Resident Evil Degeneration Review

February 11, 2009 at 7:47 am (Movies, Review)

I think it’s been over stated by now that I am a huge Resident Evil fan. So after the 3 horrible attempts at live action film (not even the lovely Mila Jovovich could save those crapfests) the idea of a full length CGI Resident Evil movie, made by Capcom nonetheless, was unbearably exciting. In the hands of anyone else I would have expected a terrible production, but with Capcom handling things, I was pretty certain the movie would not disappoint. And I was right.

This movie is awesome. Really. Amazing awesome. First lets start with the story, without getting into too much detail and giving too much away.  Degeneration takes place one year after Resident Evil 4. Clair Redfield is working with TerraSave, an organization focused on aiding in recovery from biological attacks and disasters. Their main campaign is against WilPharma Corporation, that seems to be responsible for human testing of the T-Virus, which has fallen into the hands of terrorists and the black market since the fall of Umbrella Corporation. Senator Ron Davis is at the forefront of supporting WilPharma, and has a shady past of his own, including being in on the decision to nuke Raccoon City. Claire finds herself at the same airport as the Senator, right when a t-virus outbreak occurs. Believing it to be another terrorist attack, the government acts sending in a top special agent to handle things; Leon S. Kennedy. Leon, still on a mission to discover the remnants of Umbrella,  of course comes in to save the day. The story progresses through a deep running conspiracy both within WilPharma, and outside of it. Leon and Claire are reunited once again and do battle against the infected zombies, eventually uncovering the conspiracy, including the return of the G-virus.  I really don’t want to tell much more of the story than that, as it really is a great one and I don’t want to spoil it.

Resident Evil Degeneration is a pure CGI film, based on some Motion Capture. The movie looks incredible. Absolutely amazing. The animation is beautiful. There are some scenes, particularly those involving the G-virus mutation, that look horrifyingly real. This is definitely some of the best CGI to date. The camera direction is even more amazing. The directors really went out of their way to give the camera life and make you feel like you are watching a live action movie adding camera shakes and grand sweeping shots. I was really blown away. The voice acting is top notch, with Paul Mercier returning to voice Leon, which is a great treat for continuity concerned fans like myself. The sound and music are also amazing. As is pretty standard with Resident Evil.

I really wish that Degeneration was the next Resident Evil game, as the story was immensely more interesting than what I’ve seen from Resident Evil 5 so far. I really hope that Capcom makes one or two more full length features like this, to fill in some more gaps in the Resident Evil saga. Perhaps one based around what Wesker has been up to since the fall of Umbrella…though hopefully Resident Evil 5 will give us some of that information. Or even more interesting, maybe a film solely about Umbrella Corp, from the begging to the end, kind of like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles was supposed to be.

Anyway, bottom line. Whether you are a fan of Resident Evil, or just a fan of zombie flicks in general, or just a fan of CG animation, this movie is a must see. I was totally amazed and completely impressed. A great, great, must see. I have no complaints about it, totally honest. Watch it. Find out for yourself. I know this movie got some negative feedback from some other reviews, but I never really got a good reason why, and I am curious. So let me know why, if you didnt like it.