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RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY Review Thread

Jose92

[Membe
Resident-Evil-Welcome-to-Raccoon-City-Poster.jpg

RT: 29


Trailer:



Variety: Link

Writer-director Johannes Roberts supplies plenty of fan service but scarce coherent plotting and even fewer scares.

IGN:
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is certainly not the worst video game adaptation or even the worst Resident Evil movie, but both those bars are pretty low. Director Johannes Roberts does deserve some credit for sticking much more closely to the source material than the Paul W.S. Anderson films, but a short runtime, a rushed third act, and lack of elements to make it truly scary to watch in the dark hold it back immensely.


NYPost: Link

The film is empty-headed good fun that’s blessedly under two hours and has just enough character development to make you kind of care when someone gets bitten.


Avclub: Link
A reboot totally bereft of the visual distinction or creative personality that often made its predecessors intriguing diamonds in the rough.

Many more reviews out there but repeat the same points.

Resident Evil GIF

tldr: rushed, cheap, and is not so good.
 
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pans-labyrinth.jpg
This movie would be a streaming hit. Seeing that it only costs around 30 million to make. And if they only spend 10 million in marketing, the movie should do fine.

Sony should just give Guillermo del Toro Gómez the franchise, and let him do whatever he wants.

His team knows how to make things look creepy without much CGI too.
 

Kuranghi

Member
So from what I saw for second it looks like Lisa Trevor is following them around the mansion, like a "buddy" lol wtf is that? Isn't she supposed to be completely mind-broken and unconsolable?
 

ParaSeoul

Member
That trailer looks a lot better than the other they put on twitter that had fucking meme text subtitles for some reason
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WoodyStare

Member
Mortal Kombat 1995 is 45% on rotten tomatoes
Silent Hill 2006 is 32%

Both are generally agreed to be some of the better game adaptations. 29% ain't that bad.
Yeah to be honest, I’ve enjoyed plenty of movies with terrible reviews, and disliked just as many with great reviews. There are some movies with RT scores in the 20s/30s that I’d argue are masterpieces. Plenty of movies have gotten poor reviews at release and had critical revaluation over the years. All comes down to just seeing the movie and forming your own opinion. While the Silent Hill movie isn’t great, it does have gorgeous cinematography and production design. There’s a lot to admire even with the problems.

Johannes Roberts has style at times, especially with The Strangers: Prey at Night and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, both of which have fairly poor reviews, but they’re a lot of fun. The Strangers: Prey at Night especially is the closest we’ve gotten to a new Friday the 13th in decades, and the atmosphere from the opening frame is fantastic. I’m honestly excited to see what he does with Resident Evil, even if the CGI looks terrible and the casting is questionable.
 
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TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Well, this is shocking, to be sure. PS2 CGI and a cast that looks like a Netflix Original that got canceled but the creator turned it into a YouTube series as a passion project. Mix with sub-120 minute runtime covering two games that apparently no one can do justice for in passive media, and you have this. ALLEGEDLY. I say hey, hey, hey, hey-ey. Hey, hey, hey. I say hey. What's going on?
 
Just got back from seeing it. From a completely unbiased point of view, I'd say it was slightly better than the first Paul WS Resi movie.

That said, from a Resi fan's point of view, I really don't like the changes they made to the story and characterization of some characters.

-Why combine Resi 1 & 2? The movie feels rushed at times because of it. Is it really so hard to make a moody, spooky, claustrophobic movie that takes place entirely in the mansion?
-Making the Redfields into orphans raised by Birkin was unnecessary and added nothing to the story.
-The Licker vs Lisa Trevor scene was a mess. It started off very nicely with the licker jumping across the lights while shrouded in darkness, followed by the creepy Lisa reveal... but then she beats the shit out of it like it's some cheap creature feature. I'll be honest, I've never been a fan of the Lisa character in general (I'm one of those weirdos that prefers the OG RE1 for various reasons), but turning her into a 'friend' from Claire's orphanage was an extra level of dumb
-Jill is too much of a hothead in this, and Leon is too much of a dumbass. He's supposed to be green, not a total moron.
-Making Wesker into a sympathetic jock-type dude is a weird choice, but I was okay with it when he died and didn't show any sign of Code Veronica superhero bullshit.... until the post credit scene, where I couldn't help but bury my face in my hands


I do appreciate the fan service, though. Lots of easter eggs for fans to gobble up.
 

supernova8

Banned
Just got back from seeing it. From a completely unbiased point of view, I'd say it was slightly better than the first Paul WS Resi movie.

