Resident Evil is a storied franchise spanning from books, movies, cgi movies and shows. Oh and don’t forget the video game franchise that started it all. Through the latest 25 years of this amazing journey we have had ups and downs and remakes and all of it. However not once have we ever had a film franchise that took the original story and characters and actually used them in a film. That is until now!
Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City kicks off the holiday season by premiering on November 24th just the day ahead of Thanksgiving here in the states. It stars Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield, Kaya Scodelario as Claire Redfield Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine and Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker. We also have Neal McDonough as William Birkin and Donal Logue as Police Chief Brian Irons. Avan Jogia also stars as Leon Kennedy. The cast was perfect outside of the actor for Leon. He didn’t look the part is all
So where do we begin? Oh yes at the beginning. No not the Spencer Mansion! We are going back to before any of that happens. Chris and Claire have lost their parents and are in the Raccoon City Orphanage. Things aren’t what they seem and Claire knows it buy Chris just avoids the truth and is only trying to get by and protect Claire. This opening gives us some more back story and a different view point of Chris and Claire Redfield before before days of Stars and saving Sherry Birkin were ever thought of. We can also see that Umbrella has been doing experiments in this town for a long time.
We skip ahead to 1998, September 30th to be exact. Claire was dreaming about everything mentioned above and wakes up in a panic. She’s with a trucker and his dog as they’re going through into Raccoon City the trucker hits a stumbling woman with his truck. By the time they’re able to get out and check on this woman she is gone! The dog however starts lapping up the blood and this is the point things start to go south. The trucker finally drops Claire off and as he’s driving along hes eating his dog bites him. Thus starts part of the story we are familiar with from Resident Evil 2.
Chris and Claire meet up as Claire breaks into his house. We find out they had been split up after Claire ran away after their time at the orphanage. Chris was educated and went into the police academy and had stayed with William Birkin who helped him. This was different than the game storyline but a nice interpretation for the film. Chris was a part of the Stars unit of the Raccoon City Police Department. He was headed to meet up with his team mates so they could investigate the Spencer Mansion incident. They were looking for the other members of the Stars unit, just not the same unit we know from the games. That change really sucked. The Bravo and Alpha teams really gave the first game a good story. Sending in Alpha team after losing communication with Bravo team was how all of this started. Leaving that out really hurt the film.
There were loads of other issues. Jill Valentine didn’t look like Jill. The character had good lines, but her back story was just terrible. Instead of being Chris’s partner she was infatuated with Wesker who apparently didn’t return those feelings. Wesker was another issue. His character was off somewhat not the same guy we all seen from the games. He was still working an angle of sabotage but just not in the same capacity as the games. Wesker even goes as far as killing the Birkins which isn’t how that story should have went.
Moving on from these two characters the one final issue I had character and story wise was Leon Kennedy. Leon in the games was a rookie cop who showed up to Raccoon City as the outbreak was underway. He stepped up and saved the day for a few people. In the film there is none of that. Leon is still considered a rookie cop by the RPD but he was transferred from another town because he shot his partner in the ass. Yes Leon Kennedy the most liked and popular character of the entire series was written as a bumbling idiot for a movie that was supposed to be just like the source material. How in the world do you manage to screw up this badly? I mean Paul Andersons films after the first two were just using the name of the series and a few characters here and there and still were better.
This film left no room to focus on Jill’s story for part 3. No room to tell a source material focused Code Veronica story. Raccoon City was destroyed as the four heroes escaped. Chris, Jill, Leon and Claire. So we have a setup for a sequel let’s just hope that there are better writers who are actual fans of the series brought aboard to write the movie.
Final Thoughts
My review was late for this mostly because I really had to think about what I wanted to review. The acting wasn’t bad or good it was just in the middle. The story had high and low points. Mosty low points. The characters however were the weak point of the entire film. The story was changed from the source and the film suffered. Trying to put two different stories into one film was a mistake. Leon showing up into Raccoon City with Claire should have been the end of the film and the focus of a second film. Yet here we are. Now we have to see if they’re going to go the route that this team sticks together or falls apart. I hope to see an accurate code veronica with Claire and Chris. Yet I feel like with this ending we will get everyone together as a team. Either way let’s just be happy for a new generation of Resident Evil films. It can only get better from here.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Its resident evil and Robbie Amell saved this film with his Chris Redfield. Otherwise it would get a rating of 1. I hope the next one is better!
