Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City review: A real return to horror

If video game enthusiasts feel a little trepidation about the new movie, they are not wrong Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City. The cinematic adaptations to beloved video games are notoriously disappointed. This new Resident Evil movie, based on the well-known horror series, also serves as a terrifying reboot. They were global success enough that the Resident Evil movies of previous years lasted for fifteen years. Six feature films followed, each with Milla Joviich as the main character and Paul W.S. Anderson may direct or write.

Jovovich played Alice, a character invented for the films, while game-derived characters flitted in and out of Alice’s narrative. While the plot was different from that of game canon but did follow the same structure and repeating elements as mission-based structures, it was a good example of how they worked together. Resident Evil-style games in general. Raccoon CityIt focuses on Claire Redfield (Kaya Skelelario), who is a character in older films by Ali Larter. Claire and her younger brother Chris (Robbie Arnell), were orphaned when they were children. They were remitted into the Raccoon city Orphanage in care of William Birkin, Neal McDonough in case you wondered if Birkin was really bad. Claire left Raccoon, eventually releasing herself from her troubles, and Chris went on to be a cop.

The movie has flashbacks to explain some aspects of the story, but the main plot focuses on Claire and her siblings as adults who have become estranged. At the behest of a local conspiracy theorist who insists that Raccoon City’s longtime economic engine, the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella, has performed nefarious experiments on the populace, Claire returns to her hometown. Claire was right to notice that Raccoon City is barely surviving since Umbrella left. Claire met the paranoid, sinister man through her childhood. Of course, a chat room. “What the hell is a chat room?” Chris asks. 1998 is the year.

Plotwise, the utility of this movie’s period setting is questionable, beyond horror films’ now-standard elimination of the smartphone advantage. A vague tribute to the age when Resident Evil existed, this movie also serves as a reminder. games first gained popularity, 1998 seems to have been chosen so writer-director Johannes Roberts could indulge in a variety of ’90s soundtrack cuts, with a far more exacting ear for his chosen slice of the decade than, say, Fear Street 1994. The songs even function as shorthand characterization for people who aren’t fully fleshed out: Claire settles a car radio on the Cardigans-gone-dark tune “My Favourite Game,” while Donal Logue’s older, blustering police chief hasn’t joined the ’90s at all, and instead favors Journey’s “Any Way You Want It,” which amusingly scores a scene of mayhem.

The malady afflicting the few remaining residents of Raccoon City isn’t just economic. As with the games and previous films, the area has been infected by a virus that turns people into zombies — and as with the earlier Resident Evil movies, Raccoon city is open to you isn’t a particularly distinguished zombie picture. Anderson/Jovovich’s installments of this series were not noteworthy. Those movies are more science-fi/action films than horror. Clones fire automatic weapons at different undead mutations. Roberts made a more scary movie than it was frightening, though not especially. Raccoon City’s textures and tone are the key differences. In the Anderson series, it’s a generic location that exists to hide an underground lair, be quickly ravaged by zombies, and get annihilated by a bomb. As a place, it’s about as believable as its extremely game-y name.

Roberts works from stock locations — a police station, a mansion with hidden passages, a small-town diner — but gives Raccoon City a rundown moodiness. It still doesn’t seem like a real city, but this time, the effect is more intentionally melancholy. The corporation that owned it is gone and time has passed. The zombies are even sadder. Once fully transformed, they’re nothing special, but during their long decay, they’re forlorn creatures, dripping tears of blood as their humanity drifts away. Like Anderson’s films, this one takes inspiration from John Carpenter, specifically Escape New York And Precinct 13 Assault. There’s even a Carpenter-esque font, counting down the hours until Raccoon City will be destroyed. By not resolving those conflicting impulses — an escape mission vs. mounting a defense — Roberts generates an unspoken tension. Are these people going to defend their city or will they leave?

A group of characters with guns stand together in the woods in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Photo: Sony Pictures

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City doesn’t often give those characters the depth that might have complemented the movie’s hometown-from-hell ambiance. When the charismatic Scodelario summons straight-faced grit, it’s hard not to think of CrawlA monster film that uses her strength to great effect. Some game fans resented that Milla Jovovich made a central character out of someone who isn’t part of the gaming mythology. Still, Jovovich’s star quality and commanding physicality is noticeably lacking from these versions of Claire or Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), one of Chris’s co-workers on the force.

A little confusing is the way that Claire crosses over between Claire the outsider and Claire’s flashbacks. The movie is humming at first thanks to the distinct storylines. It becomes difficult to converge the cast. The initial separation also prevents them having any chance of developing chemistry together.

However, despite its drawbacks and deviations from the preceding series, it is still a great book.Raccoon CityThis B-movie continues to be a part of a long line of talented B-movies. Roberts presents familiar scenes in new and innovative ways. To give the movie an almost eerie feel, he uses orange lighting. He stages one zombie attack in abstract flashes. The climactic transformation of the monster is unforgettable. Even a simple shot that seems designed to mimic a game’s first-person-shooter vantage cleverly replaces a weapon with an unadorned lighter. He keeps the movie interesting even though the plot moves around in circles.

It’s comforting to know that Resident Evil hasn’t been rebooted into something overblown — that’s another reason the 1998 setting feels right. That year was right around when Anderson was making shlock like Event Horizon and SoldierFollowing his first success with the First, he decided to continue. Mortal Kombat Movie in 1995 to much distress of Sci-Fi fans and critics. Anderson remained despite his poor reputation and built a loyal following. Even his junkiest movies look much better than before. Anderson has a very tight pacing and memorable production design. The well-choreographed action makes them more recognisable. You have to give. Resident Evil: Chapter FinalOr Monster Hunter a watch; they’re more fun than so many bigger-ticket blockbusters.)

Roberts has held several titles in the past, including a Strangerssequel, and shark stories 47 meters downAnderson and the sequel have a completely different approach to pulpy material, although they could be following the same track. Many filmmakers get hired from smaller thrillers, and then promoted to tentpole assembly duty. JaumeCollettSera was the director of The Shallows Non-Stop, Who just produced one of the most boring movies of all time? Jungle Cruise.) Enjoy the small pleasures Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon CityRoberts might not make the biggest splash. Let’s hope not. We will see if his next venture is another horror-thriller. Resident Evil, he’s well-qualified to keep the B-movie fire burning.

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon CityOn Nov. 24, the film will be released theatrically.

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