Fans of the “Resident Evil” games often complained that the live-action films starring Milla Jovovich (“The Fifth Element”) did not follow the source material very well. “Resident Evil: Degeneration” is the first in a series of 3D animated movies based on the games and fans seem to prefer them to their live-action counterparts. However, I have little to no experience with the games so I found this film to be worse than most of the live-action movies.

Years have passed since Raccoon City was destroyed. Now, a bio-terrorist incident at an airport sees a zombie outbreak. Special agent Leon S. Kennedy is sent to help rescue a sleazy politician that has been caught up in the incident. After escaping the airport, it turns out that another deadly virus could be used by terrorists.

The characters in this movie are pretty moronic. Some of them waste ammo by not bothering to shoot the zombies in the head despite being specifically instructed to only go for headshots and to conserve their munitions. One of the characters mutates into a monster but it’s not very exciting. The impressive animation style has the characters look almost identical to the ones in the “Final Fantasy” films so they look pretty darn good even if their personalities are weak.

The whole movie looks just like a cutscene from a videogame so I’m not surprised that fans of the games seem to like the animated films better than the live-action ones. However, I was pretty bored by most of this movie and struggled to understand all the plot elements because my knowledge of the videogames is very limited. The animation style is impressive but unlike the “Final Fantasy” movies, the environments are often dull so it feels like a real waste. Stay away from “Resident Evil: Degeneration” if you have never played the games.