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Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
January 12th, 2009
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'Resident Evil: Degeneration' is better than any of its live-action counterparts; using stunningly realistic CG animation, it offers a lot of fan service, and is based exclusively on the Capcom game series, with few embellishments, it continues the story of Resident Evil 2, reuniting Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy, while also bridging the gap between Resident Evil 4 and the upcoming Resident Evil 5 (due out in March). I suppose it takes place after the events of RE 4, in which Leon traveled to a village in Europe to rescue the President's daughter from a Spanish cult. RE5 will feature Chris Redfield, Claire's brother, one of the protagonists from the original Resident Evil, along with Jill Valentine. Claire and Chris worked together in Resident Evil Code: Veronica. Leon was a rookie cop in RE2, now he is a special agent sent by the government to investigate a viral outbreak at an airport.
As we are reminded, Raccoon City, the setting of RE2, was destroyed in a nuclear blast to cover up evidence of a possible connection between the Umbrella corporation and the government, with the infamous T Virus being sold to bio-terrorists on the black market. Umbrella is presumably finished, but may have simply undergone a name change. The plot for 'Regeneration' does not explain everything, there are some loose ends, involving a villainous Senator, a pharmaceutical company, and a vaccine for the T Virus that would reduce the number of people turned into zombies. Claire and Leon embark on a journey to figure all this stuff out, heading to the pharmaceutical company's headquarters, along with Angela, a member of some special forces squad, whose brother, Curtis, is a key player in all of this. This is more or less an action film, with enough violence to earn an R rating.
As amazing as the animation is, there are problems with the characters' facial expressions and body movements, especially Claire and Leon, who display no visible signs of emotion and, run and walk awkwardly (a result, no doubt, of substandard motion capturing). The voice acting is occasionally flat, as well, with Paul Mercier (as Leon) and Alyson Court (as Claire) speaking mostly in a monotone. The dialogue is cheesy and over-dramatic. None of this really matters because the visual effects are so astoundingly well-done, but these issues are noticeable and distracting.
At times, it looks like a long cutscene from one of the games, which is not a bad thing, and it has a distinctively Japanese feel to it; this is a thoroughly Japanese production, despite the presence of American voice actors for the English-language version. As someone who has played and enjoyed the Resident Evil franchise since the days of the Playstation, and who eagerly awaits the release of Resident Evil 5, I will say that 'Degeneration' is perfect fare for its target audience, but, to non-gamers, it will inevitably be underwhelming and not terribly interesting, primarily because it caters so stringently to gamers already familiar with at least RE2. Unfortunately missing, though, is veteran RE antagonist Albert Wesker.
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