Time flies by faster than you think. It does not feel like 20 years have passed since the American Nu Metal band Korn released their unique album Untouchables in 2002, but here we are in 2022. The year of 2002 was not only special because of this Korn album release, but this was also the year when legendary director Danny Boyle ( director of one of the best 90´s movies, wich is of course Trainspotting ) released his film 28 Days Later. Now, there have been many zombie films released over the years, but 28 Days Later is actually a quite different experience than most films in this genre. 28 Days Later tells the story of bicycle courier Jim ( Cillan Murphy ) awakens from a coma in St. Thomas Hospital in London. He have no idea what happened in the outside world, but a highly contagious, aggressive virus called "Rage" have spread across Great Britain after an infected chimpanze is freed from a laboratory in Campbridge by a group of animal liberation activists. Jim wander around in London, with sign of no human life. Until he is attacked by the infected, but is saved by survivors Selena ( Naomie Harris ) and Frank ( Brendan Gleeson ). This is where Jim learns what the world looks like right now, and what you must do to survive. 28 Days Later is definetely worth being called an apocalyptic zombie classic by now, and it is one of my favourite films from director Danny Boyle. Not only is the acting really good, but the story is told in a very effective way. If you want to see a really good apocalyptic horror movie, 28 Days Later is definetely worth checking out. The sequel 28 Weeks Later is also worth a look, if you are curious to see the sequel as well. In the year of 2002, director Paul W.S. Anderson released his film adaptation of Resident Evil, based on the very popular video game. The film turned out to be a charming zombie action film, where wonderful actress Milla Jovovich played the character known as Alice. The film may not have all the details correctly from the game, but i still enjoy the film. The sequels that followed had a couple of entertaining releases. I will say this, Milla Jovovich was the biggest reason why i enjoyed the Resident Evil franchise. Last year we had a new film called Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City released, with a new cast and other characters from the game. It was.......ok? But there were some big issues with that film, and i never reviewed it. So here we are with a new TV series based on the Resident Evil franchise, released on Netflix. Is it better than we expected, or should Netflix have cancelled these 8 episodes, before they even went into production?
14-year-old fraternal twins Billie Wesker ( Siena Agudong ) and Jade Wesker ( Tamara Smart ), are the children of Dr. Albert Wesker ( Lance Reddick ), and they live in a nice clean neighborhood. Bille is worried that her father´s company Umbrella Corporation is doing animal experiments, she steals her father´s card to get into the main building to investigate what is going on there. As she opens up a cage that seems to hold an animal, she does not realize what chaos she might have caused, to the entire world.
I had a feeling that making a TV series of Resident Evil could be difficult, because we have already seen that making film adaptations of the games have proved to be quite difficult. You have to be able to make the characters feel connected to the games, and you have to find the right atmosphere that the games offers as well. In the case of this new TV series adaptation of Resident Evil, i have to be honest and say, i found myself finding some problems with this TV series adaptation. But let´s start with the details that i did enjoy. First of all, actress Ella Balinska ( who were a part of the new Chalie´s Angels reboot ) as the tough character Jade Wesker, is definetely one of the best parts of this TV series. Quite honestly, if she was not one of the lead characters, i have a feeling that this TV series would have been even worse. I especially enjoy her when she´s forced to do what ever she can to survive, even if she has to kill, and that is where Ella delivers the most entertaining scenes in Resident Evil. When some of the action scenes feels a bit simple, at least Ella tries to do what she can to make it work. I have a feeling that if they would have worked harder on certain details, we might have had even more fun with Ella. Compared to director Paul W.S. Anderson, this TV series show a completely different perspective before the outbreak. I think it was a good idea to try and tell the story in a different way, compared to the films of the past, especially how it all began. Now....we have to discuss some of the problems. First of all this TV series does not really feel like Resident Evil. Even if they throw in certain details that are supposed to be in the games, does not really give the impression that we are watching Resident Evil. The zombies are not very effective, especially if you compare to the video games. They don´t look very good from a practical make up effects perspective, and they don´t really feel scary. It feels like these zombies are the left overs of Uwe Boll´s zombie film House Of The Dead from 2003 ( worth picking up on DVD if you want a good laugh ), the zombies that did not make it to the actual film. They jump a lot in different time periods in Resident Evil, and that does not really help you feel interested in what is going on. Some of the other characters in this TV series don´t give you any bigger impression, and you don´t really know if you actually care. Resident Evil is a TV series that might be enjoyed by a young audience who did not grow up with the video games, or the Paul W.S. Andersson films, since they don´t know what else to compare to. But for us fans of the video games ( and i enjoy some of the Resident Evil films ), this TV series adaptation have too many problems to make it good. I would recomment you watch the Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City instead on DVD, Blu Ray or VOD. That film also have some problems, but at least that film actually tried to capture the atmosphere, and look of the Resident Evil franchise.
Rating: DD
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