That said, from a Resi fan's point of view, I really don't like the changes they made to the story and characterization of some characters.

-Why combine Resi 1 & 2? The movie feels rushed at times because of it. Is it really so hard to make a moody, spooky, claustrophobic movie that takes place entirely in the mansion?
-Making the Redfields into orphans raised by Birkin was unnecessary and added nothing to the story.
-The Licker vs Lisa Trevor scene was a mess. It started off very nicely with the licker jumping across the lights while shrouded in darkness, followed by the creepy Lisa reveal... but then she beats the shit out of it like it's some cheap creature feature. I'll be honest, I've never been a fan of the Lisa character in general (I'm one of those weirdos that prefers the OG RE1 for various reasons), but turning her into a 'friend' from Claire's orphanage was an extra level of dumb
-Jill is too much of a hothead in this, and Leon is too much of a dumbass. He's supposed to be green, not a total moron.
-Making Wesker into a sympathetic jock-type dude is a weird choice, but I was okay with it when he died and didn't show any sign of Code Veronica superhero bullshit.... until the post credit scene, where I couldn't help but bury my face in my hands


I do appreciate the fan service, though. Lots of easter eggs for fans to gobble up.
Haven't seen it yet (it doesn't come out til like late January/Feb in Japan unfortunately) but just from the trailers, it doesn't look remotely scary. I was seriously hoping for a genuinely terrifying movie. All of the stuff you've listed makes me even less excited to see it, but above all I wanted it to be scary. I remember when I was fucking petrified as a child just hearing the "reeeeesident eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevuuuuuuuuuuul" at the opening screen of the very first game. I want that!!!
 
Haven't seen it yet (it doesn't come out til like late January/Feb in Japan unfortunately) but just from the trailers, it doesn't look remotely scary. I was seriously hoping for a genuinely terrifying movie. All of the stuff you've listed makes me even less excited to see it, but above all I wanted it to be scary. I remember when I was fucking petrified as a child just hearing the "reeeeesident eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevuuuuuuuuuuul" at the opening screen of the very first game. I want that!!!
It's about the same as the first Resi movie when it comes to scares (i.e. a few jump scares), but it generally tries to be more atmospheric and moody than the first... until the guns start blazing.
On that note, I need to give kudos to the composer for the film because the original score was very good IMO.
 

supernova8

Banned
It's about the same as the first Resi movie when it comes to scares (i.e. a few jump scares), but it generally tries to be more atmospheric and moody than the first... until the guns start blazing.
On that note, I need to give kudos to the composer for the film because the original score was very good IMO.

Fair enough! I thought the umbrella corp music (the stuff made by Marilyn Manson) was great for the first movie. Really screamed "high-tech" and "scientific intrigue" while at the same time "something weird is about to happen".
 

Hugare

Member
Because never was their goal. Their goal is to attract the 'new audience'.
Not even one decision that they've made with this movie was better than translating RE 1 or 2 literally to the screen. None.

Its all about execution. They have more than enough material with the original games to make a great movie for the "new audience".
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
What do people expect out of a Resident Evil movie? That looked decent to me.
 

Fake

Member
Not even one decision that they've made with this movie was better than translating RE 1 or 2 literally to the screen. None.

Its all about execution. They have more than enough material with the original games to make a great movie for the "new audience".

If you take into account recents shows like Cowboy Beebop, sure they think like the same. I never said they don't have resource to make a faithful show, they just don't care.
 

iorek21

Member
Why do they keep thinking that a short runtime is a good idea for these kind of movie?

Assassins Creed was also unnecessarily short.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I loved the movie.

Hear me out. It was quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen when it comes to its execution. There are some really fantastic and effective shots but others are just really poor. The movie is quite possibly the campiest film I've ever seen. I can't even describe it really cause seeing this movie was almost surreal. At times I was thinking, "I can't believe this got approved to be shown to the public, let alone on a big screen..." but I was just grinning the whole time and just having fun watching it. The OST was fantastic, the sense of dread in certain scenes was palpable, I loved Chris' portrayal when he was alone in the Mansion, he straight up embodied the box art of the original game. Jill was great too, she was capable, confident, apologized to Leon for hazing him (kindness), showed her loyalty to STARS. She had the best arc of all the characters in the movie.

