Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City 4K UHD (2021)

[dml1988]

So I watched this film for the first time Tuesday when I picked up the 4K release. I had so much more fun with this one than any of the previous 6 films, almost in a tie with the first film. It is by no means perfect, in fact I did have a few issues. I did not like Leon's portrayal, he is supposed to be so pure and have a "I am going to save everyone" attitude. In the games, it's what he goes through during RE2 that makes him understand you can't save everyone. I have no issues with the casting, just the way he was written.

Claire was also an issue to me, only in the sense that she was so cynical. She had none of the personality from the games that made her special. In fact, did Kaya even show any other emotion other then scolding like Ronda Rousey? Every thing else about her was good.

I was also not a fan of the stories running concurrent with each other. Now I don't know a lick about film making, but as a viewer this is how I would've like to have seen this film play out. Start with the S.T.A.R.S. team on a mission, showing their comradery. Then show them in Raccoon City living their lives. You could have them stumble apon a family that had been eaten like in the game after a missing persons report had been placed. Then do the "we have reports of something happening out at the old Spencer Mansion" like it happened in the film. Everything plays out there like it does, but end Chris and Jills involvement in the film for now.

Begin Leon's arrival into town as this excited and ready to help rookie. Have him run into Claire on her way to just visit her brother, cut the truck driver stuff out. Have Leon hit the zombie woman on accident. Then have them going through the town already changed into zombies and trying to get to the police station. You could even let things play out the way they do in the film, but keep the focus on Leon and Claire until they get to the Spencer Mansion. They eventually find Chris and Jill alive, which brings our 2 stories together, then have the rest of the film play out the way it does.

This film could've easily been over 2 hours with a little more substance. Sorry for the rant, they are just my thoughts. In saying all of that, this film was definitely a step in the right direction and I hope we get more.

[emailking]

So now that I've finally seen this I think I see where all the negative comments are coming from. Some parts of the movie drag a lot. And the '02 Resident Evil is definitely a much better movie. That said, some parts of it were very very creepy and I'm glad I made the decision to watch it at night instead of Saturday morning, even though I was exhausted and had trouble staying awake because of that. Kaya was great. That was why I wanted to buy this regardless of how good it was. The picture was good, nothing amazing. The sound was top notch through my headphones during those creepy/scary scenes. 3 special features 5-10 minutes along, in 1080 SDR, same ones on both discs. I recommend only if you like the movie, I agree this one is probably better rented first.

[TheBoss062]

I’m just upset that, with the way the film plays out, we won’t get a sequel that adapts Resident Evil 3 (my favorite Resident Evil game). That means no Nemesis. We never even got Mr. X in this movie

[Resettito]

Don't know how you can possibly say that RE 02 is a better film, it was a so bad it's "good" kind of film whereas Welcome To Raccoon City shows actual craft from Roberts.

The film is dripping with atmosphere, the look, the feel of it, harkening back to John Carpenter's films (which were a reference for Roberts), the anamorphic lensing, the zooms, there's a really cool sense of place and of decay.

The makeup work on the zombies was also quite grotesque in a very cool way. The VFX (which obviously includes things that would be invisible if you didn't know about them) is solid, there are a handful of shots here and there on the canines and that final monster that aren't on the same level as the rest but it's minor and the designs are strong. The licker looks brilliant by the way.

Not sure why it's judged so harshly by some. I think they did a good job combining parts of the first two games while being mostly faithful to the first one and with the smallish budget they had (25 million), I feel they stretched it as far as they could.

The cast is decent, I'm hoping for a sequel with perhaps a marginally higher budget (considering I don't think the series will go back to the kinds of BO return of the Jovovich saga) that fleshes out the characters a little.

I could feel Roberts' love for the games through and through, there's real care here. Obviously, a film like this is never going to get good reviews but I really dig it, it's pretty rad.

[Law212]

I watched this last night. The very beginning had me thinking this would be an awesome movie, but that feeling soon went away and never came back.

Visually the movie looked great in the beginning. It was raining, and with the lighting and the way it was shot, it almost looked like a grindhouse movie. which might have made this movie far better.

Claire was probably the best casting in the film and looked the part, but her personality was not there at all. Claire has always been an optimist , this claire was a dry miserable and devoid of charisma version.

Chris...wow , what a terrible portrayal of chris. I get that these movies dont have to follow the games and can be their own thing, heck thats why I loved Mila's RE movies so much. But Chris had a higher pitched voice than claire and he did not have the leadership and presence that Chris should have.

Leon... A fan favourite character, a rookie who gets thrown into a situation far over his head, but his competence , leadership and smarts get him through it. This version of Leon, nevermind hes some pencil neck bumbling fool, has to constantly be saved by Claire, and obviously claire is a strong independednt female so she sees Leon as some incompetent loser instead of an equal or even an "interest"

Leon doesnt hear a helicopter EXPLODE right infront of him. And Chief Irons has to shoot the flaming zombie coming at him...

Irons... Wow. Instead of an evil greedy working for his own nasty purposes , is just an A hole grump who doesnt have much of a story in this one. Hes just there.

Jill... This isnt Jill. Sure she has the "Jill sandwich " line, but thats not jill. I get that its 2022 and we need to have a diverse cast, but just bring in the absolutely a mazing Sheva Alomar.

Wesker. mindless bro dude . Not much to say about him. Bad actor. The scene where he wakes up and is crawling and screaming... cringe. And Ada ? whatever.

Most of the movie, I was questioning what they were doing and why? It seemed like most of it was filler. There were some jump scares, but there was never any fear for the characters. We knew only the expendable red shirts would die. Brad vickers. We know he dies, so why not make it fresh and have him be the hero instead of wimpy chris or bumbling Leon.

