Review - Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, I went to see the new movie Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and I definitely have some things to say about this movie. First off, this is yet another live-action film inspired by Capcom's popular Resident Evil video game series, and serves as a reboot of the live-action film series based on the game series. Throughout the 2000's up through 2017, a series of "In Name Only" adaptations developed by filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Anderson's wife Milla Jovovich were released, and the six movies were almost universally derided by fans of the games for shoving the characters from the games into supporting roles. However, this new film, written and directed by Johannes Roberts, puts the game's protagonists front and center. 

              The movie, set on September 30, 1998, focuses on siblings Claire and Chris Redfield. Claire, who has been gone for several years, has return home to Raccoon City, where her brother Chris has been working for Raccoon Police Department's elite squad S.T.A.R.S. alongside the likes of Jill Valentine and Albert Wesker. Raccoon Police Department also has a new officer on duty with Leon S. Kennedy, who is instructed to hold down the fort along with Chief Irons, while S.T.A.R.S. goes to investigate a disappearance of two other cops at Spencer Mansion. 

        The entire town of Raccoon City, which has been all but abandoned after Umbrella Corporation packed up and relocated to another location, is also facing a major pandemic, as the town's residents are slowly turning into zombies. So, Chris, Jill, and Wesker have to fight to survive the zombies in Spencer Mansion, while Claire, Leon, and Chief Irons try to fight their way to the mansion. All the while, Umbrella scientist William Birkin does his best to get his wife and daughter to safety, and collect the two chemical agents responsible for the outbreak: the G-virus and the T-virus. And I that wasn't enough, they all have to hurry, because at six in the morning, Umbrella is going to destroy Raccoon City and Spencer Mansion in an effort to contain the outbreak. And, that's where I'm going to stop, because I don't want to give away any major spoilers for this movie. 

       Now, unlike the earlier Resident Evil films, Welcome to Raccoon City is very faithful to the first two games of the series, almost to a fault. While the faithfulness may be a welcome change when compared to the earlier films, some may see it as too faithful, and may not be able to really connect with the film's story. On top of that, the creature designs were decent, but also had a sense of "been there, done that" in terms of their appearance in this movie. 

         I definitely enjoyed a number of performances by the main cast, specifically Kaya Scodelario as Claire, Hannah John-Kamen as Jill, Avan Jogia as Leon, and Tom Hopper as Wesker. Donal Logue was enjoyable as Chief Irons, as was Robbie Amell as Chris, but Neal McDonough felt a bit generic as Birkin. The action also felt like your typical, run-of-the-mill zombie film action scenes, and in a movie based on the Resident Evil games, there should be an effort to make the action stand out just a bit more. I did, however, enjoy the film's mid-credits scene, which featured an appearance by Lily Gao as Ada Wong. So, if you see the movie,. definitely stick around for that. 

        Overall, I thought that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was a serviceable but generic reboot of the Resident Evil film series. Is it an improvement over the earlier films? Definitely. Is it worth seeing in theaters? Only if you're a hardcore fan of the games and are interested in checking this movie out. Other than that, I'd recommend waiting for it to release on Blu-ray or on streaming platforms. I give the movie a rating of 3.95/5. Glad I saw it, but I've definitely seen better throughout the year. 

        This is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys next time. 

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