The famous Japanese horror saga Resident Evil is celebrating 25 years this year, but the new Infinite Darkness miniseries does not commemorate this anniversary in a spectacular way. This is one of three current television and film projects, and I sincerely hope that the feature series and the Hollywood adaptation will turn out to be better than four episodes in less than half an hour. Not only do they correspond in style to the CGI films Degeneration, Damnation and Vendetta, but I can’t help but avoid the suspicion that someone originally intended them as a feature film, only with the magic of editing and wallets turned into a series whose quartering doesn’t make much sense.
As you probably already know, the main characters are the protagonists of the second part, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, although in this case the lady clearly plays the second violin and looks as if she is perhaps a complete rookie in this world again. Both characters look like in a recent remake, and the voices in the English version were lent to them by the same dubbers. Infinite Darkness is not only very authentic and faithful to the original. It is a canonical story that develops events from the games and complements the mentioned animators. This in itself deserves recognition, because this brand is not a matter of course. The story takes us back to 2006 and follows the events of Resident Evil 4, which the characters in the film mention. Otherwise, the seemingly shocking premise of the zombie attack on the White House would like to appeal to everyone, regardless of whether they are fans, holiday players or casual spectators. But it is in this task that Infinite Darkness fails first and foremost.
The story of Infinite Darkness is reminiscent of what zombie people seem to be. Just another bite that may satisfy you, but you won’t enjoy it.
The weakest part of the novelty is clearly its story, which is completely banal and deliberately complicated and sometimes confusing or unclear just because we do not follow the story chronologically and memories that have different sounds enter the narrative. If, in the case of television, we are primarily interested in what it is about, and not just what it looks like, Infinite Darkness fails at this point, as do other video game adaptations. As if its authors inadvertently tried to fulfill the stereotype and cliché that according to the game, nothing cool could be filmed. Or maybe it’s just another proof of the fact that video game plots are often not enough even on television, let alone on silver screen. This is regardless of the fact that the series tells its own story, which you do not know from video games.
The result is another project that can only flatter fans in the end, despite the obvious effort to open up to everyone. Fans of the series will get their fan service, but nothing more. The story of Infinite Darkness is reminiscent of what zombie people seem to be. Just another bite that may satisfy you, but you won’t enjoy it. It’s nice to know more about some of the favorite characters. Some action scenes are not handled badly. The technical side does not inspire, but does not offend either. But you don’t expect anything less when you run the first episode. Infinite Darkness is not scary, the characters behave very illogically to confused in places. And the raised eyebrow also deserves a clumsy effort to involve some high-level international policy in the scenario, which is not twice ingeniously mixed with a fictitious country referring primarily to Afghanistan, but also to Iraq.
I’m really trying to find positives, I’m looking for mitigating circumstances and anything that Infinite Darkness would really excel at. But I do not find such moments. Even what is not explicitly wrong with this project is average at best.
Netflix certainly deserves praise for localization, even if only in the form of Czech subtitles. It’s nice that the authors tried to mimic the atmosphere and pace of video games. In fact, I can vividly imagine that Infinite Darkness would be an interactive title, because basically nothing would stop it. And there is also an effort to culminate, including the final boss fight, although it was more reminiscent of some inadvertently comic situations from the world of video games. It may seem to you that I am too harsh in the evaluation that I am not trying to find positives in the news. But that’s what it’s all about. I’m really trying to find them, I’m looking for mitigating circumstances and anything that Infinite Darkness would really excel at. But I do not find such moments. Even what is not explicitly wrong with this project is average at best. And praising the filmmakers just for adapting Resident Evil without betraying the original comes to me a little.
If you are looking for games that can be compared to this novelty in this saga, Resident Evil 6 and sometimes Resident Evil 5 are the best. It’s no secret that these are not my favorite titles and quite possibly they came to me more digestible, including the story , on which the series should stand. Infinite Darkness is weaker than the previous three animated films, or at least at the time of its debut. And they really didn’t set the bar too high. I’m not saying you can’t watch the news, but it won’t leave anything in you. It’s just another Netflix show you pay for anyway. Although I love the original canon myself, if nothing else, the four-part series demonstrates how well it is that the game series has moved away from the Raccoon City incident and is not constantly squeezing the same stuff around. For a long time now, Resident Evil shouldn’t just be about how a villain who wraps his mustaches makes an army of bioweapons in the cellar, which – what a surprise – gets out of his hands. We can only keep our fingers crossed that a feature series with a much bolder premise, moving away from the game template, will turn out better. Even as I look at the cast of Albert Wesker, the filmmakers may have invested that courage in the wrong direction.
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