Review: Resident Evil: Welcome To Racoon City

Director: Johannes Roberts

Screenplay: Johannes Roberts

Year: 2021

The Resident Evil films went from being decent entries in the horror genre to embroidering comedy with its excesses. This got so out of hand that there were only two options left to remedy the situation: let them die or restart the saga with another approach. But as long as successful games in the series continue to come out, where Resident Evil: Village was even considered one of the best games of the year, the film series was meant to mimic the zombies it represents and refuse to die.

"Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City" is the reboot of the Resident Evil movies, which focuses on the story of the first three video games in the series. The powerful biotech company Umbrella Corporation moves their operations from Racoon City to another location, and to cover up what they were really doing there, they plan to destroy the city. A group of citizens works together to figure out what the company wants to cover up as they try to survive the night.

After the path taken by the past films and how weak the animated ones have been, the most recent "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" did not get the best review from us; it was difficult to think that we would continue to see movies in this series. However, only four years after the last installment of the saga led by Paul W. S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich, and only a few months after the animated miniseries "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness", comes the latest attempt to revitalize the series. At least in this endeavor, they were successful.

Beyond being another installment in the film series, the director and screenwriter Johannes Roberts ("47 Meters Down: Uncaged") strives to give what game fans have been demanding for years from the saga, and that is to be more faithful to the games. Well, this time the director is directly inspired by the trilogy that led this game to popularity. However, this tribute is also its biggest problem.

In its quest to bring the action that characterizes these games, the story’s development takes a second place. This leads to the plot being imprecise and the characters being underdeveloped. Since I mention the characters, this is another area of ​​lights and shadows, where some characters are very similar in physique and personality to those in the games, but others are nothing like the character they are trying to portray.

"Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City" is the tribute that video game fans have been asking for since the first movie was released back in 2002. This is one of its virtues and one of its problems, exemplified by how it exerts to introduce all the famous names from the game series in its first 15 minutes of duration. Even with its problems, it is the best adaptation of games to movies in the series, and it is entertaining and with some memorable moments for both fans of video games and horror movies.