Finally!
RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION
While I was not chomping at the bit to see this original CGI-animated movie first for Capcom, the more I heard good praise for it, the more I looked forward to watching it. I had read countless opinions prior to watching it, including the ones that scolded the film for being horrendous... and they really did not sway my desire to view it as a casual fan.
Given I feel a little lazy, I will make a list of what I found to be pros and cons and then an overall judgement.
Pros
* Return of two well-loved original characters, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. Granted, there were a few obvious nods to when they first met in RE2, but their characters had evolved, Claire in particular.
* Staying true to the games rather than the heavily-stylized films. Things worked a lot better this way.
* The airport scenario I found in particular was quite well-executed.
* Logical tie-ins with the past installments as well as the upcoming RE5, which I feel we may need when the game is released and folks start to play it.
*Evidently, the gorgeous CGI animation. I absolutely love the detail of the characters, especially their hair. Every strand had it's own personality if you want to call it that.
Hell, you could even see PORES on their skin!
*Ample bloodshed. As much as RE is a survival horror, there was always a degree of gore 'n' guts involved. Much appreciated.
*A COHERENT PLOT!
Cons
*The personality of Leon. What happened to it? Was it sacrificed for the sake of making the movie a visual feast, or did he just forget to bring it with him on his special rescue mission? He certainly acknowledged Claire, but other than that, he was like this Mr. Personality regular who comes to my workplace.
*Angela. It's nothing personal, but I feel the movie did not need her inclusion in particular. Her brother (Curtis) was an integral figure, certainly, but Angela I feel wasn't required in the long run. All she was, in my opinion, was simply a filler character with no true function other than have a boo-hoo backstory and an ineffectual bargaining device to Curtis (which didn't really work anyway)
(While we are on the subject of characters, first was her partner in the unit, Greg or whatever his name was, he was a poor rip-off of Hudson from 'Aliens' without the psychological development. I wonder how he passed his psych test... the second is Fredric Downing who, despite the fact Cripsin Freeman aka Alucard voiced him, simply struck me as a well-dressed mustache twirler. Pity.)
*Stylization. I realise that it was unavoidable: there would have to be some slo-mo stuff, and while it wasn't in every single scene, and was used sparingly, it took me out of the movie for a few moments rather than drew me in. It's fine to see a slo-mo gun catch once, but any more than that, it becomes MTV hodge-podge.
*Mouth-flapping. Once again, this was something that couldn't be helped, I suppose. In this case, the movements of the character's mouths were done first and later on, the actors had to try and say their lines in synch with the animation. This is very difficult and really, it's of no fault of the actors. Once again, I think that aesthetics were so important to the production that they forgot that human beings would be providing the voices to the characters. Perhaps the next movie will improve, but only time and money will tell.
And a few other inconsistencies: one of them being how QUICKLY Curtis transformed into a G-Type creature. Mayhap I am way off, but Birkin took a little longer to mutate in RE2, and from what I remember, Curtis did inject the G, so one would think he too would have taken longer. Huh. I also thought the entire airport scenario was cut a little too short and there were still a few too many survivors. Gotta up the stakes, ya know.
Okay, now that I have all of those out in the open, I would like to say that all things considered, this was a worthy addition to the canon established by the games and provided a whole undiscovered mine of brand new opportunities that can be exploited by the games if they are properly protected by Capcom: that is, not to allow Anderson or anybody of his ilk to touch them. What was presented in this experiment should be kept sacred, not sold out. Are you listening to me, Shinji Makami?