User Reviews

Why this casting?

Why this director?

Why this story?

Why everything in this movie.

Unfortunately, as expected, this movie sucks. While the CGI is not that bad as it was in the trailer, everything else is.

Story is a chopped up blend of first and second game, but written badly. Casting is almost completely wrong. But even worse - characters are all written and crafted wrong. That's not Leon, that's not Jill Valentine, that's not the Redfields and that sure as hell is not Wesker.

Not to say anything against actors, ironically enough - as bad as they got casted - most of the actors in this movie are pretty good actors, from Donal Logue to Kaya Scodelario. They were just given trash script and story to work with.

Zombies look like generic vampires from SyFy tv shows or whatever. Also - there's some inspired but bizzare camerawork at times.

Locations are underutilised and most are kinda bland looking. Atmosphere is eaten pretty fast by the movie's runtime so there's none of that either.

I don't get it. It's not a unknown brand or something. Even more, RE series is on a high point lately as a video game franchise - one excellent remake, one good and two fantastic sequels in the past couple of years.

Yet, movie is given into the hands of a director/writer that hadn't made a good movie in his entire career.

Such shame and wasted potential.

A decent Resident Evil movie with some gore, cheap jump scares and a lot of fan-service. Not everything clicks and it's incredibly easy to be overly critical of this movie but in my opinion it was certainly a lot better than the trash that was Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. I grabbed some popcorn, candy and a coke with my expectations firmly in check and I had a decent overall time. I'm a big fan of schlocky B-movies and it's nice to see something in theatres that isn't related to superheroes or overly-serious dramas. What I didn't like the most though was how Leon was portrayed but I guess that's because I got done playing RE4 on the oculus and I'm used to that representation of him.

After watching Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City I read a lot of the reviews on IMDB and the only reviews being liked are from people who bombed the film. Are people really that desperate to hate on a movie they haven't seen? What are your expectations going into a Resident Evil movie if you have seen it?

The first news of a better adaptation of Resident Evil game (not a reboot, don't call it that, Anderson's series were vaguely based on the game and that always bothered me!) was exciting, but when I saw the first images and trailer I instantly felt I wouldn't like it.

To start, the abysmal take of Leon, one of the main characters, a badass hero, is portrayed here as a useless, stupid wimp, who looks virtually the complete opposite to the character in the game. So it's not the first impression from the images about the total miss cast in terms of look, the character was destroyed in an insulting way and Avan Jogia performance is terrible. That pretty much ruined the movie for me.

Jill Valentine is the other terrible miss cast, even if you put aside the look of the actress, the character doesn't feel like what it was in the game.

I've read an interview with the (terrible) director and writer of this mess, Johannes Roberts, saying basically that he didn't care that much about the look of the actors (bad approach, in my opinion, but well..), but wanted to get actors that feel like the characters in the game. I wonder WHAT game did this guy play. Honestly. Absolute miss.

But if you leave Leon and Jill characters poor adaptations off the movie, it still looks and feel amateurish and poorly written. The dialogs, pace and action, it's quite an eye roll fest.

Lots of scenes are poorly light, and I don't mean too dark, it's just cheap and lousy cinematography. Not all though, some scenes look good, but unfortunately they're the least. The colouring also feels like a bad choice, everything looks yellowish, like if it was filmed using tungsten lights and not fixed afterwards. More amateurism or just poor creative choice.

The action was quite lame, cliché, poorly choreographed and shoot, I don't remember a single one that I liked, and there were some serious continuity issues that felt confusing when Chris and the other guy get attacked fist time in the mansion. (not a real spoiler here, that's obvious to happen, right?)

Now for what I give some credit to this movie, is for the effort on (at least trying) to keep the atmosphere, setting and characters of the game, including some of the classic monsters.

The first minutes after the orphanage scene were good actually, a good pre-first scene of the game RE2, I really liked it, with the truck, the dog... But as soon as Leon appears, it totally spoiled everything.

And the mansion! Along with Chris Redfield casting (the best one, I wish they did a better effort casting all the rest) the mansion was nailed in terms of atmosphere and look, it totally brought me back to my memories playing RE 1, 2 and 3. It was pretty wasted though, I do appreciate that the keys and secret doors and stuff like that from the game appear here, but all that was poorly implemented and the story just drags making no sense. To be honest, half of what was going on, I only understood because I know how the game goes and this was following that line, but the story didn't feel solid at any point as a movie.

