Back in March, the 8th official game in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Village, was released. It’s a fun game to play but the story’s kind of weak as is the main protagonist, Ethan Winters, he’s a character no one will miss (spoiler alert). So at first, it feels like we’re right at home with Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, the latest in a long line of Resident Evil CG Anime. From the trailers, visually and tonally it looked like it would be going for more of a classic Resident Evil feel than the most recent games and even featured the return of two popular legacy characters: Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield from Resident Evil 2 (the English Dub even has Nick Apostolides and Stephanie Panisello reprising their respective roles from Resident Evil 2 Remake). So…why does Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness still suck in spite of all of this?
Infinite Darkness’ two most basic flaws are: it’s boring and we’ve seen it before. The main villain plot boils down to another “using bioweapons to take over the world” scheme and they even have a standard Resident Evil villains giant bioweapon laboratory in some underground facility. Honestly I cant believe that Leon or Claire didn’t make a déjà vu quip during this whole ordeal (especially Leon since this is post Resident Evil 4 where he’s cracking plenty of one liners). Leon and Claire get two separate campaigns, er, storylines that eventually intersect. Claire…does absolutely nothing, or rather she does investigate current events but is hardly part of the action. Leon gets some of the better moments of Infinite Darkness thanks to one very unique (but brief) sequence in a submarine and is more in the thick of the action than Claire. But nothing about their respective stories feels special or unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. The lack of originality, again save for one sequence, makes Infinite Darkness super boring to sit through. Listening to a member of the Presidential cabinet whine about wanting to go to warn with China gets old fast, as do the lack of compelling emotion from the Black Hawk Down inspired sequences tied to the origins of newcomers Jason and Shen May.
Is any of this criminally, yet mercifully short Anime any
good? Well credit where credit is due:
each of these CG Resident Evil outings gets better and better visually. Leon and Claire both look great as do the
environments, supporting cast and creatures (Shen May is absolutely gorgeous,
rivaling Claire for best looking character in the Anime, though Claire in
glasses is just as stunning). That one
submarine sequence, with Leon trying to outrun an army of infected rats in such
a tight space, is probably the most memorable action scene in all four
episodes…and you know that, I think that’s all.
Only minor things come to mind like President Graham being a central
character and showing from time to time that he hasn’t forgotten what Leon did
for him in Resident Evil 4 by saving his daughter, Ashley (who gets a portrait
cameo). And yeah, when Leon’s allowed an
occasional one liner, it’s pretty cheesy but fun.
At only 4 episodes, you’d think that would be enough time to tell a compelling story worthy of being cannon in this universe. Actually, I wonder why this wasn’t just another movie, a prequel to Resident Evil: Degeneration, Damnation and Vendetta. Regardless of where it fits in that little pantheon (its set between Resident Evil 4 & 5 btw), Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is a gorgeous but boring and unoriginally entry into one of the greatest action horror franchises of all time. The story feels pointless, there’s not a lot of action and characters are either too involved in the boring plot or aren’t involved enough. Infinite Darkness feels more like a poorly constructed proof of concept for a longer Resident Evil CG Series that may or may not come. I can tell you Ethan Winters might be annoying to play as in Resident Village, but at least Village was fun to play as opposed to watching this four episode snoozefest.
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