Leon's character definitely should have been treated different. He should have snapped into place during the flaming zombie scene, that was a really dumb script mistake to keep emphasizing that he's a screw up. But it is what it is.


Honestly, this movie is essentially a full-length Hollywood film done in the style of the 1996 live action intro.

What this intentional? If the movie I watched is the vision that the director had, then he's a complete genius. If it was sheer dumb luck, well I'm glad it happened cause I've honestly never seen anything like it, for better or worse.

latest
 

Kacho

Gold Member
I loved the movie.

Hear me out. It was quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen when it comes to its execution. There are some really fantastic and effective shots but others are just really poor. The movie is quite possibly the campiest film I've ever seen. I can't even describe it really cause seeing this movie was almost surreal. At times I was thinking, "I can't believe this got approved to be shown to the public, let alone on a big screen..." but I was just grinning the whole time and just having fun watching it. The OST was fantastic, the sense of dread in certain scenes was palpable, I loved Chris' portrayal when he was alone in the Mansion, he straight up embodied the box art of the original game. Jill was great too, she was capable, confident, apologized to Leon for hazing him (kindness), showed her loyalty to STARS. She had the best arc of all the characters in the movie.

Leon's character definitely should have been treated different. He should have snapped into place during the flaming zombie scene, that was a really dumb script mistake to keep emphasizing that he's a screw up. But it is what it is.


Honestly, this movie is essentially a full-length Hollywood film done in the style of the 1996 live action intro.

What this intentional? If the movie I watched is the vision that the director had, then he's a complete genius. If it was sheer dumb luck, well I'm glad it happened cause I've honestly never seen anything like it, for better or worse.

latest
Alright I'll rent it when it hits digital. Sounds like a movie you need to be in the right mood to enjoy.
 

Dr_Salt

Member
pans-labyrinth.jpg
This movie would be a streaming hit. Seeing that it only costs around 30 million to make. And if they only spend 10 million in marketing, the movie should do fine.

Sony should just give Guillermo del Toro Gómez the franchise, and let him do whatever he wants.

His team knows how to make things look creepy without much CGI too.
What makes you think del taco wants to work on RE?
 
Honestly, this movie is essentially a full-length Hollywood film done in the style of the 1996 live action intro.

What this intentional? If the movie I watched is the vision that the director had, then he's a complete genius. If it was sheer dumb luck, well I'm glad it happened cause I've honestly never seen anything like it, for better or worse.

I'm going to assume it was absolutely not intentional at all, considering modern Hollywood's primadonna complex and obsession with feeling both artistically and morally superior to everyone else at the moment.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I'm going to assume it was absolutely not intentional at all, considering modern Hollywood's primadonna complex and obsession with feeling both artistically and morally superior to everyone else at the moment.
Eh, I kinda see what you're saying but I don't think that applies at all to this movie.

I think the camp was somewhat intentional and also incompetence. This movie doesn't scream modern Hollywood at all. It's totally something out of the euro-horror/video nasty era. It's almost like they're giving a middle finger to everything you'd expect from a Hollywood movie, lol.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
Alright I'll rent it when it hits digital. Sounds like a movie you need to be in the right mood to enjoy.
I think alot of it comes down to someone's history with cinema. If all you watch are big action movies, or top tier legit great films, WTRC is going to be absolute shit. If you like campy B-Movies, euro horror from the 80s and early John Carpenter films (assault on precinct 13, the fog, escape from new york), you'll probably like WTRC.
 
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Saw it last night in a theatre of all of 8 people.

It was actually just really bad. And not in a so bad it’s entertaining way. It’s just baffling and boring
 
Your loss

the games are amazing


Nope, not a loss at all.
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deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Mortal Kombat 1995 is 45% on rotten tomatoes
Silent Hill 2006 is 32%

Both are generally agreed to be some of the better game adaptations. 29% ain't that bad.
Actually this just say that those metrics are dumb

First Mortal Kombat is fun as hell, but everyone knows that is more of a guilty pleasure than a great movie. First Silent Hill is just ok because respected the first game in storytelling and design, but stops there and there's no real sympathy for the characters aside from "it shows in the game" - excluding James... why they changed that?
 

GinSama

Member
Saw it today. Freaking love it. Best shit ever. The tension and the atmosphere was pretty awesome.

-
my biggest complain was about Leon personality. But cannot please everyone I guess.]

I still think they lost a huge opportunity to put Mr x on the movie….[/ispoiler

planing to see again tomorrow.
 
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