CNN
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After a popular game and seven live-action movies (including a reboot last year), "Resident Evil" makes the seemingly inevitable migration to Netflix as a very bleak series. It unfolds in the present and the future, it's not particularly captivating in either time frame, it feels less like an evolution than an uninspired variation of what came before it.
The show stars Ella Balinska (the 2019 version of "Charlie's Angels") as Jade Wesker, a scientist fighting for survival in 2036, accompanied by characters.
“The world ended a long time ago,” she says somberly at the beginning, before the story begins to cut back and forth between what happened then in Raccoon City — that is, way back in 2022 — and the monster-laden world like that. exists for her adult self.
The past, sadly, largely plays out like yet another teen genre show, mixing high school-esque troubles for Jade (played by Tamara Smart at that age) and her half-sister Billie (Siena Agudong) with strange acts at the facility that employs workers. . their father ("The Wire's" Lance Reddick), run by Umbrella Corp.
Nothing good ever happens in this kind of lab, and the question - teased too slowly at first, before it gained momentum and added some quirky twists and turns - is how the deadly virus unleashed there led to the graceful hell in which the adult Jade is located . Not that there's much reason to obsess over the details or worry too much about the longevity of anyone but her.
"Resident Evil" has a proven following, but everything about the show feels generic, from the teenage terror in that half of the story to the strange cop (Turlough Convery) on Jade's tail and the horrific threats - seemingly cobbled together with used parts from other horror movies - that spawned the virus.
Balinska is a solid enough leader considering the restrictive nature of the writing, as Milla Jovovich could probably attest after her six or so action-packed outings. Give the producers some credit for playing around with the material, but this is one of those concepts that behaves as if the right to use the name "Resident Evil" was more than half the battle.
That may be strictly true for Netflix's purposes in terms of fan contact. Nevertheless, as the pre-virus world calls Jade, this latest tweak suggests that all ambitions beyond branding and commerce also ended long ago.
"Resident Evil" will premiere on Netflix on July 14.
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