Plot: Year 2036 – 14 years after Joy’s spread caused so much pain, Jade Wesker struggles to survive in a world overrun by bloodthirsty infected and mind-shattering creatures. In this absolute carnage, Jade is haunted by her past in New Raccoon City, by her father’s chilling ties to the sinister Umbrella Corporation, but most of all by what happened to her sister, Billie.
Review: One year after the seven-film franchise led by Milla Jovovich was rebooted with Welcome to Raccoon City, Resident Evil is back with… another reboot, this time on Netflix. Unlike any of the big screen iterations, Resident Evil for the small screen exists in its own continuity, but one that builds on the storyline started in the video games. Set in two timelines, the series focuses on the outbreak of the Umbrella Corporation leading to the end of the world and the future consequences for the survivors of the apocalypse. With a young cast of new characters and some of the gameplay, Resident Evil changes the approach of the zombie franchise from full action and horror to something much more subdued and far less cinematic. But, in keeping with the film franchise, the series is also an impressive mess.
The first thing you’ll notice about this version of Resident Evil is that it’s both a sequel and a reboot. The four episodes provided during this review (out of an eight-episode season) take place years after the incidents in Raccoon City tarnished the name of the Umbrella Corporation. Evelyn Marcus (Paola Nunez), daughter of the company’s co-founder, has taken over as CEO and is working with Dr. Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) to develop a miracle drug called Joy. Wesker moves to New Raccoon City with his daughters Jade (Tamara Smart) and Billie (Sienna Agudong). As the girls adjust to their new surroundings, they witness firsthand the release of the T-Virus and the eventual downfall of humanity. This part of the story takes place in the year 2022 and includes many hallmarks of the video game franchise and many subtle references to past events, but for the most part these scenes feel like countless teen dramas on air and don’t include all that much. attitude of compelling characters, with the exception of the always great Reddick and the scenery-chewing Nunes. Both actresses who play Wesker’s children are good at times and painfully on the nose at others with their performances.
Scenes from 2022 are interspersed with sequences set in London fourteen years later. In 2036, the world resembles the messed up infrastructure seen in The Walking Dead and other dystopian zombies. We mainly follow the now grown Jade Wesker, played here by Ella Balinksa (Charlie’s Angels). A scoundrel who researches the T-Virus and the zombies it generates, Jade is also on the run from the Umbrella Corporation, played by actor Thurlow Convery, who plays his character as half villain and half clumsy idiot. His role isn’t explained in the slightest, other than he’s working for Umbrella while hunting Jade. I won’t reveal why they’re chasing her, but needless to say, it’s one of the many moments that doesn’t make much sense.
The 2036 sequences have some of the better action moments, but they are spread thinly between hard-to-watch action scenes shot at night as well as daytime sequences with mediocre CGI. The zombies here, called Zeros and regularly explained to not actually be zombies but infected humans, are the fast-moving type of monster seen in Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead. There are also mutated bugs and animals that feel remarkably out of place when translated from video games to live action. The future scenes establish a much different narrative and pacing than the 2022 scenes, but both are interrupted without any transition between the two time periods. It’s quite jarring and makes following the story almost as annoying as some of the dialogue.
Developed by Andrew Dabb (Supernatural), Resident Evil suffers from consistently terrible dialogue. Each episode features some of the greatest lines I’ve ever heard from a series with as much marketing as Netflix has invested here. The only actor who seems capable of delivering his lines without sounding ridiculous is Reddick, but this guy could read anything and sound cool. The series aims to feel cinematic, but often falls short due to the directing team, all veteran TV directors who haven’t worked on projects of the scale this show needs. Bronwen Hughes, who helmed the first two episodes, provides some well-shot moments seen in the trailer, but this represents the most excitement this series can muster. The story is so unevenly directed and executed that it lurches from gunfights to teenage shouting matches to boardrooms and back again.
Resident Evil should have worked better as a streaming series than it ever did on the big screen, but this adaptation fails to capture the tone and feel of the video games that inspired it. While the Paul Anderson/Milla Jovovich movies went completely off the rails of gaming and turned into B-movie spectacles, last year’s reboot came close to gaming but failed to capture what makes them so popular. This Resident Evil sits firmly between the two movie universes, failing to understand what makes games work as well as what makes engaging television. I haven’t been more disappointed by a show in a long time, but maybe that was my mistake in assuming that the ninth attempt at getting Resident Evil right would be the one to succeed.
Resident Evil premieres July 14 on Netflix.
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