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TGS 08: Resident Evil: Degeneration Makes World Wide Premier

Capcom and Sony Pictures presented the world premier of their feature-length CG movie Resident Evil: Degeneration at the Tokyo Game Show Friday. Set seven years after the events in Raccoon City that anchored the survival horror franchise, the film stars regulars Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Headed to the showing I wasn't really sure what to expect, but never would I have expected it to provide as many answers that help stitch together the story line and get things in order going into the upcoming Resident Evil 5 as it does (and they even showed a little teaser from the game at the end to underscore the connections).With the games already well known for their cinematic cut scenes, doing the movie in the same CG certainly takes quite a risk. Indeed, Chris Kohler and Jean Snow who also saw the film ticked off nearly every concern that immediately comes to mind in their pretty dismissive review of it over on Wired's Game|Life blog. While we didn't watch different movies, I think how we watched the same show makes a lot of difference. Knowing it was CG I went in expecting to see basically a movie of cut scene, and that's what I got. Sure, it's going to have a very limited run in some theaters, but let's be honest, this thing is intended as a home video release.And as the all-CG production gives away, it's also intended for fans of the games. As at least a casual fan myself, I found that the story filled in a lot of blanks and went a long way to establishing some continuity for the series as it grows out of the Umbrella Corporation days. Not to say that it delivers award-winning fiction, but we're talking about Resident Evil here, you don't really go in thinking that it's suddenly going to be anything other than action and zombies with a campy story. On that count it does what it does and does it well. With almost non-stop action and plenty of crazy moments Degeneration puts on a classic Resident Evil show and adds a welcome bridge to the cannon that helps catch us up on the timeline. While I wouldn't tell any but the most serious fans to go out of their way to see it in a theater, if you've enjoyed Resident Evil you'll probably get a kick out of Degeneration.

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