‘Resident Evil: Degeneration’ is the first move by Japanese videogame Capcom into direct film development of their properties, rather than licensing out the properties to a film studio, pocketing the cash and hoping that the end product does somebody proud. In this move Capcom are sort of following the example of Marvel Comics, who for years saw their superheroes misinterpreted and mishandled by film studios, but whose more active partnership role in adaptations have reaped great dividends, resulting in Marvel Studios becoming a fully fledged movie production company with the recent ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Incredible Hulk’.
Capcom’s first step into film making is a careful, conservative one, taking their most media friendly property and translating it into that perennial genre for geek properties, the straight-to-DVD animated feature. Yet again, comics companies have been here before, and in the games world EA’s quisling survival horror property ‘Dead Space’ also got an animated prequel. ‘Resident Evil’ also has the advantage of spinning out of an already successful live-action film series as well as the games, although fans of the games will be glad to know that there’s no hint of Paul Anderson’s personal continuity on-screen here.
In fact, if nothing else ‘Degeneration’ can’t be accused of pandering to a mainstream audience over fans of the games series – animated in full motion-captured CG, the film resembles a highly polished extended cut-scene, a next-generation console game with all the game-bits taken out (insert ‘Metal Gear Solid’ or ‘Final Fantasy’ joke here, if you like). The focus is squarely on Leon and Claire, stars of the game ‘Resident Evil 2′, rather than some pet character created just for the film, while all the mainstays of the series are here – the T virus, the G virus, the living dead, headshots, a secret lab with an unlikely self-destruct system, and a monster with escalating levels of ridiculous mutation. The one major deviation from the plotting of the game series, and a frankly outrageous sop to Hollywood sensibilities, is that the story makes almost complete sense, with all the threads tying up and cohering by the end. Huh?
With this level of fanservice (although not of the more adult variety, I hasten to add), to a certain extent how much you like the film will be dependent on how much you like the games (although frankly if you buy a DVD based on a property you already dislike then you deserve all the disappointment life can shovel on to your stupid head). As the kind of person who considers the outbreak in Raccoon City to be pretty much The Greatest Narrative Ever Told, for whom ‘Capcom Sound Team’ ranks high on his LastFM Favourite Artists chart, and who has Nemesis’ theme as his ringtone, I enjoyed ‘Degeneration’ and appreciated its reverence to the source material. It’s refreshing to see such an uncompromised adaptation, and fanboy touches like the flashbacks to the events of ‘Resident Evil 2′ are a guilty thrill.
Your Mileage May Vary, as they say, but leaving my own bias as a fan aside it’s hard to see anyone not preferring this to the live action incarnations of the property. Whereas Paul Anderson’s scripts for the live action series managed to dilute ‘Resident Evil’ into a tepid mix of mild zombie horror and generic action movie, ‘Degeneration’ is a pure hit from the ‘Resident Evil’ pipe, with a character and mood all of its own that stands out from all the other zombie movies on the shelves.
Sure, it’s largely humourless, but is that not preferable to crudely inserted comedy sidekick characters? Yes, the CG characters have stepped straight out of the uncanny valley, but are they really less convincing than Ali Larter? It’s a ‘Resident Evil’ movie, and slaps all the main qualities of ‘Resident Evil’ right on to the screen – the high seriousness, the melodrama, the tense battles for survival and the grandstanding boss battles, all executed with a great deal of flair.
If we must have dramatic adaptations of videogames properties, then they should be more like this – honest attempts to capture the strengths, and indeed weaknesses, of those properties and put them on screen, rather than slapping a brand name on to a movie that could be about any damn thing if you took the label off.
Cheers, Capcom. Now do ‘Phoenix Wright’ as an anime.
