LogFAQs > #968689319

GavsEvans123 posted...

Netflix Resident Evil

(3/4/1 = 8)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIdjcDTc9Vk

So I've only seen the first episode of this and it was enough to turn me off for good. I was never expecting much from yet ANOTHER adaptation that fails to get at what makes the games so special - slow-paced exploration in mundane areas turned twisted, conspiratorial mystery, and the thrill of survival. Netflix's adaptation is just another full on dumb action monster series, with the addition of corny drama that isn't interesting in the slightest. I genuinely felt like I was watching the episode for 3 hours. It was that boring. Lance Reddick turned in a good performance as Wesker, but that's where my compliments end.

I don't believe Resident Evil is incapable of being adapted. The source material has a good story; sure, it's also a fairly simple story, so I get the need to fill in the gaps with action. You can't just make a show where characters walk around hallways and run past every monster they see. That would be just as bad as the adaptation we have here. Yet, I don't get the obsession of not just taking the framework of the games, with the same characters, and confidently building a well-crafted narrative around that. The creators just constantly make these vast, sweeping changes to the point where it becomes unrecognizable as a Resident Evil property. It's too bad. There's a lot of potential in Resident Evil as a series, and this isn't it.

If I can indulge a moment, I've always envisioned a Resident Evil series taking place in between Resident Evils 1 and 2, right on the cusp on the Raccoon City Incident, with the Mansion Incident becoming a burning summer memory. The STARS members have all gone into hiding, knowing full well the dangers of Umbrella's experiments but being ridiculed and mocked by the general public and their own police station (through the machinations of the corrupt Chief Irons). Claire Redfield, a college student, gets a mysterious phone call from her brother Chris, prompting her to come to Raccoon City to get to the bottom of what's really going on there. There, she teams up with rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy, and the two uncover a web of madness and terror unlike anything they have ever seen. I'd have bits and pieces of the Mansion Incident portrayed through flashbacks, while the city slowly rots from the inside out, as zombies and BOWs become more prevalent and harder to ignore. I think the series could even take a monster-of-the-week format, inspired by the Outbreak games, focusing on normal survivors in the city going through their own personal ordeals & hells.

I would hope for a simpler, horror-focused experience, like the classic PS1 games; with Twin Peaksian vibes and occasional X-Files-esque monster sequences. I'd build steadily to huge climaxes, much like the games - emphasizing avoidance at first, but by the finale, you're pretty much mowing enemies down left and right.

I don't claim to have all the answers. I know I have my own personal biases and preconceptions that have colored my judgment of this series. However, at least I'm trying to respect the source material and not making a stupid, generic action show. The goal of Netflix's RE is clearly not to adapt a classic video game franchise, but to slap name recognition on a completely unrelated story. It's bad, it's dumb, and it's a disappointment. I'm still waiting for a great Resident Evil adaptation to finally surprise me, but if they're just going to be like this show again, no thank you.