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‘RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness’ Fails to Fully Complete Its Mission

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Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness

RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness is set to make its debut on Netflix next Thursday, July 8, 2021.

Nick Apostolides and Stephanie Panisello return to the franchise to voice Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, characters they previously voiced in Resident Evil 2. Their appearance alone is enough to tie this to the larger game universe, but there are certainly plenty of others including the mysterious Raccoon City and the ever-present evil Umbrella Corporation.

In truth, the four-episode series is entrenched in the lore of the game franchise beyond these tangential ties. However, it fails to deliver on the scares of the games, deciding instead to focus on political intrigue with the occasional zombie appearance to remind us what we’re watching. Sadly, the pacing and storytelling in each episode feels like a half-hour long cut scene in a game that won’t let you skip ahead.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Don’t get me wrong. There are things to enjoy in RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness. The problems the series runs into spring from the fact that elements either felt unfinished or they were so reliant on game lore that someone who hasn’t played every single game, possibly multiple times, might not entirely understand some of the references and plot turns.

For instance, the settings are gorgeous. The backgrounds are so layered and grimly beautiful that I felt like we were actually crossing the uncanny valley to something new and exciting. Then, new character Shenmei–voiced by the talented Jona Xiao (Raya and the Last Dragon)–would walk, and I’d be left scratching my head. The animators were obviously going for a sexy, hip-swinging saunter. What we got, instead, was a character that improbably moved forward while her hips swung back and forth like a clock whose pendulum timing is broken.

Similarly, the dialogue and mouth animations only occasionally sync up in ways that make sense, though it does improve in the back half episodes.

While this might seem ridiculous to some, the thing is that they did so many things so well with the rest of the animations and scenery that these missteps end up standing out like the proverbial sore thumb.

As for story, as I previously mentioned, the series is long on lore and political intrigue but the scares are few and far between. This imbalance led to serious pacing issues throughout that could have been corrected with minor tweaks and a little more judicious editing. If they’d only hinted four times at one particular plot twist instead of six or seven, for example, we could have had more time for the ultimate showdown which was amazing but could have been fleshed out.

As with any review, this is subjective. There may be fans out there who want nothing more than four really long cut scenes without the joy of gameplay in between. There may be those who are really into political intrigue that will find themselves drawn into the story despite its pacing issues.

Sadly, for this reviewer, it simply fell short. I don’t think this rules out future Resident Evil anime. I think it’s a prime example of a first season still working out the problems. It could easily come back stronger if the creative team really takes time to learn from the mistakes of this first outing.

You can see RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness on Netflix on July 8, 2021. Check out the trailer below!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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