This is a spoiler-free review for Netflix's Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, which is now available to stream.
Although Resident Evil’s previous endeavors on the big and small screens left a lot to be desired, Netflix’s anime series Infinite Darkness is a step in the right direction. While this show is based on the popular zombie games that have been around for more than two decades, Infinite Darkness does what most games adapted into TV shows or movies fail to do: tell a story that feels both organic and more than just another retelling of the games in a different medium. Even with an imbalance of screentime with the main protagonists, a few poor performances, and weak animation from a couple of minor characters, Infinite Darkness does enough right to work as more than a zombie-kill montage and adds substantially to Resident Evil’s overall story.
Each of Infinite Darkness’ four roughly 30-minute episodes have a clearly focused, self-contained story, but they’re all interconnected in an interesting way. That said, while you do not necessarily have to play the games to understand what’s going on in this zombie and conspiracy-filled universe, the show is also not the best starting point because of where it takes place within the existing lore: it’s set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 and stars Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield (the protagonists from Resident Evil 2). There are definitely times when I got more out of the story because I’d played those games, and the blanks that it fills in Resident Evil’s lore are enriching.
Infinite Darkness’ plot focuses on Leon investigating a mysterious hacking attempt at the White House which led to zombies infiltrating the Executive Mansion. Meanwhile, Claire, a staffer at a human rights organization on the other side of the world, encounters a child’s drawing depicting a zombie attack. The connection between those two events is the thread that ties Infinite Darkness’ episodes together and brings Leon and Claire together multiple times as they independently investigate.Do not expect Infinite Darkness to be a nonstop action-fest with a ton of zombie killing.
While the show is set between two of the Resident Evil series’ more action-focused games, do not expect Infinite Darkness to be a nonstop action-fest with a ton of zombie killing. In fact, relatively few zombies and bioweapons are killed throughout the four episodes, but it makes the most of those opportunities for some pretty spectacular gore. There’s one scene in particular where Leon dispatches a bioweapon by smashing it with a fire extinguisher that made me lose my appetite – not to brag, but that’s a rare occurrence for me, and I watch a fair amount of horror shows and movies.
Instead of action scenes and zombie massacres, the plot moves forward through dialogue, which I found to be a major upgrade compared to the cheesy writing and lines delivered by past Resident Evil films, both animated and live-action. It helps to unravel the secrets and conspiracies that lead us up to the climax of the series overall, and again, it does so without requiring in-depth knowledge of the games. There are times when we’re launched into flashbacks that help provide context; early on I was very confused by certain side characters and how they were connected, and even the opening sequence had me perplexed. However, the dialogue exchanges between characters and the information they conveyed with these interactions soon helped provide a complete picture without the exposition feeling forced or rushed.
As the episodes go on Leon ends up getting more screen time than Claire, which is arguably required by the circ*mstances of the story, but it gets to the point where it becomes lopsided: by the final episode, I felt that Claire was just kind of in the way of Leon’s adventure. Yes, she has her own investigation to pursue, but she becomes somewhat of a background character who happens to intersect with Leon.
Instead of action scenes and zombie massacres, the plot moves forward through dialogue.
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Despite this, I felt interested in the story it had to tell. The show has its own identity, and it’s quite clear where the series fits in the games’ canon, mostly because even though it’s clearly connected it also functions as a complete and self-contained story and not necessarily something that felt forced for the sake of having a Resident Evil TV series. While the show itself does not do much to explain the history of the viruses that produce the bioweapons fans of the games are familiar with, it does not have to.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness shines bright because it shows the emotional weight and consequences these bioweapons have on the everyday person, there was even a moment early on where Leon explains how angry and scared he was after enduring and surviving the Raccoon City outbreak. Thinking back on it now, the lack of this kind of introspection was something I found to be an issue with Resident Evil: Degeneration, Damnation, and Vendetta. Those movies were trying too hard to recreate a video game-style experience you could only watch and never play and suffered greatly in terms of the plot, which had no reason to exist in retrospect.
Unfortunately, what sets Infinite Darkness back from being great is that it failed to keep me on the edge of my seat. From the very first episode, it was very clear to me which characters would serve as the antagonists to this story. It’s quite clear from the conversations and convictions they have with specific characters in specific scenes that they are the ones that will try to foil Leon and Claire’s investigations. There's no suspense or dramatic turns. But Infinite Darkness does make up slightly for this shortcoming by giving me interesting backgrounds and reasons for the antagonists' motives.
It’s quite clear who will try to foil Leon and Claire’s investigations.
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The voice actors who portrayed Leon and Claire in Resident Evil 2 Remake reprise their roles in Infinite Darkness and do a fantastic job, representing a significant step up from the weaker performances in previous Resident Evil animated movies. The supporting characters also provide good voice acting for the most part, although some scenes range from borderline passable to just plain laughable. (Patrick, a rookie agent, stands out like a sore thumb – he’s overly cartoony and I could not help but laugh at his dialogue.)
Animation is good for the most part, with the exception of the President of the United States – I found his performance and animation to be very distracting as he moved and acted like a plastic action figure, which was odd when compared to the other characters on screen. Overall, Infinite Darkness is rather consistent with the quality of movements and facial expressions conveyed by the characters, and the voices accurately match up with their mouths. (That’s something that can’t be said for the CG Resident Evil movies, particularly Degeneration.)
Everything is wrapped up at a satisfying pace without feeling rushed to fit within the two-hour total runtime, but at the same time, a moment towards the end of the final episode made me feel like there was more story to tell. Even if you’ve played Resident Evil 5 and know where the story goes from here, I still have to wonder if a second season could explore some of the doors this one leaves cracked open.
