Resident Evil: Degeneration

[W-OLF]

Resident Evil: Degeneration







Featuring the Voices of: Alyson Court, Paul Mercier, and Laura Bailey
Directed By: Makoto Kamiya
Written By: Shotaro Suga
DVD Release Date: December 28, 2008
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rated R for bloody violence.

This is the final straight to video nightmare for 2008, and when I start the 2009 archive still remains to be seen since I will be writing about best/worst lists, award contenders, and so forth for the first month or so. I should say that this review will not win me any fans as I would wager many of you are avid gamers and/or followers of the Resident Evil universe. This new effort is entitled Resident Evil: Degeneration, but the story does not take place within the live-action series' at all. Those movies were mediocre zombie/infected flicks. They contain action and eye-catching visuals, but not much else….kind of like the film I am about to review.

This little experiment involves the storylines of the game apparently. "A recent interview with Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi, states that the film will show a story for each of the game series characters to show what has happened to them over time." So unlike the live-action offerings, which were accessible to the entire public to a certain degree, Degeneration elects to go a different route, similar to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a film I loathe. Basically, this was made for the fans of the game, who so desperately want to see the characters of said game on screen and not those from the Hollywood adaptations. To everyone who is not familiar with the game, this will be dull, poorly constructed, and forgettable.

These events transpire 7 years after the Raccoon City incident where Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy took out the G-Virus and Umbrella Corporation. The virus has been contained until now. Claire finds herself in the middle of Harvardville Airport with friends when some mysterious things occur with Senator Ron Davis traveling through, the WilPharma Company's stocks, and Terra-Save, who is protesting WilPharma actions of late and how they involve terrorism. A plane then crashes into the terminal, and it is pandemonium with zombies everywhere and screaming civilians unable to escape. As they attempt to flee from the airport, other levels of corruption, black market buying, and a rogue warrior with his own G-Virus potentially causing a new apocalypse, are exposed.

The animation is quite sloppy since it is literally a combination of those clips on a video game strewn together for a 96 minute movie. For example, you have the sleek and gorgeous animation of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the latest technology in Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, and then this. Truth be told, Degeneration has a handful of scenes that accentuate fancy visuals, but not nearly enough. Most of the film takes place in the dark, and even when it doesn't, the characters faces look unpolished, and the rest lacks sufficient detail.

The majority of the voice work is weak as well. Alyson Court and Paul Mercier are fine I guess, if all you desired were the same voices from the game, but Leon for instance looks and sounds extremely wooden. It is the supporting and minor characters whose voice acting is just beyond horrendous though, like Senator Ron Davis, the young child Rani, and Angela just to name a few. Some of these people were not made to perform for a full length picture. When they do try to express some emotion, it is atrociously exaggerated.

Degeneration is filled with plenty of sequences and plot holes to gripe about. A couple bugged me greatly. The characters seem to survive the most horrific terrorist attacks, explosions, and seemingly inescapable situations with barely a scratch, or in Claire's case, a leg wound that disappears quickly. Yes, this is animation, but one cannot only accept so much ludicrousness. The zombies in this adventure multiply so fast it is mind boggling, and what bothers me is that it would have been impossible for them to do so. The airport goes from 1 to 10 to hundreds of zombies in like 5 minutes. There are also hints at a romance with Leon and Angela, a female authority figure of SRT or something. They gaze into each others' eyes for excessive periods of time and nothing happens.

In its defense, Degeneration is not nearly as confusing as Advent Children, and if you crave this sort of zombie killing, it will satisfy your needs. I appreciated that the plot was not confined to the airport. The characters thankfully explore other terrain, and even some twists go down, which were unexpected. What ultimately causes me to give a "thumbs down" is that the central monster is just so ridiculous to look at. He appears to be a concoction of two teenage boys who were drunk and simply slapped parts together. Degeneration has some exciting action, and some nifty story developments, but the flaws are too much to contain.

Final Rating = 5.0/10.0
411mania guess this is the right spot lol

And again dont care its Resident Evil ill watch it for myself Hey Eel its just an opinion isnt it , Just because there job is to review I dont have to listen to it Im capable of making my own judgement what someone likes or not may not be held true to me ,LOL .

[JohnCenaFan28]

ty