The CGI was quite mediocre, but didn't ruin the movie for me, and it gave the classic monsters from the game the chance to be there.

What else to say, looking to the other movies this director and writer has, I'm not surprised this was a bad movie, I'm only sad and disappointed that I'll have to keep waiting for a good RE adaptation, if this one didn't just kill the franchise.

I'd be surprised if any sequels are made for this mess, it looks like the director is hopeful, seeing the after credits scene. If so, I hope someone else picks up on directing and writing and they change Leon's actor.

If this was not title Resident Evil, you would have no idea of what the heck is going on in this film. It's that empty and incomplete with very little substance. The acting is horrible and feels written for lack of character development, for example; every character has to introduce themselves by first and last name just so viewers know who they are. That's horrible!

Let's hope the Netflix Resident Evil series do better than this!

I don't know why many give this movie a bad review, sure it's no Oscar worth movie but it a good fun zombie fest flick. I know The story is mediocre (what do you expect from a movie based on 90's video game) and the acting was also mediocre, but man the scenes were amazing, classing zombie horror flick... I know it's different than MillanJovovich's resident evil that is packed of CGI (specially on the later installments), this resident evil tries to do it old school, you can feel the classic zombie jump scare, the bloody gore mayhem.. it's all just fun to watch.. I hope the will make a sequel and have better storyline.

And the way they tell the story has a potential for sequels.

Marketed as the most faithful adaptation of the video game franchise, RE: Welcome to Raccoon City focused too much on turning this film into a live-action carbon copy of RE 1 & 2, they forget other significant factors.

I hate rating one stars to my most anticipated films, but they made zero effort to make this film watchable in any sense whatsoever. None of the actors convinced me they were playing these iconic characters. Their paper-thin performances dragged this film annoyingly. The screenplay and the dialogues seemed like it's been written by a film school dropout with zero knowledge about screenwriting or writing techniques that convey emotional connection and realism.

It's cute that they thought this will be a huge hit and they would be able to make more of these in a franchise manner.

Now I just watched all the films released by Screen Gems, Inc. From 2020 to 2021. I don't know, their horror films always attracts me and I love watching them, quality nonetheless.

They really tried to cram a lot into this movie but it just never clicked. The movie had strong bones but suffered from weak writing and plot. The Redfields and Wesker were cast perfectly but Jill Valentine and Leon were horribly miscast. I don't know if it was because of Hollywood making everything diverse but not only did they not look like the characters they didn't sound or make decisions like them. Man I had high hopes but it just fell short.

I love the original RE'96 and Resident Evil 2 from '98 . I was only a teen and I really enjoyed playing a lot of hours both video-games.

So, I was really excited about this new entry to the franchise because it was a fresh starting with huge possibilities. But what a dissapointment.

First and foremost, it's not scary as the videogames or visually attractive. Not to talk about the cheap CGI. Budget here is so low. Tarantino's Planet Terror is, a great example of great horror/cinematography.

Second, Leon actor/character was terrible. What was that? Nothing close to the original video-games.

Last, mostly acting is horrendous. It looks like a theatre play or a cheap TV movie. I didn't care about any of the main characters. Not to mention the secondary ones. An insult for fans.

So, overall a pretty bad new introduction to the franchise. It's probably the worst videogame movie adaptation since Super Mario Bros.

I loved playing Resident Evil or even just watching someone else play it. I can understand how people who never played the game would not like this movie but for those who loved the game, this movie is awesome. It's so faithful to the game, even down to the first zombie you kill in the mansion. The look and feel of this movie pays homage to the game even down to the creepy music you hear when a zombie is close. This is something that someone who has never played RE would not understand. As far as movies go, yeah the Milla Jovavich versions are way more flashy and appealing to the eye but this captures the awesomeness that is Resident Evil the game.

Ignoring all the incredibly bad reviews I went to see the Resident Evil reboot on the big screen last night. Feeling very nostalgic for my first survival horror game on the PlayStation I wasn't disappointed - if you've played the first game from the franchise I guarantee you'll enjoy it too. OK, some of the CG was a bit dodgy but not dodgy enough to ruin the film at all. The direction and acting were good, the story line was good, the overall feel was good. Don't be put off by the picky, lengthy reviews by the wannabe professional critics - go and see it - It's great fun!

