Feature: Silver Screen: Resident Evil Degeneration (Wii)

Set a year after the events of Resident Evil 4, Degeneration sees the T-Virus now being used in bio-terrorist attacks leading up to a major incident in an airport, before the story u-turns back to the inevitable research facility. Probably what RE fans will be jumping for joy about is the reunion of Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy. Honestly they could have matched any characters together and they’d still have the bad acting, excruciating dialogue and lack of chemistry that these pair serve up. That is if two CG characters can even have chemistry. A supporting cast has been invented for the movie, some of which are stereotypical beyond belief. You have a young child who you know survives because children never die, an American soldier type who whoops and hollers as he sprays machine gun fire in all directions, and lastly a cowardly corporate man who is as one dimensional as Pac-Man. All it needed was someone screaming “we’re all going to die, man!” and we’d have the complete set.

The problem with the story is it goes nowhere. Though this is supposed to bridge the gap between RE4 and 5 you don’t see how it really does that, unless it becomes clear in the game itself. Dead Space: Downfall may have also been a letdown, but you felt that it completes the story, taking place after the comics and before the game. Degeneration could very well not exist and it makes no difference. The story on the whole feels it was explored for a possible game sequel before being left on the cutting room floor after they realised nothing really happens. Between the airport shootout and the final act labours some ridiculously long exposition that does nothing for the characters or the plot and only manages to mess up the pacing in the process. It’s just unnecessary padding to make it reach the hour and a half runtime. Gamestyle would’ve been happy if this was trimmed and replaced with more zombie shooting, which miraculously feels like there’s less of that here than in all three Anderson movies. Even the incredibly tame original film.

For a Japanese production we can say the CG is nice at times. Though it can feel like you’re watching an overly long cut scene, sometimes it does shine. Obviously not of Pixar quality, but it does stand up to other Japanese movies such as Appleseed. What doesn’t stand up are the somewhat robotic animations of the characters despite the use of motion capture with real actors. They all seem very wooden with only a few moments where they actually move realistically.

As for the full package. Degeneration like all new releases is available on DVD and blu-ray and does come with a few special features. The half an hour long “making of” documentary being the highlight, it’s actually a shame the film has turned out this disappointing as the guys behind it showed real passion. However this was inevitable when you hire a special effects guy to be the director. Other than that there’s your usual assortment of trailers and a voice gag reel, something which is about as funny as ramming your face repeatedly into a car door.

Like Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Degeneration is nothing more than style over substance. Maybe if a little more time was spent on the plot and pacing we’d be singing its praises, but alas, this was not to be. Add this one to the ever growing pile of wasted potential.

Words by Adam Gulliver