Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness
Capcom/Netflix
Directed by Eiichiro Hasumi
Written by Shogo Muto and Eiichiro Hasumi
Starting: Nick Apostolides, Stephanie Panisello, Ray Chase, and Jona Xiao
Capcom and Netflix bring you a new chapter in the Resident Evil series. Taking place between Resident Evil 4 and 5, Infinite Darkness tells the story of one of many events that happened between those games.
Infinite Darkness is a four-part series, with each being roughly 30 minutes long. The story centers on American involvement with the fictional country Penamstan with a failed mission and the origin of their civil war, and how it connects to the recent hacking of Government computers. It includes series favorites Leon Kennedy and Clair Redfield. With both voice actors from the Resident Evil 2 Remake returning to reprise their roles.
It is hard to review Infinite Darkness as it is unsure what the story is supposed to be. It feels like it took ideas and concepts from Black Hawk Down and included themes from the Resident Evil franchise like zombies, government cover-ups, and side stories and quests. All of this is adding up to a jumbled mess asking viewers to go with.
The biggest issue Infinite Darkness has is how bad everything fits. Without spoiling any critical parts, the story doesn’t have enough to keep you interested in staying. The big focus is who hacked the US computers and how the tiniest and thinnest threads connect the events of Penamstan to it. They don’t challenge viewers to figure out the twist as they usually do. Instead, it is predictable with no effort to reveal.
This causal close enough of a connection is highlighted in the White House zombie outbreak and aftermath. Somehow the White House is attacked, and the power goes off with all hell breaking loose. Everything gets cleaned up by the next day, and the person that Clair was supposed to meet regarding Penamstan ends up being one of the few that got infected and killed. While trying to figure out what happened to the missing person, she bumps into Leon and is now part of the main storyline. We see no national news coverage of the incident or lockdown procedures being initiated, but we are now in a state-of-the-art submarine headed for China. Before you ask, yes, zombies get inside the sub.
The voice acting is decent and felt more like it belonged in a videogame instead of a series. Some of the acting from the supporting characters felt off as if they had only one or two takes before moving on. It felt choppy, with the voices falling flat and some dialogue not connecting to what’s happening.
The animation also falls victim, similar to the voice acting. Some parts are very well executed, while others are so bland that anyone who isn’t Clair and Leon is a challenge to tell apart. The animation, at times, feels more like cut scenes from the games patched to fill or make up missing parts of the story.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is not good. The story is so horribly constructed and developed that I was expecting Uwe Boll to have been involved. The choices made to use this period is baffling, as there are no current plans for a remake of 4 or 5. The recent release and popularity of Resident Evil Village and the extremely popular Lady Dimitrescu was a perplexing choice not to focus on that story and her character.