I’ve been obsessed with all things Resident Evil since the rebirth of the original game on Nintendo’s Gamecube back in 2002. Every single game needed to be picked up as soon as they are released. Each game got better then the last and now Resident Evil 5 arrives in March of 2009 and will be phenomenal; I know it. When live-action films came about, they kind of disappointed me but call me a glutton for punishment because I kept watching them. Then word came of a computer-generated film that would be in the same category as the games I love so much. How would I react watching the action before me and not holding a controller in my hand?
Let it be known right off the bat that anyone who is not a fan of the video games is going to be rather lost at times and may honestly not understand half of the film. In order to get you to fully understand this film then you’d need a detailed history of the Resident Evil series which would be about thirty pages long so try to bear with me if you’re reading this and not RE savvy.
Claire Redfield, a survivor of the Raccoon City disaster, is stuck inside of an airport with protestors and a know-it-all senator after a plane slams into the terminal making everything a chaotic mess. To make matters worse, the plane door opens up and out spills all the passengers who are flesh-eating zombies. Claire and a handful of the uninfected are trying to stay safe until help arrives in the form of SWAT team members and an expert in this field, Leon S. Kennedy. Claire and Leon are old friends and know exactly what is going on since they’ve dealt with it once before. The deadly T-virus developed by the Umbrella Corporation has infected others now and the chances of it spreading to many more must be made minimal by killing the infected. It doesn’t take long though before Claire, Leon, and a SWAT team member named Angela realize that the senator may have something to do with all of this.
Alright so this isn’t an incredibly good film, but it is much better then the last two live-action films combined. The story is pretty good and instead of focusing on all action or anything; a lot of information is revealed. We learn who has been holding onto the T-virus and G-virus and what there exact plans have been for them all along. It’s also cool seeing Leon and Claire back together after we last saw them team up in the Resident Evil 2 video game. Like I said, non-fans won’t understand everything and certainly won’t benefit from the brief history lesson given in the film by a story here and there or a quick flashback. It was easy for me to follow along because I’ve played and finished every single RE game; even those that have sort of veered from the continuing storyline and have no relevance here.
Something that bothered me after watching the film a second time through is that it doesn’t really fit in with the whole theme that RE has always tried to spew forth: horror. There’s a lot of plot and a buttload of action in the beginning and end of the film, but no real scares. Half the point of each video game is to instill fear in the players with the music and creatures coming after you. Another bothersome problem is that the trademark zombies are in the film, but disappear after the first forty minutes are so and are seen maybe once or twice more throughout. They are the focus of Resident Evil period and needed to be in there more. So these things got on my nerves and weren’t really noticed until the second viewing, but at least Degeneration kept my attention and made sense in a continuity form. I urge you not to watch it more then once though because you’ll begin to dissect it and pick it apart. Especially if you’re a fan.
The film is shown in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and it looks absolutely amazing. Each and every video game has gotten better looking with new advancements and new technology so it shows that they used the same care in this film. Colors are beautiful and backgrounds are crisp and detailed. My one complaint is that as perfect as everything is; the mouth movements never quite match up to the words.
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound coming through beautifully with great sound and awesome effects. All dialogue can be heard clearly while the music and sound effects stay in the background and then take center stage when need be. The zombie noises are really sweet too and come from all around you.
The Generation Of Degeneration – This “making of” featurette goes through how the film was done as well as going into how the story came about. Degeneration is said to follow the Resident Evil 4 video game while using the two main characters (Leon and Claire) from Code Veronica. The creators explain that other then that, the story is done from scratch but I don’t find that to be necessarily true as the T-Virus and G-Virus are both there and things connect back to Raccoon City and Umbrella. None the less, this is a very cool thirty minute feature that looks at all aspects of the film and how it came to be.
Voice Bloopers – Nine and a half minutes of different scenes from the film shown with alternate dialogue that appears to be when the cast was playing around. A few things are funny here and there, but not much.
Faux Leon Interview – One guy sits and asks questions to a guy in a full-motion suit that he is using to control Leon. This interview runs just under five minutes and I actually thought it would be a CGI Leon answering questions or something which would have been better actually.
Character Profiles – Short text bios are available to look at for the main characters in the film. Along with the information given, you can check out action sequences or photo galleries.
Trailers – Five different trailers to check out.
A Look At The Resident Evil 5 Video Game – The next big Resident Evil video game will be out in March of 2009 and there is a special trailer and footage from the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.
Trailers – Grudge 3, Vacancy 2: The First Cut, Boogeyman 3, Screamers: The Hunting, Red Sands, Zombie Strippers, and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
I wanted so much to love the hell out of this, but it just couldn’t be done. Degeneration is an enjoyable film that will have RE geeks like me salivating, but they’re going to be a tad disappointed once the huge differences in the franchise made here, pop up. The lack of scares, the subtle changes, the disappearance of the zombies, and the awful mouth movement is going to drive some people up a wall and cause them to stop watching before making it all the way through. If you’re a fan then I urge you to at least give it one full viewing because it’s totally not that bad and tells a pretty sweet story that apparently will be continued in the upcoming Resident Evil 5 video game next year. Now I’m going to go ahead and recommend a rental here before buying your own copy because of the mediocrity of the film and the special features which really don’t deliver much at all. The trailers are cool as is the “making of” featurette, but the rest is really short and hit or miss. Degeneration gets off to a good start what will hopefully be a series of CGI films and the beginning of steering away from the live-action joints that are getting worse with each release.
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Sony presents Resident Evil Degeneration. Directed by: Makato Kamiya. Starring (voices): Alyson Court, Paul Mercier, Laura Bailey, Roger Craig Smith, and more. Written by: Shotaro Suga. Running time: 97 minutes. Rating: R. Released on DVD: December 27, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
