Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Unconnected to the earlier Milla Jovovich films, this reboot of the Resident Evil franchise promised to adhere more faithfully to the tone and plot of the original videogames. In that respect, it definitely succeeds, but the end result does at times feel a little like watching an extended cutscene in a game that someone else is playing.

Premise: Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) returns to Raccoon City to warn her brother, cop Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), about an alleged conspiracy relating to Umbrella Pharmaceuticals’ decision to relocate its facilities to a different town. But soon an unknown threat calls the rest of the Raccoon City Police Department – including Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) and Brian Irons (Donal Logue) – into action.

Review:

First things first, I have to confess that I’ve never played any of the Resident Evil videogames. I am, quite honestly, too much of a scaredy-cat to play those survival horror games, despite how well-regarded they are. Secondly, I really enjoyed Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil film series – I'm not saying it was high art by any stretch of the imagination (and two of the six films are pretty bad), but overall, it was a real “guilty pleasure” of mine.

The reason I say this is because, even as someone who has never played the Resident Evil videogames, it’s very clear to me how faithful to the original games Welcome to Raccoon City is trying to be. The plot to this reboot is essentially an amalgamation of the storylines from the first two videogames, and even someone with a passing knowledge of the game franchise will recognise the names of all the main characters in this film. What’s interesting, however, is that nearly all of the secondary/minor supporting characters also appear to be from the games, as are many of the film’s locations, and (I am assured by people who have played the games) the framing of many of the shots in the film directly recreate images from the games. The affection that writer/director Johannes Roberts has for the game franchise is clear for all to see.

“…it feels like the film assumes a lot of pre-existing knowledge on the part of the audience…”

This approach does, however, come with two very significant drawbacks for the uninitiated. Firstly, the plot to a videogame does not necessarily transfer well as the plot for a feature film, and in Welcome to Raccoon City, there are a number of times when it feels like you’re watching characters simply progress from one “save point” to the next. In a film like this, you either need (a) a few more plot twists to keep you on your toes, and/or (b) some impressive action set-pieces to break up the characters’ quests for clues, but Welcome to Raccoon City is arguably a little short on both of these.

Secondly, it feels like the film assumes a lot of pre-existing knowledge on the part of the audience. For example (mild spoilers ahead in the rest of this paragraph), it’s never really explained what the T-Virus is, what the G-Virus is, why they were created, exactly how they were released, and what’s the relevance of the home movie of the creepy twins that’s discovered partway through the movie. Some of these can be guessed at, and some are (presumably) being left open for future sequels (a couple of plot points have definitely been left deliberately open for sequels), but others just feel like the audience is expected to know from the games why something is significant.

“…recreates the unsettling survival horror tone of the games…”

In this regard, it’s hard not to conclude that while Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil films may have been less faithful to the games, they were more accessible to cinema audiences. Milla Jovovich’s first Resident Evil game, for example, had several unexpected plot twists, some memorable action sequences, and explained everything in a very accessible manner for anyone who was new to the franchise. Welcome to Raccoon City, in contrast, has far fewer surprises in its plot, and no particularly memorable action sequences.

That said, it is far more atmospheric, as it attempts to recreate the unsettling survival horror tone of the games, rather than the more action-oriented tone of the Milla Jovovich films. Welcome to Raccoon City is populated with ominously foggy forests, abandoned mansions, and creepy institutional buildings, all of which is designed to place more emphasis on the horror and suspense elements rather than the action elements.

“…Raccoon City itself feels like it has much more of an identity than it ever did before…”

The film’s desire to recreate the games’ tone even goes as far as setting the movie in 1998, in the same time period as the original videogames. This means that not only do we have some amusing technological throwbacks in the film (“look - it’s a discman!”), but we also have a score and a general aesthetic that recaptures the spooky horror tone of the late 90s.

Raccoon City itself also feels like it has much more of an identity than it ever did in the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil films. Whereas in Resident Evil: Apocalypse it was a fairly generic metropolitan city, in this film, it’s a down-on-its-luck, poverty-stricken Midwestern town, where its residents are struggling to stay afloat once the main employer, Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, pulls out of town. The images of the town in Welcome to Raccoon City, be they of deserted residential streets or a police station under siege, are far more memorable than any of the locations in Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

“…a film made by fans of the videogames, for fans of the videogames…”

The cast of Welcome to Raccoon City all seem well-suited to playing their characters, which is good, because the script doesn’t give any of them a huge amount to work with. Kaya Scodelario and Robbie Amell, in particular, are saddled with the more straightlaced rolls, while at least Hannah John-Kamen and Avan Jogia have a few lighter moments to play with. Tom Hopper arguably gets a bit more to do than the other main characters, but Neal McDonough feels so underserved in his role as the main Umbrella scientist that it feels like there must have been more deleted scenes fleshing his character out further. Only Donal Logue as the amusingly blunt police chief gets an opportunity to make any real impression.

Overall, Welcome to Raccoon City feels like a film made by fans of the videogames, for fans of the videogames, and for those of us not able to have fun spotting all of the hidden Easter eggs, there may be less to enjoy. That said, it was still a fairly enjoyable zombie horror film, and there’s clearly plenty more that could be done with this cast and the plot threads set up in this film – but it remains to be seen whether this movie will spawn a franchise of its own, or become an undead one-and-done movie itself.