Spoilers for Resident Evil Infinite Darkness below.
Resident Evil is undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the gaming world, with Capcom nailing a perfect combination of action and horror while simultaneously paying homage to the locations and characters we’ve grown to love over the past few decades. Resident Evil 2, 3, 7, and Village have all been absolute bangers, with only a few missteps across the lot of them. That’s a solid track record, and one that is poised to continue.
The films, whether they be the awful live-action nightmares directed by Paul W.S. Anderson or the CG movies from Japan, have never reached the critical acclaim of their video game counterparts. It’s quite the opposite, actually – most of them are despised, hated for butchering the source material and depicting characters in ways that simply aren’t true to their personalities.
Resident Evil Infinite Darkness is yet another stain on this legacy, an animated series that debuted on Netflix this past week with about as much impact as a zombie slumping lazily onto the pavement. Consisting of four episodes, it follows Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield as they seek to uncover a conspiracy at the heart of the United States Government. Adopting a separate timeline from the games (I think), this series takes place in 2006 after the events of Resident Evil 4. Leon still works under the President, acting as both a bodyguard and a covert agent tasked with seeking out foreign threats, human or otherwise.
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When tensions begin boiling between home soil and the fictional country of Penamstan, Leon and company are sent to calm things down and investigate whether or not a greater threat might be lurking in the shadows. Penamstan is clearly a fictional replacement for Afghanistan, with its scenery, military presence, and tumultuous relationship with America echoing the War on Terror in more than a few ways. It feels woefully outdated in 2021, and I’m not entirely sure why Capcom decided a prequel set in 2006 that explored this conflict was warranted. Goofy dialogue and a hamfisted narrative make most of it come off as laughable, with plot holes only furthering my frustration towards it all.
It soon becomes clear that one of Leon’s fellow agents, Jason, was once a marine, having experienced an outbreak in Penamstan that was covered up by the US government and used as a springboard for human experimentation. He plans to take revenge on his superiors and expose the military’s unethical research to the world by infecting himself and morphing into an evil creature that will show the general public what horrors have been hidden away. Leon and Claire don’t want this to happen for some reason, so instead have him killed and slip back into the status quo where Leon works for a corrupt leader and evil corporations like Umbrella and Tricell are free to rise to power in the background. It’s a nonsensical conclusion compounded by a quartet of dull episodes lacking in meaning and character development.
It’s not even classic cheesy Resident Evil, either, since it’s clear that the narrative wants to be taken seriously. Tragic backstories are unearthed and explored with awkward screen transitions and cumbersome moments of exposition that we’re forced to wade through until something interesting happens. Shen May, yet another agent, is one of the few new characters introduced with a real sense of agency. She wishes to take revenge against the government for infecting her brother and tearing her family apart, but wants to do so by leaking details to the press instead of resorting to violence like Jason. Both of these approaches are valid, yet aren’t explored in enough detail for the viewer to agree with either of them. As Shen May’s arc reaches its crescendo, she’s killed off and never mentioned again, making her presence in the wider scheme of things meaningless. I’m left asking myself why they even bothered.
Infinite Darkness is filled with plot holes like this. One episode sees Leon and Shen May go to Shanghai, where the sprawling estate they’re in is suddenly attacked and burned to the ground. It’s never explained who attacked them or why, and they somehow return to the United States with absolutely no resources or connections. I know I should probably overlook contrivances like this in Resident Evil of all things, but even the silliest of stories require some sort of coherence to keep you from switching off. This series has none of that, and doesn’t provide nearly enough explosive set-pieces to distract from its mediocre narrative. In fact, aside from the final episode, there’s only a handful of encounters with actual infected.
Zombies invade The White House at one point, but exactly how they got in is never explored and brushed over like a random pest problem, while a scene on a submarine revolving around infected rats that eat humans from the inside out has the potential for horror, but is cast aside as Leon deals with them in a matter of seconds. For a property that has expertly melded horror and action together countless times over the years, it’s staggering to see Infinite Darkness come along and fail miserably at executing either of them, let alone both. It’s a tiresome watch, with any morsel of intrigue amidst its convoluted plot being crushed by awful dialogue and character motivations that make no sense. It sets itself up for a continuation, so perhaps something more interesting awaits on the horizon, but everything here is much too middling to care about.
This is a shame, because the animation and character designs are mostly stellar. It’s a mixture of classic and modern inspirations combined with an aesthetic that falls victim to inconsistency at times, but remains gorgeous and convincingly establishes a tone and atmosphere that sticks with you throughout. Unfortunately, such accomplishments are in service of nothing. It occupies ‘so bad it’s good’ territory, so you can at least jump into Infinite Darkness and have a laugh at Resident Evil’s expense. Beyond that, I’d give this a miss.
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