RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY (2021)
Updated: Feb 17, 2023
The Cinematic Reboot of the Iconic Video Game Series is Dead on Arrival
Grade: F
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is the latest effort in adapting the survival horror video game series to the screen. From 2002 until 2016, this was the duty of a series of action movies starring Milla Jovovich. Though lambasted by critics, they were very successful at the box office. Now we have a new version that tries its best to distance itself from those films by staying true to the plot of the games. But even the best of intentions cannot save it from being another lame, generic horror movie.
Taking place in the late '90s (for really no reason other than that was when the games were made), Welcome to Raccoon City follows various people in the titular community as they deal with a mysterious outbreak. Claire Redfield (Kaya Scoledario) returns to the town to warn her estranged police officer brother Chris (Robbie Amell) that something terrible is about to happen. He doesn't believe her and goes with a team of other officers to investigate a disturbance near a dark, creepy mansion outside the city, where he learns that she is right. Back in town, the citizens start acting strange and hostile towards Claire and another officer named Leon (Avan Jogia). Could all of this be the work of the mysterious Umbrella Corporation, which once used the town as its headquarters? Do zombies get back up if shot in the chest?
As is typical in a movie based on a video game, none of the characters are well defined. We are given very little reason to truly care about them before they get killed. Most of the time they look either determined or scared, which may be appropriate under the circumstances, but without more variety in their emotions they cannot surpass being mere cardboard cutouts. Here we have an obnoxious boss, a misfit who is bullied by his peers, a creepy truck driver, a crazy conspiracy theorist who is obviously right (check out Godzilla vs. Kong for another example), and a group of clueless gun wielders who wander around in the dark, waiting to get picked off.
This wouldn't matter so much if the movie was really entertaining, but the people behind Welcome to Raccoon City fail to accomplish even that. The writing and execution are very underwhelming. There is practically nothing here that will surprise anyone who is even remotely familiar with horror. Almost everything that happens is by-the-numbers, as people start showing symptoms of zombification, undead hordes try to storm a building, and a man hides in the dark from a crazily mutated monster. These scenes are so predictable and so little time is devoted to them that it is difficult for anyone in the audience to be scared.
On top of that, the movie's visibility is terrible. I don't know if it is the film itself or if I just saw it in the wrong cineplex, but it was hard to see what was even going on. The fact that it almost entirely takes place at night did not help matters either. I was straining to see things that the movie was trying to show. Was there a creepy girl staring at young Claire while she slept? Was there a zombie woman standing among the dark trees? There seemed to be, but this viewer could barely see them.
Every now and then a genuinely exciting or scary moment will emerge, only to be stifled by poor execution. In one scene, a rapidly mutating gas truck driver is barreling down the street towards a building where a man is asleep at the receptionist's desk. But the suspense is torpedoed when the truck crashes and explodes outside the building without leaving any real damage on it. Later, during the aforementioned cat-and-mouse game between the man and the monster, the movie allows itself to be silly and over-the-top for a few precious minutes as the monster cackles maniacally while chasing the man. After apparently being defeated, it comes back with an even bigger and more outrageous appearance, sporting razor-sharp teeth and a body covered in eyes. But it is only on-screen for a few minutes before being taken out by a bazooka.
Even the ending is disappointing. Most movies of this type end with a set-up for a sequel, maybe showing a zombie escaping to spread the contagion further. But this movie ends on a fairly solid note with most of the characters we don't even care about surviving, and the mid-credits scene won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't played the games.
Perhaps Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was doomed from the start, trying to re-adapt a game over twenty years old while staying faithful to it and all the horror clichés it contained. In the process, it has imbued none of its characters (or its story) with any personality, its scares never really land, and there is almost nothing here the audience hasn't seen before...that is, if they could even see anything. When it comes to horror franchises, "Resident Evil" is one zombie that should have stayed dead.
Director: Johannes Roberts
Screenplay: Johannes Roberts (Based on Capcom's "Resident Evil" Video Game Series)
Producers: Martin Moszkowicz, James Harris, Hartley Gorenstein, Robert Kulzer
Cast: Kaya Scodelario (Claire Redfield), Hannah John-Kamen (Jill Valentine), Robbie Amell (Chris Redfield), Tom Hopper (Albert Wesker), Avan Jogia (Leon S. Kennedy), Donal Logue (Chief Brian Irons), Neal McDonough (William Birkin)
Rated: R (strong violence and gore, and language throughout)
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