Welcome to Raccoon City is rather a bore and letdown. How one can make of such material such a bore feast, I dunno. The movies by Anderson starring Milla are not perfect but masterpieces compared to this reboot or whatever it is. I also don't remember that the games are such dragging and boring affairs - this is my note to all of those who boldly claim that Raccoon City is true to the games. There are a few well done creepy scenes but there is too much stuff I don't like: that cop Leon for example, the whole city is on alert and he just sleeps at the reception. The scene with the helicopter pilot at the mansion too, just silly - nobody would play a game in such a moment. So my issues are: all those moments of comedy, some characters act out of place. All in all a movie that meanders between bad and mediocre, and that fails in too many aspects to satisfy, and really does not add anything new, better or special to the franchise.

The movie is ok. Not as high budget as the previous movies but the special effects were good enough.

Not much scare factor, but an ok action movie none the less.

I think this would make a good series so they can stretch out the story line. They could focus on more back stories for the characters, focus on the Umbrella corporation and its nefarious activities.

I guess people are too critical of anime, cartoon and game, live-action movie adaptions. Just enjoy.

It's 1998 Raccoon City. The Umbrella Corporation is shutting down operations in the city. Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) has come back to warn her brother, policeman Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell). There are rumors of poison in the water. The company had actually leaked the virus into the town's water and it's turning its inhabitants. Chris, Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), and others are heading to the mansion to search for missing cops. Chief Irons (Donal Logue) leaves slacker new rookie cop Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) alone in the station as he tries to escape. William Birkin (Neal McDonough) is the lead doctor in the experiments.

I really like the first half of this movie. It's relying more on the franchise's horror elements. It's a zombie horror movie. It reboots the franchise from other characters' POV. It really works. The story should gather the characters into that police station and let them fight their way out. At first, I thought it would gather the characters in that diner. That would have been great, too. Instead, the movie insists on filling out the checklist of the franchise lore and go back to the mansion. I understand the allure of revisiting and repeating. Star Wars keeps going back to the same planets despite having a whole galaxy. I really wish that they would do a side story with new characters that can branch off into somewhere new and unexpected.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" (2021) is video an adaptation of 2 great video games "Resident Evil" and "Resident Evil 2". This movie smashes plots of both games into 1 movie. That wouldn't be a problem if the writing and directing were solid. In this movie's case, they are not. Writing and directing of this movie were pretty bad in my opinion. And performances were very forgettable, but you can't blame the actors much. I didn't like what they did with Leon character - he was more like a clown and comical dumb sidekick then game based character.

Overall, "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" is a poor movie. Its not a terrible one, there are some scenes that do work mostly in third act, but as a whole its a massive disappointment. It just shows that it is not as easy to make a good movie based on video games as it looks like. You can't just recreate the plot. You have to make a good movie, and as there two media's are very opposite they require different skills and techniques to engage the view or gamer. This movie unfortunately failed to do so.

This was a movie that I didn't know was coming, but upon learning of it, I was intrigued. I heard a few people saw this and enjoyed it. When I had a free night to go to the theater, I decided to see this since I'd seen most of the other Resident Evil movies at the cinema, whenever possible. I was a big fan of the games growing up as well. The synopsis here is set in 1998; this origin story explores the secrets of the mysterious Spencer Mansion and the ill-fated Raccoon City.

We start this off inside of an orphanage in Raccoon City. Claire (Lily Gail Reid) wakes up by hearing someone whispering, or at least she thinks someone is there. Sharing her bed is Chris (Daxton Gujral). He tells her it is her imagination and to go back to sleep before they get in trouble. Claire gets up and follows a noise to a room upstairs. It is there she meets Lisa Trevor (Marina Mazepa). She seems to be wearing a mask and reveals that she lives under the orphanage. This girl disappears and Claire is startled by William Birkin (Neal McDonough). He pushes as to why she is there and Chris comes to her aid, revealing he is her brother. He does compliment the boy on watching out for her. William seems troubled.

The movie then shifts to 1998. We know that the Umbrella Corporation started in this city but has pulled out. The city is dying and the only people left are too poor to leave. Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) is on her way to see her brother. She is with a truck driver who is making passes at her. It is raining hard and he doesn't see a woman that he hits with his truck. They get out to check on her, but she disappears into the woods. His dog does lick the ground where she was lying though. They continue to Raccoon City.

