Sunday, January 11, 2009

CGI

In the past I have not been a fan of CGI stuff. For instance I have an enormous dislike of the movie Beowulf, simply because I couldn't stand the CGI effects that compose the movie. There's something inherently creepy about it. The mistakes or rather tiny unneeded movements that are the nature of the human being, are totally lacking in something computer generated. It makes my hair stand on end. However all is not lost, for the Japanese who make incredible CGI cuts for their games, have begun using this talent for movies based on the same games. Some of the first ones I wasn't all that enthralled with, like the first Final Fantasy movie they made. Could've done without it. The next one I saw was FF Advent Children. While the storyline was thick with plot holes that you probably wouldn't have worried about if you had played all the games (which I haven't, sorry, not an RPG fan for the most part) the CGI had improved markedly, and they'd added things like wind, skin twitches and... well lets just say my hair got to relax. 

So, of course when I saw that they'd done another movie, I snapped it up to see if they'd managed to improve or take a nose dive into computer-perfect-hell. The movie in question? Resident Evil: Degeneration. Now I've played some of the games and enjoyed them immensely, mainly because I get to shoot things indiscriminately in the head. Lowers stress levels for me.. and I like the dark. Heh. Sorry, digressing. This thing was rated R for bloody violence, so I was expecting a blood fest. Um, no. The games are much more caked in crimson. What really surprised me was that not only was the CGI good, but the storyline was tight, with few plot holes and very little side tracking of the sub-plots. The action was fantastic, and quite frankly I would suggest this movie over the live action Resident Evil movies that came out over the last couple of years. Even with voice acting that in some cases could've been a bit improved upon, this was way better. It had characters you recognized from the game and end up liking all the more. New characters were well introduced. And even if you haven't played any of the games, this movie makes it so its enjoyable. Excellent movie, and one I would recommend. 

Five Thumbs Up! (I borrowed some, and yes I gave them back)