DVD
REVIEW: Resident Evil: Degeneration
12/26/08
SYNOPSIS: An attack
by the zombies brings chaos to Harvardville Airport. Special
agents Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield arrive ready to
combat the zombie rampage in classic high octane Resident
Evil Style.
REVIEW: In resident
Evil: Degeneration we get to see something that the majority
of video game based movies do not accomplished: To keep
within the universe of the game. There is no a different and
awkward story, or made up characters in this movie.
Degeneration took what in my opinion had been the best
Resident Evil story, RE 2, and expanded it to a great sequel
paying tribute to those fans of the series, at the same
time, it is equally entertaining and even persuading to a
not fan audience.
Although the story and the characters are kept within the
original video game what makes Degeneration a success in not
its past, but the story in general. It was well thought out.
The writers have put a lot of thought of what had happen in
Raccoon City and expanded it with what could be a possible
outcome scenario wise, with the government getting involved,
Corporations trying to make money out of this catastrophe,
activist trying to stop them, terrorist trying to used the
virus, and of course, corrupt individuals playing both
sides. This environment creates a perfect scenario for the
development of the story. Then the story itself is not bad,
although it seems quite predictable at first glance it
begins to evolved into a more complex and challenging story
as time progresses. Also I loved how they incorporated some
scenes from the game in it like the way Leon and Claire meet
for the second time. Visually, I think is where the movie
has its flaws. Being a CGI movie, it seems that the
animators did not have consistency through out the movie,
there are some scenes where the characters look amazing
resembling human people to the max, but there are other
fewer sequences where they look as square as the game
itself, some effects also look to fake, which is not a big
problem, since this movies tend to be like this. What
annoyed me the most was one of the main character’s
portrayal Leon looked to stiff and serious even when he was
joking, the animators fail in showing this character’s
expressions when there was a close up, and if we add that at
some point he is shown with superhuman strength that is just
ridiculous, also most of the character’s mouth did not match
the words.
Character and setting design are also a big plus in this
movie Leon looks is like a mix between the RE2 and RE4
character which is appropriate for the film, Claire is by
far the best depicted character in appearance and
personality she has that charismatic appeal that makes he
one of the most appealing characters of the whole series
plus she can fight when the moment ask for it, as new
characters like Angela and Curtis Miller are introduced they
added a uniqueness and freshness to the movie, the final
monster looks astonishing keeping him to a resident evil
level. This characters are not there just as fillers but
they had purpose and add their share to the movie, with out
a doubt the character that still the spot light is the
Senator, his looks, voice actions and personality are the
perfect addition to a known cast. He makes the best remarks,
and he is the best depicted even his expressions are better
than our heroes. The settings are also beautifully shown
like the laboratory and the airport, although it looks like
a futuristic look also they do not look outside reality,
everything seems possible. Sound and Voice wise I think the
director did a great job selecting the cast, the sound is
great in makes you feel like you are in there with the
characters, and the voices were right on target with each
character, for a Japanese movie I got to say that the
English version is excellent since they used English voiced
actors from the beginning and did not just Dub it. The
voices resemble those of the game and are believable for
each character.
Taking aside the minor graphic glitches this movie has, I
think this is the best video Game to movie adaptation ever
made. It surpasses final Fantasy the Advent Children in
story and atmosphere. It keeps loyal to the claustrophobic
feeling the game got us used to, and it adds possibilities
for future games or movies. Another thing that could be
argued is that there is not enough interaction between
heroes and zombies, like in the game, and that the final
monster is defeated in a silly way. In my opinion there were
enough to keep the audience interested , and the statement
made at the end gave the monster a human side so I think is
appropriate. The first 15 minutes might seem slow for fans
to the series but for new comers is a great introduction to
set in the mood for the rest of the movie. The DVD comes
with regular special features that might be interesting for
fans of the game, with the preview for the next game in the
series being the best feature. Overall, I think this DVD is
a great addition for fans of the series or people who
enjoyed movies like Final Fantasy, Dawn of the Dead, or
Previous Resident evil movies. Just keep in mind, that
unlike the previous Resident movies, this has no similarity
to with Milla Jovovich‘s version.
Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
AUDIO:
English,
Portuguese (Dolby digital 5.1), Thai, French and Spanish
Dolby Surround mastered in high definition
Subtitles - English, French
Portuguese, Korean, Thai, Chinese, and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES: As
many Resident evil movies this DVD has a preview for the
next chapter in the saga, in this case Resident evil 5., and
a character Profile feature that describe each character in
a text blur. The rest is the basic fill material that many
DVDs include like the making of feature, bloopers which
actually do not look like a blooper but a practice scene.
The Generation of
DEGENERATION featurette - This is kind of a making
of featurette where Makoto Kamiya and other CAPCOM staff are
interviewed about what they wanted to accomplished with the
film, the cast selection, and why they chose English
speaking voice actors, the training they had and more
behind-the-scenes footage on the creation of the film. It
takes you from scratch to the preview in San Diego’s Comic
Con (30:02)
Character Profiles
- This is like notes describing each character from the
movie it also gives you and option when you can see this
character in action for the three main Characters or a
picture gallery for the rest.
Voice Bloopers
- 4 bloopers from the film which seems kind of odd since it
is an animated film so I am pretty sure they were created in
purpose to get you to laugh, personally I think this is not
funny (9:29).
Faux Leon Interview
- This is the worst feature of them all, it is an
interview with the guy who plays Leon in the film, what
sucks about it is that the guy asking the interview asked
questions that do not come to the case and the guy being
interview gives you answers that looked either rehearse or
don’t make any sense(4:47).
Resident Evil 5
Special Game Footage - Ti gives you an introduction
of the upcoming video game, it is by far the best feature.
It will show you a theatrical feature and a 2008 Tokyo Game
Show (4:35).
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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| BONUS
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