Also in this town is a Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia). He's a rookie cop who after a mishap in training was sent here thanks to his powerful father. He hangs out in a local diner with members of the S. T. A. R. S. Team. They are special police officers, with them being Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper) to name the more important ones. Their boss is Chief Irons (Donal Logue).

Claire goes to see her brother, Chris (Robbie Amell), who isn't all too happy to see her. He feels she abandoned him and we see that Chris kept a relationship with William as a mentor of sorts. Chris must go to work and when he leaves, we see there is something wrong in Raccoon City. His neighbors attack Claire. The Bravo team of S. T. A. R. S. Went to the Spencer Mansion, the original site of Umbrella, but no one has heard from them. Alpha team is sent in to check on them. As they do, a siren goes off, demanding that residents stay in their homes. Raccoon City becomes a battlefield as those not affected try to survive.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap for this movie. Where I want to start is that I loved the homage that was paid to the video games of Resident Evil 1 and 2. There are some changes that were made, but I can live with that. They are mashing the two together so it is to be expected. Almost every name on the cast list I recognize in some way, shape or form, unless they are just a minor character needed to progress the story. This is the movie that I wanted when Resident Evil came out in the early 2000s. Teenage me would have gone crazy. Now that I'm a bit older, I still enjoy the references, but I do have my issues as well.

Where I'll start is the positives, which is the story. I think it works. We are getting a lot of lore from the games here. We are seeing things like Lisa Trevor, which if memory serves for Resident Evil lore is technically patient zero. We also get to see the Ashford twins, which we don't get until 'Code Veronica'. This could be laying the groundwork for potential sequels. We also have two concurrent stories going. We have the story from the original game, with S. T. A. R. S. Alpha team going to see what happened with the Bravo team at the mansion. Going with this is the second game with Claire going to the police station where she meets Leon. These two of course end up together as the games do, to an extent. The nerd in me loves all this.

Where my problem goes is that I think we have too much story for a movie that runs less than two hours long. It is interesting just watching the Fear Street trilogy before my first viewing, because this might have worked better to break them into at least two different movies. I think you can have some of the stuff we get in the beginning here with Claire, Chris, Leon and the rest of the S. T. A. R. S. Members, but I want to see them exploring the mansion more than we get. I'd also like them to investigate in the police station a bit more. I understand that there are puzzles and what not, so mashing it together like we get makes sense. I think there's more story here to uncover about Umbrella and how deep the corruption goes in Raccoon City. This movie is setting the stage for a sequel by introducing things involving Ada Wong (Lily Gao), so I'm wondering if this will do well enough to keep going. I like what writer/director Johannes Roberts did. I do have a feeling though those hardcore fans of the games might not be happy with this.

The last thing for the story I'll go into would be the social commentary. We are seeing corruption here from capitalism. Everyone knows that Umbrella is this great company that is the leading producer of pharmaceuticals, but we see the problems as well. They are poisoning the water and not telling the citizens. They're also doing illegal research as well. This isn't anything new and we've seen this play out in the other movies from this video game line as well as from others outside of it. Big Pharma being something that people are speaking out about as well.

So, then I'll go over to the acting. I thought it was solid to be honest. I think that Scodelario makes a good Claire. She is suspicious about things from her childhood which works. I like that she is pushing her brother to see the truth, but he's a bit blind. I do think Amell makes for a good Chris. John-Kamen plays Jill different than I was expecting, but I liked it. Hopper makes for a good Wesker. He doesn't play it as villainous which is interesting with knowing this character's history and arch. I think there is room for growth to that. Jogia also doesn't play Leon as I would expect. It is different to make him bumbling. I can see why now after this viewing. It gives room for growth, but I'm not the biggest fan. Logue, McDonough, Gao, Mazepa and the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed for me as well. No one here is great, we get some wooden acting, but it is more about the monsters and the action to be honest.

Next should be the effects, cinematography and the soundtrack. For the former, this is important to these movies. I thought they did well. We are seeing the zombies in the beginning stages. It looks like they're mostly done up with make-up which is good. I like how they're still somewhat human, but just rabid. We get to see infected dogs and crows as well. There's CGI there, but it was fine. We also get to see a licker, which I thought was also good. The main monster is something created from the G-virus and it looked solid to me despite being mostly computers as well. I didn't have issues with any of this to be honest. It is heavy with the computer effects, which unless you just do zombies, there isn't much you can do. I think we get some great cinematography as well. There are so many shots taken from the games and the nerd part of me again, approves. The soundtrack also hit differently with another viewing. I've come up there.

