I was excited when I saw the trailers for this film. Finally a truly canon Resident Evil film. The impression it gave, however, and the movie itself were two different things. My view, as someone who likes Resident Evil but isn't a rabid fan, is that it does things inconsistently: Some areas shine, while other areas are quite bad.
The plot is divided into two main parts: a fiasco in an airport, a short interlude explaining the background behind some new characters, and then the final "boss battle" with a mutating baddie. Nobody really looks for an Oscar-worthy plot in a zombie movie, so the pacing is everything, and it is in this respect that the movie suffers. Action scenes tend to come in little spurts with lengthy lulls in between; from a gaming perspective it heightens from the suspense, but from a film point of view this is quite unacceptable. Nevertheless, the action scenes are quite good, and zombie blood and brains will spill, although hardcore fans/zombie movie aficionados may cry foul over the relatively small body count.
The CGI is quite good, in my opinion. The landscapes are especially pretty, whether it is the WilPharma facility or the airport. It especially shines in the few "bright" scenes the movie has to offer, but it also does a pretty good job conveying the darkness and dread that marks the Resident Evil series. People in the movie, zombies and humans alike, move quite naturally, but I felt that human faces could have shown more emotion, especially that of new character Angela Miller. The music is standard survival horror fare, but it does the trick well.
The voice acting, dub, and dialogue are another story though. Dialogue is plodding and sometimes downright cheesy, nevertheless it sometimes comes with a few quotable gems. The voice acting seems over-exaggerated, making the new characters seem really whiny when they could have been much further developed. Even old characters could have had some development; they have remained fundamentally unchanged, shoved aside to get the new characters in. Dubbing seems quite forced, line for line, making the voice acting seem even more annoying.
I have refrained from drawing comparisons with the rest of the series or with other similar films like Advent Children, but if you enjoyed either, you should be fine with Degeneration. To be perfectly honest, I believe the whole movie tried to implement itself like a video game to attract fans, but it backfired: You end up wishing that the whole thing was a video game. Degeneration is not groundbreaking by any means, and is most probably not going to be enjoyed by anybody unfamiliar with the Resident Evil universe. On the other hand, if you're even a casual fan, I recommend you give it a look. Key word: Look. Only buy if you're a hardcore Resident Evil fan.
Unrounded rating: 6.7/10
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