Game Brood Reviews: Resident Evil: Degeneration
Written by badguy001
Finally! Resident Evil Degeneration, a RE movie that isn’t directed or produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. The guy who replaced the scares for shocks and the horror for explosions in the last three Resident Evil movies. I still cringed at the image of Milla Jovovich riding her motorcycle through a stained glass window and then running over a licker with it. Flashy, overly edited, unnecessary slow-mo/bullet-time scene ensues. No. Paul W.S. Anderson. That’s not cool. You’re lucky gamers don’t hate you as much as Uwe Boll.
Anyway! So does Resident Evil: Degeneration, a RE movie that actually is connected to the popular survival/horror games, fair with my cynical eyes? Hit the link to find out!
I will try keep this review short and straight to the point. Resident Evil Degeneration is not a good movie. It’s not a bad one either. I would have called it horrible if I weren’t a fan of the Resident Evil series, but I am. So it’s not horrible. It’s just mediocre.
I mean, a lot of the elements I wanted to see in a Resident Evil movie are here. It stars some of RE’s most popular characters - Leon and Claire. It had a few flashbacks of the duo fighting alongside each other in Raccoon City (both donning their trademark Resident Evil 2 outfits, which was quite awesome). Its soundtrack, the locations, the moans and groans of the zombies and even the dialogue felt like it was directly lifted from any of the RE games. But despite all these, the movie’s potential still wasn’t realized. And that’s where I was disappointed.
For a movie that was based on a game series that’s about shooting genetically mutated beasts, it spent way too much time TRYING to put some depth in its characters by having conversations about love lost and all that crap… and it dabbles a bit in corporate espionage. This would be OK in my book if the conversations weren’t so bad! Yes, I did mention that I like b-grade dialogue, but having to listen to this trash for over an hour really, really ticked me off! It was bearable and quite fun to pay attention to in the RE games since they were SHORT and not an hour long!
And what about the zombies? After the zombie outbreak in Harvardville Airport during the first act, they practically became cameos in the later parts of the movie. I guess these guys have to make way for the hour long drama.
Now it’s time to get to the good stuff because I don’t find the movie bad remember?
One of the things that Degeneration does right, this is also where Paul W.S Anderson and his Resident Evil movies goes horribly wrong, are the action sequences. I was never trying to figure out what the hell was going on on-screen because I wasn’t bombarded with ten different angles of Leon shooting at the same zombie. And the fight between him and the Big Bad Guy near the end of the movie was quite awesome. And it’s a lot more believable than watching Milla Jovovich awkwardly pound Nemesis with her feet.
There are also a few homage to the Resident Evil 2 game where it made me go “Hey! I remember a scene just like that in Resident Evil 2!” It was fun noticing that the gun Claire used looked exactly like the gun she carried in the game and pointing out how Leon and Claire met up in the movie is very similar to the way they first met in Raccoon City. It’s things like these that brings out the fanboy in me which helps me appreciate the movie to a certain degree.
So in short, I hate Resident Evil: Degeneration for its long, boring and at times, nerve-wracking dialogue, the lack of zombies and the focus on long, drawn-out scenes involving a girl in search of her brother. I liked the action scenes for not being a pain to watch and I really enjoyed the few homages to Resident Evil 2, my favorite among the Resident Evil games.
Tags: Degeneration, RE:D, Residenet Evil: Degeneration, Resident Evil, Resident Evil CG, Sony Pictures
December 30th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Aren’t we lucky Uwe Boll didn’t touch RE? lol. Look at House of the Dead the movie to appreciate these small things. hehehe. Cool review though. And I’ll still see this one if only for fangirl-yness.:D
December 30th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
thank god… a movie that doesnt destroy the game X_X
January 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
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