In the mansion when its on fire, it looked like actors infront of a green screen. Ash and soot flying all over, but none of it getting on our characters. Terrible CG dogs, Final form birkin was a joke. Terrible Dialogue. Wesker to William "You didnt have to make it like this!"

All the flashbacks to the orphanage slowed the pace and were boring. After the first one or two, I was over them . The music was horrible. It was too distracting and messy.

The zombies looked horrible. They also kept showing the same zombies at that gate. When zombies were on screen and supposed to be attacking out cahraacters, they just hiss and get shot, there were a threat , most had their arms down by their side and just stood there waiting to be shot.

Chris brushes off 4 zombies easily and escapes down the stairs. Vickers, cant brush his zombies off and they over power him...

How horrible was the scene with chris and the lighter and the zombie? he uses the lighter and sees the zombie and can hear him. The lighter goes out and all noise stops too. Lighter comes back on, noise starts up again, zombie is closer. Lighter goes out, silent ... And then the zombie sneaks behind him! what? Pure comedy.

This was just a mashup of resident evil locations and characters with cosplayers running around trying to remember their lines.

and I love that they try to let you know this is 1998 by having Chris not know what a chat room is. Oh that will show the audience that this takes place before tinder! LOLZ

Horrible movie. Horrible.

[TPerryoo7]

Holds up on re-watch. Damn, this movie is dope as hell for classic Resident Evil fans.

[King O.A.]

How's the transfer? Sony never misses with their transfers.

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by TPerryoo7

Holds up on re-watch. Damn, this movie is dope as hell for classic Resident Evil fans.

Pretty stoked to give it a rewatch tomorrow. Despite what others say, I thought it was great. Looking forward to what Johannes Roberts does next. Hopefully a sequel to this.

[dorium]

Originally Posted by TheBoss062

I’m just upset that, with the way the film plays out, we won’t get a sequel that adapts Resident Evil 3 (my favorite Resident Evil game). That means no Nemesis. We never even got Mr. X in this movie

What if they did a RE3 riff, but its Rebecca Chambers doing the Claire bits as a companion to this movie.

But yea otherwise I think if they do another movie its either going to be an outright adaptation of Code Veronica pieces or a melding of Veronica and 4 which could be interesting. Just slam the two together so they take place in the same place, but two different storylines intertwining without either story knowing until the end and they meet up again or something.

[kopkiwi]

I actually quite enjoyed this movie, they absolutely nailed the atmosphere. The town felt creepy as ****. Just wish it was another 20-25 minutes longer to flesh out the actual Zombie outbreak a little more. I can imagine there being a longer directors cut floating around somewhere that would greatly improve the movie.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Hopefully a sequel to this.

Fingers crossed.

[The bigm76]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Pretty stoked to give it a rewatch tomorrow. Despite what others say, I thought it was great. Looking forward to what Johannes Roberts does next. Hopefully a sequel to this.

Wasn’t this a massive flop at the box office? Looks like the only live action resi anytime soon will be the Netflix show that’s due this year

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by kopkiwi

I actually quite enjoyed this movie, they absolutely nailed the atmosphere. The town felt creepy as ****. Just wish it was another 20-25 minutes longer to flesh out the actual Zombie outbreak a little more. I can imagine there being a longer directors cut floating around somewhere that would greatly improve the movie.

I agree. The town was pretty atmospheric and I liked the shots of it from above. The shots of the truck driving down the street were creepy.

[Resettito]

It really feels like a real, lived in town that's crumbling to pieces. They really killed it with the production design too, to the point where they got the blueprints from Capcom for the manor or the police station to make sure it was accurate.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by Resettito

It really feels like a real, lived in town that's crumbling to pieces. They really killed it with the production design too, to the point where they got the blueprints from Capcom for the manor or the police station to make sure it was accurate.

If only the same effort was put into the writing, direction and casting of this trash XD

[Jompa]

Are the zombies slow moving or fast runners?

[NoFro]

Watched this the other night and thought that most of the time Robbie Amell looked the spit of Nathan Drake.

Originally Posted by BladeRunner2007

[matt1982]

I'm surprised how much I liked this! It was a blind buy. I was excited for it when it came out, but after all the bad reviews I wasn't sure if I should waste my money. I read the comments on this board, and I own all the previous movies including the animated ones, and think they're all at least OK, so I thought I might get at least some enjoyment out of it. It turned out to be the best one! Or maybe tied with the original. I had a bunch of nitpicks with it like some of the casting, but it was extremely faithful to the games and it looked great. People who say nothing happens until the last 30 minutes have ADHD. I loved all the time we got exploring the mansion and the zombies looked great. It's not a GREAT movie, but it's a keeper and I'm glad I bought it.

[bigG71]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

If only the same effort was put into the writing, direction and casting of this trash XD

I appreciated the fan service but yes this movie is a slog to get through in certain stretches and then

[Show spoiler]there is the abrupt ending which I didn't care for. Trying to mash the events of Resident Evil 1-3 into one night and one movie was not the greatest idea.

I never thought I would have to try and defend a Resident Evil movie by saying that it's a slow burn lol...

And let's not forget the acting. That's not exactly great, either. Lots of miscasting and changing of the character archetypes.

[Show spoiler]And where the F was Barry?

Really disappointed in the blind buy but since I love the Resident Evil franchise what choice did I have hahaha. Glad I didn't waste any more money going to see this in the theater.

[Wingman1977]

For a movie that supposedly bombed in the box office, it's selling pretty well on home video.