KrankorVsPrinceOfSpace Review of Resident Evil: Degeneration

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

Utterly Ridiculous. Fanboys lap it up, but it's just awful, i promise.

[1/10 · 18 December 2008]

First off, i won't complain about the Computer Graphics used to make the movie. Whilst it's not even close to Pixar standards, i should imagine that they wouldn't have had a Pixar sized budget and the animation and detail is perfectly adequate for 2008, if a little stiff. The look is not the problem. It's everything else. From the toy-time storyline to the ludicrous dialogue and Scooby Doo styled conclusions, it grates on you from beginning to end. EVERY cliché' is thrown in, and i mean clichés that were old hat by the end of the 80s. Every now and then the characters have to stop the progression of the story to recap on things gone by, spoon feeding the viewer with bits and pieces of back story because the writers are just too lazy to make the premise eloquent enough. Some may say " Hey it's RESIDENT EVIL! It's SUPPOSED to be cheesy! ". That is no excuse for being as poor as it is. Or do the writers really know their target audience too well? There is so much in here to make RE Fanboys punch the air in collective orgasm toward the end with ending after ending without any let up it seems. Just as one ridiculous near death set piece is avoided, another one is piled on top once they have caught their breath. It's action for action's sake and it's so damn tired and unoriginal. You see 'jump-moments' coming a mile off, not because they're badly staged but because you can predict it before the prior scene has ended. Again, people will tell me that it's based on a computer game story, but it doesn't mean that it can be forgiven if it isn't done well. The premise is irrelevant and any fantasy element is perfectly acceptable to me as long as it's done well. This just isn't. It's soo bad. The terrible voice acting on the English language voice dub really doesn't help matters either and it may not seem so silly in it's original Japanese soundtrack, with subtitles. But it still won't have escaped that irritating Japanese tradition of having to explain EVERYthing that is/has and will happen with long tiresome bouts of dialogue that just make everything said feel stilted and awkward. If you're still reading you may tell that i didn't enjoy this too much. There was nothing in it for me that stood out, so that i could say that it at least has it's moments because it doesn't. You can quite easily sit through it because if you're a fan of the games this is a curious piece that has grabbed your attention, but it's ultimately not worth any of the effort you put into watching it :) Unless you're a blinkered fanboy of course....blinkered? Wait a minute that's what defines them isn't it !? This is just bad. Don't avoid, as it may raise the odd chuckle or too at it's expense but don't expect anything better than the story lines, voice acting and over the top situations of the computer games :)