I like the Resident Evil series, ever since I first loaded up the original game, something my uncle owned, to see what it was like, and stumbled across that first zombie in the Spencer mansion I was hooked. It became a series that was janky and hell, with some serious weirdness at times, and not every entry was good, but it still had enough charm to become something wonderful. And whilst the CGI movies seem to be able to translate some of that at times the live action movies really seem to struggle to make Resident Evil work.
This latest reboot of the series takes a different approach to the Paul Anderson movies, which pretty much did its own thing whilst cherry picking certain characters and moments from the games to include. This time round we're getting a new adaptation of the games, bringing together Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 into the same narrative. Now, if you're thinking that it might be too bold of an idea, that a single film wouldn't be able to accurately or effectively adapt both those stories together you'd be right. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is, at best a cluster-fuck, and at worst boring as hell.
The film begins in the past, where we see a young Chris and Claire Redfield who, following the death of their parents, live in the Raccoon City Orphanage, ran by William Birkin. One night Claire sees something creepy watching her sleep, and after some investigating discovers an odd, monstrous looking woman named Lisa Trevor.
Jumping forward a number of years, we rejoin Claire in September of 1998, where she's returning to Raccoon City after years away. Travelling to the city in a truck she's hitchhiked a ride in, the driver accidentally hits a woman, but when they stop to check if she's okay her body mysteriously vanishes. Once Claire arrives in town she breaks her way into Chris' home and the two of them have a heated discussion as Claire tries to let him in on a conspiracy about Umbrella, before Chris has to report to duty when a city wide warning alarm goes off.
Meanwhile, we also get to meet a number of other cops hanging out in one of the town's diners. Though as only one is wearing a uniform you'd be hard pressed to know they were police if you're not a fan. There's Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop who is nervous, accident prone, and may or may not have narcolepsy. There's also Albert Wesker, a lovely nice guy who is actually not evil and secretly working for Umbrella (no sarcasm, he's not evil and working for Umbrella), and Jill Valentine, a gun nut with an itchy trigger finger who will whip her weapon out at any opportunity.
As chaos begin to overtake the city Chris, Jill, Wesker, and a handful of others are sent to find some missing officers up at the Spencer Mansion whilst Leon is left watching the front desk. When the team arrive at the mansion they're attacked by hordes of the undead, which also happens back in town too as Leon and Claire meet and work together to try and find a way out of town.
My biggest issues with Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City are twofold. The first is that the film does not have the room to tell the stories that it's trying to tell. By combining the stories of the first two games the film effectively fails to tell either of them with any clarity or sense of worth, reducing the events of those games to tiny set pieces that occasionally appear in this new, mangled together story that even on its own fails to stand up as a coherent and entertaining piece of fiction. The film spends the first half of its runtime telling a slow set up, establishing its characters and the setting, which is fine to do if you have the time to spare; unfortunately, this film doesn't, and by the time anything of much note even happens, such as zombies appearing and running amok, it feels like there's only twenty minutes left and its a mad dash to the end.
I understand that it's important to have characters that you care about, that you've had a chance to get to know, but when the main draw of a film like Resident Evil is the zombies and monsters and action I don't want that part of the film rushed because the first half of the film was spent showing Alpha Team hanging out in a diner making bets, or Chris and Claire arguing over their past. These are things that add little to the experience, and giving part of the runtime over to them instead of scenes where the horror of the undead hunting you as you desperately try to survive feels like a wasted opportunity.
As for the characters, not a single character from Resident Evil appears in this film. I know I've already named several who are in the film, but honestly, it's name only. None of the characters here feel at all like their video game counterparts, and if you'd have given them other names it would have actually helped the story as I'd have been less annoyed that they failed to get any of the characters right. Crhis Redfield is probably the closest to being done right. Whilst they've introduced this whole new backstory of him growing up in an Umbrella orphanage and seeing Birkin as a father figure (which adds nothing to the film and makes things worse) he's still the highly skilled cop from the first game; but then when you're not given anything to do other than shoot you guns and be tough you can't really go too wrong.
Jill Valentine is nothing like her source material. In the games she's cool headed, will only draw her weapon when she needs to, is quiet and reserved, and is great at picking locks. Here she's a hot head who engages in banter, is the first to shoot, and never once unlocks anything (they actually gave the lock picking to Claire for some reason). Claire is also very out of character, being much more confrontational than any version of her I've seen, as well as quick to action and overly familiar with weapons. Whilst the Claire from the games always knew how to handle herself she was never eager to pick up a gun and start shooting, but here's she more competent than some of the cops.
Speaking of competence, Leon, poor Leon. Leon Kennedy has become one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, going from an unlucky rookie cop to a secret service agent sent in to extreme situations thanks to his skills here he's a bumbling fool. The first time we see Leon he's just waking up, which soon becomes him asleep in a diner less than an hour later as people balance objects on his head. Once he arrives at work he gets yelled at for leaving the front desk unmanned, and once he is on the desk he literally sleeps through a truck crashing into the front of the building. So yeah, he might actually be narcoleptic in this film. On top of this we learn he shot someone in the arse during training, gets his gun stolen by a prisoner, and can't work a shotgun. He's a walking joke, in what I can only assume is a deliberate attempt to take one of the most popular characters in the series and subvert expectations. I don't know what led to these decisions, but it's an absolute joke; just not a funny one.
Outside of these gripes the film does strange things with the zombies, having them talk at times, makes references to things from the game that feel really forced like conversations about what would be the worst way to die, eaten by a snake or a shark. It takes ideas from the novelisation book, like one of the characters being given a pda with info on how to get around the mansion by a shadowy figure, but does nothing much with it. It includes Lisa Trevor but does nothing with her, nor explains who she is or how she's there. Its like darts were thrown at a wall filled with Resident Evil trivia and ephemera and they just included whatever was hit without making it work.
The most galling thing is, there are hints that some of the people making this know Resident Evil, and that they care about the source material. The ammo boxes in the RPD building are straight out of the game, a bunch of keys are the card suit keys fro Resident Evil 2, the artwork hanging in the Spencer mansion matches what was in the game, and there are music and audio moments that are from the series. Yet these nods and winks to the longtime fans who recognise such things mean little when the rest of the film feels like they put the first two games in a blender and threw whatever came out on the screen without any creativity or care. It's like the film is simultaneously made by a super fan and someone who has only ever experienced the series by reading a Wikipedia entry.
As a fan of Resident Evil I honestly cannot advise watching this film. If you like zombie movies and have no investment in the series in any way you might find this mildly entertaining, though the flimsy story and ill defined characters might not be enough to keep you invested. If you do like the series just stay away. It's a horrible mangling of the source material that fails to entertain in any way. Resident Evil Apocalypse was a better adaptation of the fall of Raccoon City than this film, and is infinitely more entertaining than this drab affair.
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