Seven years since the Raccoon City incident, Claire Redfield is now a member of Terrasave, an organization which handles search and rescue at chemical and biological attacks. Claire arrives at Harvardville Airport to meet a friend. A passenger aeroplane is approaching the airport to land. As one of the attendants checks the passengers, she notices one man looking unwell. The man in question is clearly in the final stages of T-virus infection, and warns the attendant. Shortly after, he zombifies.
Claire is looking after her friend’s niece, Rani Chawla, when they see Senator Ron Davis walk by. While a zombie-masked protester is arrested by a police officer, another “zombie” comes along.The officer walks behind it to pull the mask off, but it is not a mask. He is bitten by the zombie. One of Davis’ bodyguards shoots it. While surprised that the creature gets back up, he is attacked by the security guard, whom he thought was dead. The second guard attempts to run but is also devoured. The scene causes massive panic and people in the vicinity flee, some being attacked by more zombies. The airport tannoy warns the civilians to evacuate.
The plane crashes into the building. Although killing several zombies, the door opens to reveal the occupants of the plane have turned into zombies. Claire, Davis and Rani hide. Night-time, the airport has been locked down by Marines and the survivors evacuated for treatment one at a time, many still locked inside the airport. Two Special Response Team (SRT) members are joined by a government agent with experience of such incidents, Leon S. Kennedy. The group enters the building through the roof and begin their search.
Story: 7/10
First off this movie is made by hardcore Resident Evil fans for the hardcore fans. If you only heard about Resident Evil or got into it from the enormous publicity that Resident Evil 4 got then Resident Evil: Degeneration isn’t for you. You need to be a big Resident Evil fan to enjoy this, if not then you will miss all the references being made during the course of the movie. This isn’t a mainstream movie, like the live action movies were. Having said that the first Resident Evil movie was the best of the bunch, while the rest were pretty mediocre at best.
The movie wasn’t created with the average joe in mind, sure they could watch it but they really wouldn’t get much out of the movie. Resident Evil: Degeneration captures the true essence of the games in the franchise, complete with dialogue, and as a extra bonus it has even casts the lead voice talent Alyson Court and Paul Mercier from the original games. This also adds a bit of authenticity to the overall story, the movie plot it self plays out exactly like any one of the Resident Evil game plots would.
And this is were Resident Evil: Degeneration stumbles a bit, if you watch this movie without any priory knowledge of the franchise as a whole then the movie is filled with inconsistencies and plot holes. Hence I mentioned the fact that it was created by fans for the fans, if not then it will feel like you are watching someone else playing a Resident Evil game. And if you are looking for a zombie gore fest then I suggest you look somewhere else, as the story deals more with the G-Virus, so there isn’t much of a zombie story here.
Also halfway through the movie the director decided to add a couple of “silly romantic moments” between Angela and Leon, which really seemed out of place in the movie when you consider that the games contain no elements of romanticism. Luckily this wasn’t taken any further as it had the potential to ruin the overall story. Resident Evil die hard fans will without a doubt overlook all of these complaints and enjoy the movie for what it is a tie in to the game franchise.
Characters: 8/10
There isn’t much character development in the movie especially when it comes to Clair and Leon. The two main characters have already been well developed and fleshed out through out the course of the games. There is some character development or the supporting characters like Angela. And like I stated before they hint at some romance between Leon and Angelo, but luckily they did not expand on it, since it did not fit in with the overall feel of the movie.
Animation: 7/10
Overall, the movie was a roller coaster ride when it came to the overall CG animation quality. The visuals are top notch when its comes to backgrounds and action but there is something character’s eerie about the characters facial features and facial animations. Especially when it comes to Leon’s facial features which are downright creepy at times, as it never changes and sports the same “grin” throughout the course of the movie.
Not to mention that some of the G-Virus monsters animations are relly weak in some scenes and brilliant in others. However the environmental effects like explosions, water, fire and smoke are some of the best I have seen in some time. I think with a bit more time and effort Capcom could have made this looks so much better considering the amount of money the company makes in a single year.
Sound/Music: 9/10
This is the highlight of the movie for me the music and voice acting. They managed to bring in all the voice actors from the game franchise into this movie, Alyson Court (Claire Redfield) and Paul Mercier (Leon S Kennedy). But it does not end there, other popular voice actors make there appearance during the course of the movie including: Laura Bailey (Angela Miller), Steve Blum (Greg Glenn). And of course my favorite English voice actor of all time Crispin Freeman (Frederic Downing).
The soundtrack that accompanies the movie also lends itself well to the overall atmosphere of the movie, and would make any Resident Evil fan feel right at home with its creepy and dramatic overtures. Not to mention the really catchy theme that gets played at the end of the movie, just one thing that I noted during the course of the movie was the actual lip sync which seems to be a hit and miss at some points during the movie.
Enjoyment: 7/10
A really good solid attempt at making a movie based of the game franchise, and might I add a hell of a lot better than Hollywood’s last couple of sad attempts at making a Resident Evil movie. But having said that if you are not a fan of the franchise I recommend staying far away as possible from this movie. Because without the historical background that the games provide, then the movie plot will seem shallow and superficial at best. But if you are a Resident Evil fan then this will surely have you entertained from start to finish.
from the screenshots the animation looks unbelievable (or rather should I say believable?) How does the animation compare to Final Fantasy because I've yet to see better?
