'Resident Evil: Degeneration' review by MartialHorror.

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RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION(2008)
(Directed by Makoto Kamiya)

"It's like watching the cut-scenes of the game....I presume"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: When the T Virus(which turns people into zombies) is suddenly released in an airport, it’s up to Leon and Claire(from the games) to rescue the survivors. But unfortunately, the airport Is the least of their worries.

Review:

In all honesty, I had little to no intention on watching this CG movie based on the popular games. If you’re confused at the title, keep in mind this has nothing to do with those three Paul Anderson live action movies with the same names. This is CG, which means computer generated, which pretty much can be summed up as ‘animated’. Imagine that your watching the cutscenes on a Playstation 3, and that’s pretty much what you get, for better or worse. But of course, my main disinterest came from the fact that this was supposed to continue the story of the game, which I have never played. But someone asked……so I caved in. Now that I’ve seen it, what can I say? Well, it is both bad and good, sometimes at the same time.

The story opens with a montage of what either happened during the game or happened between them. To be honest, it’s way too overcomplicated so I might have missed something. Basically, after Raccoon City(where the games took place, I believe) blew up, the evil Umbrella Corporation went into decline, a new company known as WilPharma took its place. After pictures of test subjects showed up, showing them to be zombies, that company went into decline too, with protestors wanting to shut them down. Oh yeah, I haven’t really explained the T-virus yet. See? That’s a problem. It takes one whole paragraph to explain the opening montage. The T-virus was what caused them to bomb Raccoon City, because it’s a dangerous virus that turns people into zombies. Then comes the actual plot, which starts off in an airport. Claire Redfield, who I believe is a major character in the games(even being one of the heroines in “Resident Evil: Extinction”), arrives and is greeted by an older lady and a kid. What is her relationship to them? No freaking clue. Things are a bit chaotic with a senator who supports WilPharma arriving, and things become even more chaotic when an airplane full of zombies crash into them. Suddenly everyone must fight for their lives……Oh yeah, Leon(another game character) comes to help them too.

I’ll stop here, as there are some nice surprises. To fully break this movie down, I need to discuss it in every little facet.

The Plot: It both sucks and is great, maybe even inventive. But the first issue is how convoluted it is. I presume it’s easier to understand if you played the games. There is also some serious weak writing at hand. I never understood the major coincidences. What are the odds that Claire is there during that time, and that her old pal Leon would be the one to bale them out. Then of course, the survivors out of the hundreds people there happen to be the ones who interacted with each other in previous scenes....Then you have one of the villains being the brother of one of the main characters…..Seriously, what are the odds?

I also have to admit that I’m not really sure how everything went down. Maybe my brain naturally doesn’t work this quickly when watching a zombie movie, but the ending left me confused. You also have the final twist, which is too obvious. On the flipside, however, there are some really good twists. I like the fact that the Government, while cold, isn’t necessarily heartless like most zombie movie governments. They actually *gasp* want to rescue people. In lesser movies, they’d just blow the airport up. Even the evil corporation isn’t all that evil. I also liked some of the smaller touches, like the people in zombie masks. This is what I mean I say this movie is both good and bad. There is some great writing here, and some very poor writing.

Characters: In short, they’re bland and boring, usually archtypes. Claire has little personality and to be honest, I kept wondering why she was there other than to please the fans. She has very little effect on the plot(which focuses more on Leon). Still, she was hot…An effective accomplishment, as she isn’t real. But if Claire has little personality, Leon has NOOOO personality. Wow, what a boring character. But you know what? He’s kind of cool for it. It is actually very difficult to make a really cool character when the intention is to make a really cool character. When characters act cool, they usually aren’t. But somehow Leon pulls this off, and if I were to be in a zombie infested situation, I’d want him on my side.

On the downside, I hated everyone else(well, the scientist dude was kind of charming). There is a jerk politician, who acts very one-dimensional in his jerkiness. How the hell would he get elected in anything? Then you have those elite SRT guys, who act immensely unprofessional. The girl shoots in the legs, even though she’s told that the infected are already dead and must be killed. The guy acts like a total psychopath, hooting like a cowboy as he fires and is just a dick overall. Is this really what the Japanese think American troops act like? Jeez. On the flipside, I respected the fact that this movie didn’t feel the need to kill off everyone for the sake of killing off everyone. The death toll was unpredictable, another rarity in zombie films. Once again, both good and bad.

Voice acting: I saw the english dubbed version, and it was alright. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it felt wooden. I'd say it was more wooden and not, but the dialogue isn't always helpful in this regard.

The visuals: This movie mainly works because of its CG visuals, which allows the camera be anywhere and do anything. While not as impressive as “Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children”, they are still pretty detailed. It’s intense, although rarely scary, and I felt the paranoia of ‘what if this virus was real’. The action was pretty awesome as well. My only issue with the visuals were the characters faces, which often looked devoid of emotion…..sometimes the emotions would be too over-the-top. Another “both good and bad” deal.

In the end, I have to admit that I enjoyed “Resident Evil: Degeneration”. Yes, it confused me. Yes, the middle block was slow(ack, didn‘t mention that yet, did I?). Yes, the characters bored me. But the visuals made for an exciting and entertaining movie, and the films moments of intelligence just made it sweeter. Now, if it was a live action movie, it probably wouldn’t have worked as well(actors simply cannot pull off cool: Watch Jill in “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” for proof of that). So as a CG zombie flick, I had a lot of fun with it, despite its problems. Now that I think about it, I loved "Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children" because I was a fan of the game. Maybe that's how it is with this.

Violence: Rated R. Actually, I didn’t think it was violent enough. Most of it was left to the imagination……Not even sure if it was R worthy. I mean, I thought that 2007 “Beowulf” movie was more hardcore than this and that was PG-13.

Nudity: None.

Overall: I enjoyed “Resident Evil: Degeneration” more than the first two live-action films, and maybe a little less than the third(not sure about this yet). I think fans of the game should like it…..But will everyone else like it? Probably not as much.

2.5/4 Stars


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