Video games as movies have never done very well in both the eyes of the public or the fans of those games. At best they end up becoming bearable or merely plain “good” and at worst we get anything by Uwe Boll. The Resident Evil movie series so far has had its own share of ups and downs. Based around the game series of the same name, the RE movie series have been about an evil virus making corporation known as “Umbrella” and their plan to make all the world their bitch by turning people into zombies and weird monsters. A group of people find out and attempt to stop them by fighting all the evil monsters that have been unleashed upon the world. The RE movies so far have very very loosely followed the game series storyline with random cameos from game characters and have pretty much failed to win over the fans of the game or movie critics despite Milla Jovovich wearing less and less clothes in each one.
In an attempt to try to do something different and possibly to hype up fans for the upcoming Resident Evil 5 game, Capcom has released a new, straight to Blu-ray and DVD movie called Resident Evil: Degeneration. Unlike the previous RE movies, this one forgoes live action altogether and embraces the series CGI origins and is directly part of the video game franchise’s storyline. In it we find out that the nasty Umbrella group has been shut down for several years but several of its viruses have made their way into several terrorist organizations hands bringing in a new age of bioterror. Enter Claire Redfield, survivor of the Raccoon City virus outbreak and main series character from several games, just arriving at an airport on her way to go see family members when everything goes to hell once again for her. The virus she is so very adept at fighting by now has just been unleashed in the airport as part of a terrorist attack on a government member who has just arrived as well. The US army responds by sending in some of their best to go and retrieve any survivors and to help contain the outbreak. One of these men is Leon S. Kennedy, badass extraordinaire, from several of the Resident Evil games who is also a Raccoon City survivor. Both Claire and Leon meet up once again in this undead filled airport to save the day and find out who is behind this sinister plot.
From there the movie takes several twists and turns and really does a good job at replicating the feel of the games in a movie. There are points where I was fully expecting to have to pick up a controller and play a section. which leads into the biggest problem with the movie. Its not newbie friendly as a stand alone film. A lot of plot points will require a bit of previous knowledge about the series past and the universe it takes place in. Within the movie, there are many many fan nods and references to previous RE games that will sure to make any person who has followed the series for any amount of time squeal in delight but for any casual watchers just looking for a good zombie flick, they will be left confused by several names and references being tossed about. Another problem lies in the fact it was originally made in Japan and just like Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie, its very hard to dub CGI animated films and look correct without actually going back and reanimating the film. There will be several moments were you can tell that their lips aren’t matching to what the characters are saying which will confuse a bunch of people. The voice actors do a fine job at voicing their respective characters, including returning voices Alyson Court and Paul Mercier for Claire and Leon who voiced the characters in the games and gives the fans another thing to cheer about.
Special Features
-A Look at the Resident Evil 5 Video Game
-Voice Bloopers
-The Generation of Degeneration Featurette
-Faux Leon Interview
-Trailers
-Character Profiles
-1080p Video
-English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Sound
Overall
The movie really feels like a prelude to the upcoming Resident Evil 5 game then anything else, including setting up several plot points for that game in this movie. Its a great fan nod filled romp for all longtime RE followers even if its a little lacking and hard for non-fans to get into.
ComicsOnline gives Resident Evil: Degeneration 3 out of 5 video game movies.
