Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2021. That movie is "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City".
Now, back when I did my second "Video Game Movie Marathon", I said that I was not gonna cover any of the live action "Resident Evil" movies. And when I said that, I'm mostly referring to the ones that came out during the 2000's. And the reason why was because I remember seeing trailers for those movies back in the day, and they looked absolutely horrible.
So why then am I covering this movie, seeing as how it is yet another live action "Resident Evil" movie? Well, the thing is, unlike the "Resident Evil" movies I just mentioned, where I saw the trailers for those movies, this one I haven't seen any trailers for. In fact, I've barely heard anything about this movie. Which is great for me, because I get to go into this movie with fresh eyes and see how this thing turns out.
Now as for what I know about the movie, well, I know it's another live action adaptation of the popular video game series. And considering the track record for live action video game movies, this thing already has a lot going against it. That, plus, this thing is probably gonna have almost no connection to any of the games, outside of name recognition.
But again, I could be jumping the gun here. This movie could actually wind up being halfway decent, or perhaps even great. I somewhat doubt it, but hey, you never know. It could still surprise me in someway. But the only way I'm gonna know for sure if this movie is good or bad is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City".
11 minutes later
OK, I have a dumb question here, but is it normal for dogs to lick up blood? I know they'll eat strange shit like, well....literal shit, but do they really lick up blood as well? I'm only asking, because I'm not a dog owner, and it just leaves me a little bit curious is all.
14 minutes later
Well, guys, I can tell you this much so far. The acting in this movie is fucking horrible. It's actually making the acting from the original "Resident Evil" game from the late 90's sound like Oscar worthy material. I never thought I'd say that, but this movie's already achieving that aspect. I'm hoping that it gets better as the film progresses, but somehow, I'm already starting to doubt it.
3 minutes later
Did Claire seriously just ask "What is that?" in response to an alarm sounding? Moreover, Chris is just waving this off as if it's "just nothing". Either this is a normal thing to Chris, or the characters in this movie are just stupid as shit. Considering how this movie is going so far, I'm going with the latter on this one.
10 minutes later
So our hero, Leon S. Kennedy, didn't notice the explosion coming from the truck that just exploded in front of the R.P.D., because he was too busy sleeping. I gotta admit, that takes some real dedication to do something that like that. Unless he was just on sleeping pills or something. But still, that certainly does takes a lot of effort. Oh, and also there's a guy on fire that just walked inside the police department, which is also accompanied by shitty music. Oh...never mind, it just ended, thankfully. God, that entire scene was just stupid as fuck, and not even in the so bad, it's good kind of way either. It was just stupid in general.
13 minutes later
Well, guys, I can also say that, adding onto the horrible acting, the CG in this movie is also fucking terrible. I'm seeing a poorly rendered CG demon dog, and it's reminding me of the terrible CG demon dog I saw in "The Bye Bye Man". I never thought I'd have to make that kind of comparison, but this movie's found a way to do that, and it's rather depressing, too.
11 minutes later
OK, this movie's sorta answered a question that I've had on my mind for a while now, in regards to why the police force isn't affected like most of the citizens of Raccoon City. The answer that Claire's friend from the videotape gave out was that they have strong immune systems, and that they all were injected with something to keep them safe from being infected. But if that's the case, then why isn't Claire's friend infected like the rest of the citizens? Did the scientists of Umbrella give him the injection before locking him up as well? From the way he's talking, it doesn't sound like it. But then again, considering his horrible acting, I really can't tell. But anyway, I'm curious as to why he's getting a pass in all this? I'm really hoping for an answer at some point, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be getting one or not.
12 minutes later
You know, guys, I totally understand that it has been a long while since I last played the original "Resident Evil" game. Well, the remake on GameCube anyway, but still, I don't recall Lisa Trevor ever doing this kind of shit in the game, where she's fighting off one of those monsters to where it only responds to loud noises. It's kinda stupid, really. But then again, this whole movie has been incredibly stupid to begin with, so I guess it's being kinda accurate to the games, in a way, I guess.
14 minutes later
So Wesker's now dead, and they were trying to pass him off as a good guy, even though he just killed Sherry's parents a moment ago. I'm sorry, but no. This is just really fucking lame, cause they took a character who had something resembling depth in the games and tried to turn him into a shitty good guy who went down in an incredibly lame way. That's just awful, guys.
The Review
Oh, thank you god, it's over. Well, guys, that was "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City". I'm gonna shut this garbage movie off...OK. Holy shit, that was fucking torturous to get through. And now, I have to review this thing. Oh boy, is that gonna be a fucking challenge! Well, before I dive right into this in more detail, I gonna you guys the summarized version of my thoughts on the movie. It was shit. I know that probably didn't seem like it, based on my reactions and all, but this is quite honestly the worst "Resident Evil" movie I have ever seen period. And after watching this movie, I've had more than my fill of watching another live action "Resident Evil" movie because I'm more than certain that it's not gonna be any good.
So, why don't we go through the motions here, and first discuss the writing. Now, being that this is suppose to be an adaptation of the "Resident Evil" games, I first have to answer this, since so many people are fickle about loyalty to the source material. How loyal is this movie to the games? Hardly, if at all. Which, I know is probably not that much of a surprise, but still, some people really care too much about loyalty to the source material. Myself, personally speaking, I just want it to be entertaining. And this movie fails at being that. I'm gonna tell you, guys, for as much flak as the 1993 "Super Mario Bros." movie and the 1994 live action "Street Fighter" movie get, the one thing those movies excel at is being entertaining, and also not boring either. Which this is movie also good at. It is *incredibly* boring, to a point where I kinda just checked the runtime on the movie itself just to see how much of it is left. That's how boring it really is.
