Tommy Metropoulos

There are a good handful of zombie films out today that range from horror, drama, comedy, etc. Resident Evil is a well known franchise that came from the brilliant mind of Shinji Mikami that combines horror, suspense, etc. The game's presence in the mainstream media has grown and now that more people are familiar with the franchise Hollywood wants to take it further. Now, the Netflix review. Within the first 3 minutes Netflix already broke a MAJOR rule to to the lore, unless they explain it in a later episode. Which they didn't. I stayed through and watched the series hoping they could tie themselves closer with the video game lore, but they didn't. Instead we got a drama piece that had terrible dialogue and constant clichés. All the horror, suspense, etc. was downplayed to the point of it didn't matter or was necessary. There are a few homages to the games and those were the most accurate Resident Evil instances. The actors and actresses in the series were ok, and at times almost cringy or laughable. There are times I could feel for a character and times where I can see more of "just say the lines" or "play the part". Lance Reddick as Wesker did not feel like his role. I've seen some of his shorts with Funny or Die, the Wire, John Wick, etc. and you can see in those pieces he is more in his element and portraying a character more in depth. Other characters are supposed to be menacing but their on-screen time is annoying as their deliveries are cringy at times. Story wise Netflix actually tied themselves and the T-virus to another zombie/biohazard film which is confusing to me, but not for those who are unfamiliar with the video games. There is now a divide on what "is" and "is not" Resident Evil between two parties that had played the games and those who have only seen the films. There are homages to the game, but many films pay homages to other films too. Unfortunately Netflix created another film series that cashes in on CAPCOM's IP. I would automatically give 3 stars if they kept to the story, but they created their own. They started to exaggerate some sequences similar to how Paul WS Anderson did and the horror aspect was no where to be found. Acting as mentioned before was lacking at times to the point I stop watching because I was annoyed and not entertained. Because of that lacking in Netflix's series I'm rating at one star of five. If there was more strength in acting or to the lore I'd go higher.

At least the armor looks ok...when Master Cheif is wearing it. Halo on Paramount+ instantly reminded me of what Paul WS Anderson did with Resident Evil. He took the name Resident Evil but followed only 1 or 2 aspects of the video game lore. The Paramount+ series has detached from the lore of HALO. A LOT. Because of that I completely lost intrest in the 4th episode, turned it off in the middle of the episode and watched something else. It'a hard for someone to watch something based off of a book, comic, etc. to only see Hollywood directors only know to dress and undress the characters. A lot of fluff was added that ran the story off the rails very quick, like within the first 15 minutes. Acting is ok, but there are some points the acting feels forced. Or they are trying to hard. Action wise it's neat to watch, but after the initial action sequences in the first episode everything gets very political, drama, and convoluted to the Halo lore. Another comparison I'll add is think of it as making a Harry Potter franchise based off the books, but re-writing 90% of Harry Potter. Also professor Snape and Dumbledore's characters are completely 180. Hollywood just throwing in some random characters at Hogwarts that take up 20% of the story so they can re-write it and make it to their liking.