Stick to the games

So today I went down to one of our local video stores to get my self my weekend movie fix. When I was about to leave I saw that they had an interesting animated movie up on the 'New Release' shelf. I was surprised to see that it was the 3D animated movie adaption of Resident Evil, a little number called Resident Evil: Degeneration.


Being a fan of the game, I was happy to add this movie to my weekend viewing list, plus you can never have too much zombie action.

Let me start ofo by saying that sadly I am not a big fan of the Resident Evil movie series. The first one was kind of cool, but for some reason it just doesn't cut it for me. I know that Resident Evil is not just all about zombies. It has to do with viruses and mutations and what not. But I see the movie as more of a big action flick that happens to have the Resident Evil hallmarks all over it.

The movie not having the major characters from the game kind of allows the RE universe to expand though... so I guess that's a good thing.


Unlike the live action movie... this animated movie ties in a lot closer to the game. The story follows the characters Clarie Redfield and Leon Kennedy who were the stars of the second Resident Evil game, and it serves as a bridge between 2005s RE4 and next years RE5. It looks like a long cut scene from the games...which is kind of cool because the RE games are known for their awesome cut scenes.

Sadly though,I felt the whole thing just felt like something that should have been broken up with bits of game play. As I was watching, some part of my mind kept trying to get me to 'press start'. In the tradition of the Resident Evil games.... the plot unfolds very slowly. Sad thing is there wasn't much of a plot to unfold. Watching such a thing in-game is sweet...but when you sit there for an hour or so with nothing else to do than to watch it, it gets tiering. good thing was I that watched it with a few friends of mine who are fans of the game so it went by alright... poking fun at it helped too.


The action though spared and spread out...is pretty good, with some nice looking zombies in the beginning. Sadly after the first bit of the movie, the zombies take a back seat to the 'story' and this other weird mutant thing gets to tear stuff up. (It's basically the same baddie from RE2.)

The animation its self is nice, but compared to some of the stuff thats out these days it looks a bit dated. If you've seen 2005s Final Fantasy Advent Children, then this baby looks very stiff. It does have nice water effects though, and the 'last boss' looks very cool and the action sequences with it killing things is pretty much the high light of the whole movie.

If you're a Resident Evil fan this movie is a fair enough watch... but if you care nothing for the games and are more of a fan of the film series, this movie will not be what you wanted.

After watching it though, I am now really starved for RE5.