In conclusion here, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It is fun and I think fans of the games will appreciate how faithful they try to be with giving us that story, even if it is just the glossed over version of the first two. Teenage version of me would have loved this. Adult me who watches more critical still had some issues. I think this would have been better served to split the story into two movies as it feels like it rushes through things. Regardless though, it still works me. I think the acting is good across the board. They do well in bringing these familiar characters to life. The effects were good to me, both practical and CGI. The cinematography does well in recreating shots from the games that I liked with the soundtrack adding to the atmosphere. I would have to say that this is an above average movie. Fixing some of my issues could have pushed this higher for sure. After my second viewing, I've come down slightly, but I still enjoyed it overall.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

Like many long time fans of the games, I was certainly not impressed by the trailer for this film. While I was pleased to see plenty of faithful references to the games (Itchy, Tasty, Lisa Trevor) I immediately got the impression that this would be a loosely based take on the first two Resident Evil games.

I can't say I hated this movie, necessarily. There seemed to be some effort at capturing the spirit of the games, and unlike the usual Resident Evil movies, this one seemed like it was trying to be scary. Atmosphere and tone were relatively good. Director Johannes Roberts said he wanted Raccoon City to feel bleak and deserted, and he definitely succeeded, for the most part. Some of the sets felt genuine and right out of the games. Then other moments just suffered. The famous foyer of the mansion and the lobby of the police department looked like poorly rendered cgi images! Plus there were a few moments where it felt like it was trying to tell you it was a "video game movie," which sadly came across as silly. At some points this film felt like a tribute to movies like The Shining. At other points it felt like an Uwe Boll flick.

All of the monster action is fun enough. This movie offers a different take on the spread of the virus, opting for a slow spread of the zombie infection (Hey, there's something up with your eye!) as opposed to arriving and finding the city overrun with zombies. I thought that was interesting enough.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers from pacing and writing issues. The more you think about it after seeing it, the less it will make sense. Some things are over explained, or not explained enough. Plus there are many deviations from the story of the video games. Normally this should be expected, but I suspect that many fans will find some of them to be intentionally done, and there by off putting, if not insulting. I'll be the first to tell you that the movie could have done without the subplot about Clair and Chris's childhood.

Cast wise it was ok enough. I know the internet certainly bashed the casting choices, but they did what they could. The script wasn't always kind to them though, which led to some cringy moments here and there. (What's a chat room?!?) Leon being the object of lots of comic relief was certainly distracting. We get it. He's a rookie!

So if you're like me and go into it with low expectations, maybe you'll have fun. Just don't think too hard about it. If you're a long time fan of the game franchise and bummed out, fortunately for you the remake of the Resident Evil 2 game was awesome!

This plays and feels like a weak syfy movie.. boring, ugly, bad dialogues. Closer to rhe game, i guess, but yikes. The milla movies at least were entertaining nonsense. Here..nothing happens.

It makes the Milla Jovivich films even better to me. This is an awfully executed, boringly disjointed, terribly miscast, soulless mix of two games and crushingly bad movie experience. On top of that: worst CGI I've seen in quite a bunch of years. The jump-scares are cheap and without the tension nor the build up like in the games and some of the previous movies. I don't know what is Kaya Scodelario doing here. The franchise (even being what it is), the actors and we as the audience deserve so much better than this.

My hate for this movie is immeasurable and my day is ruined COMPLETELY ATROCIOUS CAST Leon : They made him a LAUGHING STOCK , a comic relief, a stupid sidekick for Claire! In the game the president saw how competent Leon was during the Racoon case and decided to hire him..HOW ARE YOU GONNA EXPLAIN THIS LATER? Of course let's not dwelve more into how he looks EXACLTY LIKE CARLOS! At least shave his beard do the bare minimum! Also his acting was mediocre af

Claire: A conspiracy theorist and a complete joke nothing like Claire and plus the actress look old for Claire

Chris: Ok

Jill:This is not Jill , looks nothing like her ACTS nothing like her..also cringe

Wesker:Ok

For those of you who rated this more than 3 I wanna ask..HOW much did they paid you to do so?