Resident Evil season 1 review: Another disappointing instalment in the popular saga falls short

1.5/5

Story:

In the year 2036, the zombie apocalypse has taken over the world, wiping out a huge chunk of the human population and turning them into cannibalistic mutants. The Umbrella corporation, whose blatant use of the dreaded T Virus resulted in the apocalypse, still stands as one of the most powerful corporations in the world today. Jade(Ella Balinska), a young researcher observing the mutants in the present day, takes viewers through the dreaded events that plunged the world into the apocalypse, all the while trying to escape prosecution by Umbrella.

Review:

The Resident Evil game series is definitely a favourite among filmmakers to adapt to the silver screen. But unfortunately for fans of the popular video game franchise, most of the screen adaptations have failed to live up to the mark, even after several attempts spread over the course of a decade. The Resident Evil Netflix series continues the tradition of disappointing screen adaptations left by its predecessors.

The new series follows the story of Jade Wesker, a young researcher who is on a mission to find a solution to the epidemic, living amongst the mutants and studying their behaviour. While trying to stay alive in the present, being hunted by both the mutants as well as the Umbrella corporation, Jade also takes viewers through the events that culminated in the apocalypse. We get to see her teenage years, her life with her sister Billie and Father Albert, the latter a scientist who plays a crucial role in developing drugs for Umbrella. Through some choppily edited flashback sequences, we see Jade’s very personal connection to the events that ushered in the apocalypse, or the ‘beginning of the end’.

The incredibly lazy and low effort writing seems to have found more victims than the entire body count of the whole movie. We are treated to eight episodes full of shallow characters with nothing in them to make one wish they survive throughout the whole series. Even the protagonist Jade comes off as unlikeable and hard to root for, both in the flashbacks as well as the present sequences. Her narrow escapes in the face of danger seem borderline comical at times, and her interactions with the rest of the characters in the series give rise to a plethora of cliched dialogues that remind one of the word ‘cringe’. The clumsy way in which the show chose to intersperse the flashback sequences with those of the present is tiresome to say the least, and seems hastily and haphazardly put together. Some half hearted performances by the leading cast and the predictable plot further adds to the show’s

The only saving grace of the whole series comes in the form of some of its well made action sequences. Additionally credit is due to the creative team who are behind the designs of the show’s impressive looking mutant creatures. But that said, these alone are in no way enough to keep the series afloat.

Verdict:

Netflix’s new Resident Evil series joins the long list of disappointing adaptations of the popular video game. Although it has impressive action sequences and set design, the lazy writing and weak performances become its undoing.