Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Like many long time fans of the games, I was certainly not impressed by the trailer for this film. While I was pleased to see plenty of faithful references to the games (Itchy, Tasty, Lisa Trevor) I immediately got the impression that this would be a loosely based take on the first two Resident Evil games.

I can't say I hated this movie, necessarily. There seemed to be some effort at capturing the spirit of the games, and unlike the usual Resident Evil movies, this one seemed like it was trying to be scary. Atmosphere and tone were relatively good. Director Johannes Roberts said he wanted Raccoon City to feel bleak and deserted, and he definitely succeeded, for the most part. Some of the sets felt genuine and right out of the games. Then other moments just suffered. The famous foyer of the mansion and the lobby of the police department looked like poorly rendered cgi images! Plus there were a few moments where it felt like it was trying to tell you it was a "video game movie," which sadly came across as silly. At some points this film felt like a tribute to movies like The Shining. At other points it felt like an Uwe Boll flick.

All of the monster action is fun enough. This movie offers a different take on the spread of the virus, opting for a slow spread of the zombie infection (Hey, there's something up with your eye!) as opposed to arriving and finding the city overrun with zombies. I thought that was interesting enough.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers from pacing and writing issues. The more you think about it after seeing it, the less it will make sense. Some things are over explained, or not explained enough. Plus there are many deviations from the story of the video games. Normally this should be expected, but I suspect that many fans will find some of them to be intentionally done, and there by off putting, if not insulting. I'll be the first to tell you that the movie could have done without the subplot about Clair and Chris's childhood.

Cast wise it was ok enough. I know the internet certainly bashed the casting choices, but they did what they could. The script wasn't always kind to them though, which led to some cringy moments here and there. (What's a chat room?!?) Leon being the object of lots of comic relief was certainly distracting. We get it. He's a rookie!

So if you're like me and go into it with low expectations, maybe you'll have fun. Just don't think too hard about it. If you're a long time fan of the game franchise and bummed out, fortunately for you the remake of the Resident Evil 2 game was awesome!

People often hate on Paul W. S. Anderson Resident Evil films but this reboot makes the first 3 of his RE films look way better. This film just seemed so unnecessary at its announcement and now after watching it seems that even the director/writer believed that too. The story tries to follow the plot of the original video game at first and continues to do so decently until the end but tapers off somewhat in the end. Visually it's highly entertaining and possesses some moments that do have commendable aspects, but story and acting just doesn't help it overall. There are times of cgi that come off laughable and so sloppy, it makes you want the early to mid 2000s practical effects utilized way more in WS anderson RE films. The film has some fan service that is sure to please the die hards but overall just seems forced and rushed.

Disappointed.

Didnt feel dreadfull like the old game or movies, direction and script mediocre.

A fast forward movie type.

A big miss recomended on this more like a 4 movie.

.

Why this casting?

Why this director?

Why this story?

Why everything in this movie.

Unfortunately, as expected, this movie sucks. While the CGI is not that bad as it was in the trailer, everything else is.

Story is a chopped up blend of first and second game, but written badly. Casting is almost completely wrong. But even worse - characters are all written and crafted wrong. That's not Leon, that's not Jill Valentine, that's not the Redfields and that sure as hell is not Wesker.

Not to say anything against actors, ironically enough - as bad as they got casted - most of the actors in this movie are pretty good actors, from Donal Logue to Kaya Scodelario. They were just given trash script and story to work with.

Zombies look like generic vampires from SyFy tv shows or whatever. Also - there's some inspired but bizzare camerawork at times.

Locations are underutilised and most are kinda bland looking. Atmosphere is eaten pretty fast by the movie's runtime so there's none of that either.

I don't get it. It's not a unknown brand or something. Even more, RE series is on a high point lately as a video game franchise - one excellent remake, one good and two fantastic sequels in the past couple of years.

Yet, movie is given into the hands of a director/writer that hadn't made a good movie in his entire career.

Such shame and wasted potential.

The acting is average, the story is unoriginal and the whole thing amounts to very little. Many of the characters display the usual 'sassy attitude' and are constantly engaged in yelling at one another, which is a trait commonly used in poorly scripted pieces like this. It's nonsensical for the most part, and a few of the characters are moronic in the extreme, and there's not a trace of atmosphere to be found.