Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness review by Bobby Blakey
The Resident Evil video game series has been literally killing it with fans for years since its debut in 1996. Since then it has had numerous iterations of the game as well as the popular film franchise that spawned 6 entries in the original live action series and a new reboot, 3 animated features and some TV series. Now the latest animated series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness that takes place between Resident Evil 4 & 5 is coming home, but does it do the property justice or will it be dead upon arrival?
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness follows American federal agent Leon S. Kennedy is invited to the White House to investigate a hacking incident in 2006. During the investigation, he encounters a horde of zombies in a mysterious attack against the President. Meanwhile, TerraSave staff member Claire Redfield uncovers a strange image drawn by a young boy in a country she visited.
Haunted by this drawing, which appears to be of a victim of viral infection, Claire starts her own investigation. Claire visits the White House and has a chance reunion with Leon. Together, Leon and Claire investigate the connection between the White House attack and strange drawing and uncover a threat that will shake the nation to its very core.
I wasn’t a big fan of the previous animated outing Vendetta, but it was fine. This series of 4 episodes looks pretty much the same in animation style and tries to build up to the action and horror of it all, but it sadly doesn’t fully live up to what it could have been. Let me be clear that I am not into the game series and
more invested in the films so the likely easter eggs and popular characters are lost on me so maybe that is why I didn’t connect as much as I would have otherwise.
There is some random action sprinkled throughout, but the meat of it all happens in the final episode and it is entertaining, but the lead up to it is pretty hit and miss. Often times it drags on trying to story build and feels like it isn’t really going anywhere before random things just seem to happen. This would have worked better had they just gone all in and let the chaos take over.
I give props to the animation and look as it looks like it jumped right out of the game and is how the franchise should be seen, I just wish they could get something a bit more exciting to bite into. If you are a fan of the franchise in anyway especially the games then you might dig this so give it a try and decided for yourself.
This release not only features the entire series, but also a 30-minute making of featurette taking fans behind bringing this to animated life. Grab your copy of Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Home Entertainment.