first half become horror, but the latter half became more action.”
Looking toward the future, Shimizu wanted to portray Resident Evil characters in a more realistic light…
“In this one, Leon is kind of drunk and down, instead of perfect heroic Leon. I’d like to see characters in different ways than the games. Not as macho — maybe down, or more human.”
…while director Tsujimoto would like to reverse the buddy cop dynamic from Vendetta.
“This time it was more Chris’ story, and the buddy movie with Leon worked well, but Leon was sort of a side character. Next time I’d like to do Leon as the lead and Chris as the side character in another buddy movie.”
Sounds like the folks behind the CGI movies plan to stay the course, rather than embracing the new, edgier take on the universe seen in Resident Evil 7. That’s fine for nostalgia’s sake, but I’d really love to see the psychotic Baker clan show up in a future RE movie.
Resident Evil: Vendetta is the third installment in the popular CGI animated film franchise. The film features fan-favorite characters Leon S. Kennedy (Matt Mercer), Chris Redfield (Kevin Dorman) and Rebecca Chambers (Erin Cahill), and is executive produced by Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge), written by Makoto Fukami (Psycho Pass), and directed by Takanori Tsujimoto (Bushido Man).
Resident Evil: Vendetta is currently available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Amazon Prime video.
