Zombie Alert!

What is this? It’s dead, but still moving, it’s craving living flesh and it’s got less brain than Paris Hilton. Yep, it’s a zombie.

To those of you who like games (console or computer, I’m not choosy here) the name “Resident Evil” will be familiar. It’s a long-running series of survival horror games (No. 5 is due this year) which all center around the Umbrella Corporation and the T-Virus (which has turned most of the population of Raccoon City, a fictional city somewhere in the US, into zombies). There are three real-life movies and now there’s also a CGI-movie: “Resident Evil: Degeneration.”

I’m mostly wary of CGI-movies, especially when it comes to ‘real’ scenarios. But “Degeneration” (just like “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children”) has lived up to my expectations. The animations are getting better and better - though I wouldn’t call them ‘lifelike’ yet - and the story was good, too - at least for an action-horror movie.

In addition, just to say something feminist here, the movie featured two strong women.

What did I like about the movie? Well, the zombies, the action, the enormous monster (created through a variety of the T-virus known as the G-virus) and the whole ‘company conspiracy’ background. (Don’t you just love it when companies risk the end of civilisation just to make money, too?)

The camera movements in “Advent Children” are a bit more inspired, breaking up the traditional movements more clearly (as a rendered movie doesn’t need to take care of walls, the ground and so on, they only exist if the programmers want them to). Still, better a well-photographed traditional action sequence than a modern one that doesn’t caption the audience’s attention. And there’s plenty of action around.

As far as deep philosophy goes, you’d be disappointed by this movie - but who the hell is looking for deep philosophy in a horror movie with zombies? If you like masses of zombies and huge, un-dead monsters, you could spend your time a lot less entertained than with “Resident Evil: Degeneration.”