Here’s my Resident Evil Infinite Darkness review which is now streaming on Netflix directed by Eiichirō Hasumi with music done by Yugo Kanno of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fame.

Check out the trailer for “Infinite Darkness” below:

Before we proceed, there are spoilers here so SPOILER ALERT

I’m really not sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the series followed the traditional formula that Capcom had perfected for their Resident Evil games. The whole good guys getting betrayed by their own teammates for a morally questionable agenda which involves bioweapons and zombies is nothing new and should be a safe bet.

That being said, I’m disappointed with how Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness went out. It was subpar and very predictable and there were a lot of plotholes in this one that neither made sense nor improve the whole narrative.

In a nutshell the story is that Leon and a bunch of presidential security agents go on an investigation in China after a failed zombie outbreak in the White House. It’s there that Leon S. Kennedy, hero of Raccoon City and Resident Evil 4 gets dragged into a conspiracy involving the concept of fear, mutated zombie mice, a weird visit to China for an exposition dump and a rather useless and nonsensical fight.

Netflix

Characters

While the series is a 3D CGI suspense-horror adventure series, the characters are 2D. Honestly, the only one who really really made a dent as far as story and character is had to be Jason and he’s the bad guy. I guess that could be the series’ strength.

And while I understand where the villain comes from, I was really hoping that they would be giving a deeper, meatier story beat not a cold bowl of cynicism. And while that was going on, we were hoping that either Leon or Claire could be the counterpoint but they were as useful as a box of sticks.

I wanted to say that there are a lot of good visuals here but then I also realized this was a CG series, things were supposed to look good. A big thumbs up to the gore here too.

One of the biggest weakness in this chopped up movie that got marketed and released as a series content is the sore lack of zombies. Like they purposefully took the fun stuff which is the thrill of getting chased and evading zombie hordes and replaced it with mutated rats inside a submarine. And that would have been fun had they not shorten it so much to give way to more drama and twists.

Oh and I also want to point out how utterly useless Claire Redfield here is. Such a disservice to the tough-as-nails protagonist for Resident Evil 2 and the remake. She took down hordes of zombies and yet here she is getting sucker punched by secret service and gets turned into an exposition dump at season finale. And when it was time to face the “big bad”, she’s injured leaving Leon to fend for himself. Nice.

Music

I did like the music that they brought in and hat tip to the legendary Yugo Kanno and there were still good musical scoring here per episode.

Like there’s this subtle yet haunting moment inside the submarine as Leon escapes a room full of mutant vermin set to kill him and the intensity of the music makes you want to run with Leon.

Resident Evil Infinite Darkness Review – Verdict

5/10

I am thoroughly disappointed with Resident Evil Infinite Darkness. I wanted more of the good stuff from the Resident Evil games converted into action sequences minus the use of controllers but I end up getting a preachy and cynical story with Resident Evil’s most respected characters. Lack of respect and use of Claire, underdeveloped Leon and a story that’s just so-so. In essence this was a political thriller with some zombies sprinkled here and there and then branded as a survival horror series. Try your luck elsewhere or just pop in the games on your favorite consoles. You’d definitely be happier.

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