Source: COURTESY OF NETFLIX / Resident Evil
Capcom’s Resident Evil video game franchise has seen its fair share of movie adaptations and animated films, 95% of them being forgettable. Finally, fans of Resident Evil have a Hollywood adaptation they can be proud of, thanks to Netflix.
Netflix Has A Win With Resident Evil
Video game fans are hard to please, especially when it comes to beloved video game franchises like Resident Evil. When it comes to adapting games to films or streaming series, many believe it should be a piece of cake because video games are rich with the source material to work with.
Yes, and no.
Take Paramount’s Halo series, for example. Fans of the Xbox-exclusive video game franchise let out a loud moan across social media when it was announced and was not here for Pablo Schrieber’s Master Chief taking off his helmet.
Speaking with Hip-Hop Wired exclusively, Schreiber explained how difficult it would be to create a long-form television series with a lifeless version of Master Chief. He was correct in explaining that.
Despite numerous complaints, Halo was still a hit on Paramount Plus and a second season is on the way.
This brings us to Resident Evil, which also faced similar issues when the cast was announced, with criticism primarily focused on Lance Reddick taking on the role of the traditionally white villain Albert Wesker, as expected.
At the time of the announcement of the cast, we didn’t know much about the show, but after we spoke with Resident Evil’s showrunner, executive producer, and writer Andrew Dabb, his vision for the show was crystal clear.
Dabb set out to give us a series with an original story that simultaneously does have callbacks to the video games with purposeful use of the game’s characters and lore.
It Dethroned Stranger Things
While the show has been critically panned by both critics and fans who are notoriously hard to please, Netflix’s Resident Evil did accomplish a major goal by dethroning Stranger Things by becoming Netflix’s no.1 show.
It’s also better than all of the movies, and we break down those reasons in the gallery below.
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Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX / Resident Evil
1. Lance Reddick Is A Great Albert Wesker
Source:Resident Evil
Andrew Dabb hit a homerun casting Lance Reddick as Albert Wesker, which he felt was a perfect choice. Reddick brings his intense acting style to the character, who up until now has been poorly portrayed in the films.
Reddicks acting skills are further displayed because he plays different variations of Albert Wesker, who we learn in the Netflix series has multiple clones of himself.
Our only complaint, they could have given our guy a better wig to rock.
2. Ella Balinska’s Jade > Mila Jovovich’s Alice
Source:Resident Evil
Ella Balinska’s Jade is way more interesting than Mila Jovovich’s Alice. Sorry to the fans of those Resident Evil movies.
Balinska’s storyline being Wesker’s genetically bred twin daughter, her beef with her sister, and raising a child who is possibly T-Virus resistant just hits more than Alice’s story, which honestly was all over the place.
Also, Balinska is H O T. You can head here to see why.
3. Accurate Versions of Resident Evil’s Monsters
Source:Resident Evil
The first Resident Evil film and its sequel Apocalypse did a decent job bringing the game’s iconic BOWs to the big screen.
Netflix’s Resident Evil said to Constantin Films, “hold our beer,” and delivered the most accurate versions of monsters like the lickers, a giant spider, the Doberman, and even a large zombie crocodile. A new monster, a giant caterpillar is introduced, and it absolutely works.
We did get a glimpse of the first Resident Evil game’s final boss, The Tyrant, and Andrew Dabb has expressed interest in bringing Resident Evil Village’s Lady Dimitrescu into the series.
WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT!
4. The Zombies Are Upgraded
Source:Resident Evil
We spoke on the BOWs in the series, but now it’s time to focus on the zombies in Netflix’s Resident Evil series.
In the show, the zombies are now called zeroes and are no longer just slow, buffoonish ghouls we have grown used to seeing. They are evolving, despite losing their sense of sight, but they are still dangerous.
The zeroes RUN once they hear you or smell you, and there are different variations of them. We are introduced to a zero that controls a group thanks to a cyst located on its neck that releases a pheromone.
5. VIOLENCE
Source:Resident Evil
Resident Evil, at its core, is a violent franchise, and we expect any movie or series adaptation to bring it.
While the movies did an okay job, Netflix’s Resident Evil ups the ante on the zombie and monster action and, of course, the gore.
That one chainsaw scene with Jade going ham on the zeroes is absolutely nuts, even though we’re wondering how she didn’t get infected.
Maybe, that was a perfect way of showing that Jade is immune to the T-Virus, something we will probably learn in a second season. We hope Netflix does right by this series.
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