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Resident Evil: Degeneration review
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Capcom, Fangoria, and Sony Pictures had a special screening of Resident Evil: Degeneration, a 90-minute CGI movie that will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on Dec. 30, which actually made this free screening at the Egyptian Theater a lot more special.
What added to the excitement is that a script would come directly from some of the people actually involved in Resident Evil, the game franchise, so there won't be any super powered, genetically enhanced silliness and best of all, the main characters from the game won't be second bananas.
And that's what many of the Resident Evil fans will appreciate: Leon S. Kennedy and the return of Claire Redfield (read: woohoo!). What brings these two together is a terrorist unleashing of the T-Virus in an airport where Claire happens to be located and Leon is sent it with a special rescue team. The lazily named Special Rescue Team,consisting of Angela Miller and Craig, going in with Leon to rescue Claire and some other people, including a US senator and a crying child. (Haven't movies done away with this cliche yet?).
The story is supposed to be a bridge between the excellent Resident Evil 4 and the upcoming Resident Evil 5, so to avoid spoilers (and there were plenty of them), let me just say that the T-Virus has a role in the first half and the G-Virus takes over in the second half.
Fans do have to wait a little too long to see Claire and Leon team up like they did in Resident Evil 2 but the payoff of seeing old clips of that game is worth it.
The visuals are top-notch when its comes to backgrounds and action but something in the character's faces seemed too eerie, it's like everyone's a zombie. The action doesn't disappoint either, as you Leon blast zombies and doubles as Mario when he makes some giant leaps in a thrilling encounter with a new Tyrant-like monster.
Capcom has always made all the RE games seem compelling with all the twist and turns, despite its B-movie roots. This movie is no exception but it has never made the dialogue anything but campy and that stinks when you're trying to make the characters compelling and you can't help but laugh due to their campy dialogue. But the voice acting is handled well. And maybe it's just me, but it seems like Capcom is writing the entire story canon as if Resident Evil Code: Veronica never existed, which is disappointing because it was one of the better games in the entire franchise and can still hold up today.
Overall, 'Degeneration', which will be available for home video towards the end of December, has enough fan service and action that RE fans and action movie fans can appreciate.
Grade: B-
The good: Great action scenes, Claire returns! The bad: Campy dialogue RE4 fans: Hunnigan appears!
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