Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

After sitting through three movies based on the Resident Evil games—most of which were mediocre at best and total disasters at worst—we finally get a different take. It’s an animated adaptation produced by Japanese creators. Based on the trailers and stills, the Japanese team actually managed to nail the game's visual vibe... though I guess that makes sense since they're the ones who actually created the Resident Evil series in the first place.



IMDB

Official site US

Official site JP

TRAILER 1

TRAILER 2

PLOT

The "Umbrella Incident" that took place in Raccoon City was ended with the eradication of the deadly virus by a missile attack ordered by the government. As its operations were suspended on a global scale, Umbrella Corporation stock plummeted. This serious blow to the business giant resulted in its complete dissolution.
Seven years later, at an airport somewhere in the United States. Just a normal autumn afternoon. Then one zombie breaks loose into the crowd. With the airport quickly filling up with the undead, the nightmare is about to start all over again...

IMAGES

It looks promising, but there is one glaring issue—the voice acting is... barely tolerable? As soon as I heard they kept the actor who voiced Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, I knew we were in for some trouble.

Looks alright enough.
It wasn't exactly a bad call on their part to try an animated version of Resident Evil.
We'll just have to wait and see how it actually turns out.
Personally, I've never been much of an animation guy, but this might actually work.

Alright, let's see how all of this actually plays out. I've always been a huge fan of the games, though if I'm being honest, the movies were just okay...

Regarding the movies, I thought the second and third installments were actually pretty decent.
If I recall correctly, they're already working on the fourth one.

Has anyone else checked this out yet? What’s the verdict? I finally sat down and watched it last night, and man... it was incredible. Honestly, it blows those three live-action movies out of the water combined—those were such a massive letdown, especially since they barely felt like they had anything to do with the actual games. This animated feature is on a whole different level. It isn't just about how much they nailed the atmosphere, the plot, and the animation style... you can really feel the effort put into it. It’s a shame we don't see more projects made with this kind of dedication...

Jeremy Reed I can't even begin to explain how much this makes my blood boil... I've been sitting here staring at this for twenty minutes trying to make sense of it, but honestly? It’s just ridiculous. Pure nonsense. Every time I think we've seen the peak of stupidity, someone comes along and raises the bar even higher. It’s like people don't even try anymore... they just throw things together and hope nobody notices the glaring holes in the logic. It's exhausting, really. Just completely exhausting...
So, I was randomly scrolling through Bitsoup today when I stumbled upon something that actually caught my eye... I saw there’s a new movie out, but get this—it’s apparently some kind of animated adaptation based on the original story. Honestly? That's actually kind of interesting. I'm downloading it right now to see if it actually holds up...

So, here’s how it all shakes out... the whole thing kicks off about seven years after the events of the second game. You've got the main heavy hitters leading the charge—Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. 😁

I could only find English subtitles for the movie, do you know where I might be able to find some American ones?

Jeremy Reed said:I could only find English subtitles for the movie. Does anyone know where I can find an American version?

Nah. It hasn't dropped yet. I watched it with the English subs, but honestly, someone will probably knock out an American translation pretty soon...

Solid movie, I guess.

I was wondering if there’s any way at all to get a version that features the original Japanese audio...

Good movie. They hit the nail on the head by sticking to the game's actual storyline instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I honestly can't wrap my head around why most filmmakers feel the need to go with that second option.

Fans might enjoy it (to an extent), but I wouldn't recommend it to the general public. The English dubbing is truly terrible and sounds incredibly jarring...

It’s fantastic, a solid five-star rating from me. 👍

David Price5 said:Die-hard fans might enjoy it to some extent, but I wouldn't recommend it to the general audience. The English dubbing is genuinely terrible; it’s incredibly jarring to listen to...

That's the only dub they've released.😁 Look, this is what happens when you hire actors from the "Resident Evil" games just because the fanbase requested it. Paul Mercier was awful as Leon S. Kennedy in RE4, so I honestly don't expect anything better here.🙂

cosmicraven2 said:It's just bad synchronization. 😁 Honestly, whenever studios try to please fans by hiring actors from the "Resident Evil" series, things go south. I remember how Paul Mercier was a terrible fit as Leon S. Kennedy in RE4, so I am not expecting much better this time around. 🙂

Plus, there is way too much melodrama and some really questionable character decisions. On the bright side, I have to admit it captures that classic RE 2 and RE 3 vibe quite well—especially the locations and the camera angles...

The lip-syncing is just straight-up atrocious, and don't even get me started on the English dialogue—it’s honestly pretty brainless. I’m really not feeling this animation style either; the characters have this weirdly plastic look to them, though I guess they were probably aiming for something that mimics the game or whatever. 6/10

I don't even know where to start with this... just looking at the state of things right now makes my blood boil. It’s all just one massive, disorganized mess, isn't it? You see people acting like everything is fine, like there isn't a giant, gaping hole in the logic of how we handle these scenarios... but I'm sitting here watching the madness unfold and I can't stay quiet. It feels like nobody is actually paying attention to the details. They just want the quick fix, the easy answer, without actually digging into the grit of the situation. And then you get people—and I won't name names, but we all know who they are—trying to push an agenda that just doesn't hold water. It's frustrating. It's beyond frustrating. Every time I think we've reached a level of understanding, someone comes along and drags us right back to square one with some half-baked theory or a blatant disregard for the facts. We need more than just surface-level noise. We need actual substance... if anyone even remembers what that looks like anymore... kaže:
It’s a solid movie. Honestly, they hit the nail on the head by actually sticking to the game's storyline instead of trying to reinvent the wheel... I just can't wrap my head around why most filmmakers feel the need to go that second route every single time. It's like they don't trust the source material at all...

I'm with you on that. Especially once they start messing with the characters too...

David Price5 said:The hardcore fans might enjoy it—to an extent—but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else. Honestly? The English dubbing is just terrible. It’s so poorly synced that it practically hurts to listen to...

If you’re honestly telling me that bad voice acting is the only reason to gatekeep a movie—especially when the plot and animation are actually solid—then you really are something else... seriously. Just wow. And I have to ask, in your brilliant opinion, who on earth was supposed to be voicing Leon anyway?

gentlebadger88 said:If you're using poor voice acting as the sole metric to decide if a movie is only worth watching for its solid plot and animation instead of recommending it to everyone, then hats off to you. I am curious, though—who exactly did you think should have voiced Leon?

I'm not so sure about those two... and the issue isn't just Leon, it's almost the entire cast. The timing is just way too off...

This movie basically isn't for anyone.
The people who were obsessing over Resident Evil back in the day have grown up, and they aren't interested in this stuff anymore.
To kids, it’s just some prehistoric relic of a game.
As for everyone else, nobody wants to sit through this kind of childish nonsense.
A total waste of time—it's just a movie for immature college students, much like that Final Fantasy flick from last year.