Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City: 4 Ups & 6 Downs
Another dud video game adaptation joins the pile.
After Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil series finally wrapped up in 2017 with the wretched The Final Chapter, it was just a matter of time before the iconic IP got the reboot treatment, and less than five years later a new cinematic take on the franchise has indeed arrived.
With a decent cast and a promise from the filmmakers that it would be a more source-accurate adaptation, there was a lot of pre-release optimism about Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, that it would deliver a more crowd-pleasing, fan-serving reboot.
And while it certainly is more accurate to the video games than any of the Anderson films, Welcome to Raccoon City is proof perfect that faithfulness alone cannot sustain a movie.
Despite some moments that capture the vibe of the games and a few solid performances, this is another low-effort dud of a video game movie that again confirms just how difficult it is to translate an interactive piece of media into a compelling film.
Between the predominantly negative critical reviews, iffy "C+" CinemaScore, and its poor box office performance out of the gate, it's clear that this new riff on Resident Evil is basically dead before it even gets going.
Fans of the series who go in with suitably low expectations might derive some mild amusement from it, but for the most part this is a sure misfire. With that in mind, here's where it goes wrong...