The plot is pretty much “Night of the Living Dead on a space ship,” with some of the cornball mystical mumbo jumbo the Japanese love to cram into their video games mixed in with the Aliens aesthetic that has dominated science fiction, animated and live action, since that film was released. Please, science fiction, no more “stalking down dimly lit metal grating corridors.” Have you seen the space stuff we currently have? It’s cluttered, but it’s still well-lit. Wouldn’t your space zombies movie be a lot cooler if it was set in one of those 60s style all-white, sleekly designed spaceships? Imagine all the surfaces onto which you could dramatically splash blood. There’s a reason John Woo set the finale of Hard Boiled in a hospital, you know.

I am a Resident Evil fan. As increasingly dumb as they are, and as increasingly dumb as I am for feeling this way, I’ve liked all three of the live-action movies. The Resident Evil video games are the only ones I’ve ever played consistently. So for once, I’m the target market for a movie based on a video game. That said, you know the “cut scenes” in the video games — those sequences where you can’t play the game and instead have to watch as the plot is advanced through a combination of middling CGI, bad writing, and unspeakable acting? If you’ve ever watched one of those and thought, “this would be awesome if it went on for 90 minutes,” then Resident Evil: Degeneration is the movie for you. For me, it was an exercise is tedium, albeit tolerable tedium.

At this point, I think the phrase “social commentary” should be struck from any and all future discussions of George Romero zombie films. We all get it by now, and pointing out that George “has something to say” is as tired as a movie that points out that heroin addiction is unpleasant. There was a time when Romero’s messages grew organically from the material, but with Land of the Dead and continuing with this film, his social commentary feels shoehorned in and fake, like he knows he has to have it in if he wants to fulfill the basic checklist for “a George Romero zombie movie.” And his message here is delivered both bluntly and poorly, as if this movie is a stoner trying to articulate something it thinks is deep.