Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City review

RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY: 

ARGUABLY AN IMPROVEMENT OVER ITS PREDECESSORS, BUT PLOT AND CHARACTERIZATION ARE AS BIG A MESS AS THE UMBRELLA CORPORATION ITSELF! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

SCREEN GEMS

The Resident Evil franchise has been reborn in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

 

            Resident Evil goes back in time to 1998 in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, the latest installment of the Resident Evil franchise based on the popular survival-horror video game series by Capcom of the same name. Welcome to Raccoon City serves as a reboot to the series of Resident Evil films that were released from 2002-2017 and starred Milla Jovovich…they aren’t good movies at all, but I got a bit of a soft spot for some of them. 

            Despite the previous Resident Evil films existing mostly for the director of the majority of them, Paul W.S. Anderson to show off his sexy and badass wife, Milla Jovovich (A formula Len Wiseman and Kate Beckinsale would eventually duplicate in the Underworld franchise) and not exactly being a faithful adaptation of the source material as most of the official characters are limited to supporting roles and the films themselves have more of an action tone rather than a horror one, I found myself enjoying a chunk of those films as dumb, mindless fun to an extent. I liked them when I was younger, and I continue to have some nostalgia for the first film despite not seeing it when it initially came out in 2002 (I was way too young at the time!). 

            Anyway, after Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson ended their run in 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, now we have this reboot that brings the franchise back to its survival-horror roots and is adapted from the stories of the first two video games. Given the extremely polarizing responses from critics, audiences, and fans regarding the previous films, I guess it’s safe for me to admit that I came into this movie with absolutely no expectations whatsoever, after all films based on video games are starting to get a bit of momentum thanks to Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, and I’ll even say the recent Tomb Raider…then again, we also had Monster Hunter last year, which wasn’t that hot! 

            Despite not following the games that much aside from sitting and watching friends play them (I never really got the hang of the tank controls from the video games), I can gladly say that this film is a lot more faithful to the source material than the previous films…the bad news is the film as a whole is a gigantic mess! It is arguably an improvement over its predecessors and fans will likely enjoy famous moments from the games being recreated in live-action movie form, but without a strong story or compelling characters, it doesn’t amount to much. 

            The film is set in 1998 Raccoon City which was once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant, The Umbrella Corporation and is now a dying Midwestern town due to actions caused by Umbrella with a great evil hidden below the city wasteland. When that evil force is unleashed, a group or survivors consisting of brother and sister, Claire (Kaya Scodelario-Skins, Maze Runner trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell-The Tomorrow People, The Flash, Desperados), Chris’ partner and STARS (Special Tactics And Rescue Service) member, Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen-Game of Thrones, Ready Player One, Ant-Man and the Wasp), and Racoon City Police Department rookie, Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia-Twisted, Ghost Wars, Zombieland: Double Tap) must work together to discover the truth about Umbrella, survive the night, and put an end to a zombie outbreak that should spread to the entire planet. 

            The film also stars Tom Hopper (Merlin, Black Sails, The Umbrella Academy) as Albert Wesker, Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve, Sons of Anarchy, Gotham) as RPD’s chief of police, Brian Irons, Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers, Captain America: The First Avenger, Sonic the Hedgehog) as William Birkin, Nathan Dales (The Indian Detective, Goon: Last of the Enforcers, The Broken Hearts Gallery) as Brad Vickers, Pat Thornton (Warehouse 13, Spun Out, Filth City) as The Trucker, and Lily Gao (Blood and Water, Second Jen, The Expanse) as Ada Wong. 

            Overall, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has a ton of fan service that people who follow the long-running video game series will likely appreciate and it is significantly closer in feel to the source material than Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson’s outings, unfortunately it’s at the cost of a good story and engaging characters. It’s a shame because you can tell writer-director, Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Other Side of the Door, The Strangers: Prey at Night) is trying his hardest to make a movie that Resident Evil fans will love as he incorporates many references and callbacks throughout the film, I don’t know if the script was butchered in editing or if it was another example of Sony not knowing what to do with a property, but had the script gotten a rewrite and the characters more fleshed out, I think this could have been not just a great Resident Evil movie, but also a very unique zombie film on its own merits, but as is it’s about as standard as World War Z, at least this film has an R rating. 

            The plot tries to cram the storylines of both the first and second Resident Evil games together into an hour and a half movie, which was a big mistake. It’s already difficult enough to adapt the plot of one game into a film, but when you try to condense the plots of two games into one film that’s not even two hours long, you take away a lot of those great story and character moments that ironically make the source material more cinematic and engaging than the actual cinematic outing. 

            As a whole, the film just feels like a watered-down retelling of the first two games minus the interesting story and strong character dynamics. The characters themselves range from one-note, generic, or just there to die, and very few of them I give a sh*t about, aside from maybe Claire, the narrative just doesn’t do a good job establishing these well-known characters, the only reason I know who they are is because I’ve seen them before in the video games…which do the characters far better justice. 

            Sometimes the action is kind of neat to watch, it isn’t anything spectacular, but it at least feels like a live-action version of the game. One scene where Chris is shooting a bunch of zombies in the dark, I found quite effective, sadly fun action doesn’t make up for the film’s problems. 

            If you’re a die-hard fan of the Resident Evil games, then it probably won’t hurt to watch Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City to appreciate the fan service and callbacks. However, if you want a more enriching Resident Evilexperience then I’d suggest staying at home and either play one of the latest game remakes or watch the 2012 CG-animated film, Resident Evil: Damnation instead.