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Parents' Guide to

Resident Evil: Degeneration

By Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Violent video game becomes CGI zombiefest.

Movie R 2008 96 minutes
Resident Evil: Degeneration Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Randomnessisrandom R.
Randomnessisrandom R. Adult
August 24, 2021
age 18+

Great movie, loved the relationship between Leon and Claire.

This movie is filled with action, gore and blood. The scene when Claire is in the medical hospital, she gets hurt and Leon worries for her safety. The movie is 18+ due to violence, smoking, nudity and language
tonyc21
tonyc21 Adult
January 31, 2010
age 10+

play RE4 instead

I really hope this isnt canon, cause it was so stupid! Leons only 2 facial expressions were angry and constipated. It makes no reference to the events of the last game. Resident evil 4 is my favorite game, and I really hope this isnt an official sequel to the game.
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION, like the other graphically violent Resident Evil movies, are based on a popular series of Capcom video games in which players must use weaponry against contagious flesh-eating ghouls and monstrous mutations, the results of an amoral, high-tech corporation that unleashed a genetically-modified "T-virus" strain. Seeing the original Resident Evil and its first sequel are key to comprehending (maybe) this digital-animated spinoff, with a new cast of characters. A giant pharmaceutical corporation has a cure for the dreaded T-virus, but outbreaks of zombies around the world suggest that either terrorists wield the virus or the drug industry is deliberately spreading the plague for their own gain. A T-virus outbreak at the international airport in mythical "Harvardville" traps a number of people, including a disagreeable US senator and battle-hardened activists who escaped a previous zombie holocaust at Raccoon City. Their plight leads eventually to the health company's enormous subterranean lab/complex (never a safe place in these movies!), where an even deadlier mutation, the "G-virus," is housed.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (6 ):

The decision -- probably very cost-effective -- to render it in CGI makes this violent movie look very much like the video games on which it's based. (Imagine a console playing in "demo" mode for an hour and half.) Maybe there's a bit more plot to Resident Evil: Degeneration than that, but even with occasional emotion and intrigue, you're rarely engaged with the story in the rudimentary degree you might were these flesh-and-blood actors. Though backdrops are photo-realistic (and the crash of a zombie-ridden airliner a spectacular effect), the mostly unmemorable characters/icons have unresponsive, doll-like faces whose blank expressions can either signify "I love you" or "Oh, all my teammates have been killed and my brother's turned into a ravening hell-beast determined to mate with me." On the plus side, graphic violence is a little less sickening in an all-digital milieu, and swearing, sex, and bad taste have been toned down from the live-action installments. Those are very faint "virtues," mind you.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the appeal of zombie-gore movies like Resident Evil: Degeneration and compare the slam-bang action of Resident Evil and its sequels to the more up-gross-and-personal realism of Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later. Which is spookier?

  • This Resident Evil movie looks just like the Capcom video game come to life, rather than the live-action features. Is it more effective? What's more relatable: "real" people or computer-generated ones?

  • Which is more entertaining: the interactive zombie-killing game experience, or the passive one, watching other characters carry out the perilous work? What effect does this format have on the influence of the violence?

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