Now this movie tries, in vain, to be a very loose adaptation of Resident Evil's 1 and 2. In which, you have Raccoon City being a hellhole of a town where something is obviously wrong, to Leon and Claire both held up at the R.P.D, to Chris and company exploring the Spencer Mansion. So, on the surface, it seems like a straightforward story, but the problem is that they tried to combine both games into one movie, and it really just doesn't work. I could understand them trying to adapt one of the games into a live action movie, but the very fact that they tried to combine both stories of the games into less than 2 hours is like trying to combine a 64 page graphic novel of "The Killing Joke" into less than a 75 minute movie, where a good portion of it is nothing but filler. It doesn't work, and this movie certainly cut a lot of corners into try and fit in as much as they could from the games.
Now speaking of which, let's talk about the characters. Most of the characters in this movie are well established characters from the games. Now admittedly, I have no idea if this is suppose to be a reboot of sorts for a series of live action movies. But if that's the case, then this movie fails at it, because there is not a single character in this movie who is likable, or has any personality whatsoever. They're all flat and fucking lifeless. As I mentioned before, Wesker is a lame twist villain who has an even lamer face turn towards the end when he dies. Claire and Chris seem to bicker a lot when they first get together, but that's kinda it. By themselves, they're really boring as shit. Jill Valentine is probably the most boring of the cast, because she really has no character to her whatsoever, other than being here for name recognition. Leon has it the worst, because he ends up playing the goofball rookie who has no idea what's going on. And yes, I know he was a rookie in Resident Evil 2, but he wasn't that much of an idiot like he was in this movie.
That brings me to the only other characters worth mentioning, which is the Birkins. William is nothing more than a mad scientist who wants to play god, and ends up sounding like a shitty "Power Rangers" villain once he's transformed himself into a monster. What I'm surprised by the most is how little depth Sherry and her mother get. Which is strange, because in Resident Evil 2, Sherry's mother was also a scientist much like her husband, but in this movie, she's really just somebody who's in this movie to be a scapegoat and nothing more. What's even more baffling to me is that she had no idea that her husband had been working on these horrible experiments this whole time. Really, lady? You've been married to him for how long and you had no idea on any of this shit!? And what's more, Sherry also has no special part in this whatsoever, which is a massive contradiction from RE2, because her father injected her with the G-Virus and grew very sick before being saved by Claire and a vaccine that Sherry's mother told her about and made. So yeah, Sherry, who ends up becoming something by "Resident Evil 6" is just here for the sake of being here and nothing more. Which is honestly really disappointing.
So, if that wasn't any indication, the writing in this movie is just terrible. It tries, in vain, to appeal to fans of "Resident Evil", only for it to really fall flat on it's face. Speaking of, that greatly transitions into the acting. I said it before, and I'll say it again, the acting in this movie is horrible to where it makes the horribly stilted acting from the original PS1 game look like Oscar worthy material. I'm serious, guys, that's how bad the acting in this movie is. There is not a single actor in this movie who even tries to emote properly, outside of maybe the actor playing Chief Irons. But even with him, his acting still sucked. The worst actor, by far, has to go the guy on the videotape, who we also see again in a jail cell at R.P.D. I'm going to make a wild assumption, and I could be totally wrong here, that this guy has barely acted in his life. And if that *is* the case, then he should be nowhere near in front of a camera again until he has taken more acting lessons. That is how badly he acted in this movie, and the rest aren't any good either, of course. The acting here is terrible from top to bottom.
Before I get into the special effects, I will say that, when it comes to the sets of both the Raccoon City Police Department and the Spencer Mansion, they both look almost spot on. I say that mostly for the former, because it's been a while since I last played the "Resident Evil" remake on the GameCube. But still, when it comes to the look of these locations, they look very accurate to their game counterparts. But that's really all the praise I have for this movie comes to an end, because when it comes to the special effects, they look fucking horrible. The CG in this movie, along with it's blood effects, looks like something that would come from a Sy-Fy Channel Original Movie. It's *that* bad looking. The only halfway decent effect I sorta liked was that monster I mentioned that responds to loud noises. It looked OK, but it's not gonna take away from the rest of the shit that is the special effects.
Camerawork here is decent. The lighting here, at times, is kinda shit. Mostly in dark areas, especially during where one scene where Chris is trying to fight off a bunch of zombies in the dark. It was probably the most poorly lit scene of the entire movie. Sound-mixing here is decent at best. The music here is kind of a mixed bag in terms of the soundtrack, but the audio for some reason seems really loud in some scenes. The most notable one I can remember is the scene where the guy who was on fire walks in, and the music is just booming loud to where I had turn down the volume on my TV. Not only that, but the song that played for that brief moment felt very out of place, too. I don't remember the song, and I don't really care what it is, all I know is that it was shit. And that's all I needed to hear from it, really.
So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City"? No, I cannot. This movie is garbage, both as a "Resident Evil" movie and as a video game movie adaption. It's not gonna appeal to "Resident Evil" fans, because fans of the games will probably think this movie is terrible as well. If you really want something better from "Resident Evil", just go play any of the games. Or if you seriously have to find some decent "Resident Evil" movies to watch, then I could recommend the CG animated movies. I'll even recommend the ones I didn't care for as much, which were "Resident Evil: Degeneration" and "Resident Evil: Vendetta", because those movies are milestones better than this pile of shit that tries to be a "Resident Evil" movie. Now...speaking of the CG "Resident Evil" movies, I still have two of them that I kept after I reviewed them last year. I plan on watching both of them this month, what with it being the month of October and all, so I'm gonna go and watch "Resident Evil: Damnation", because I enjoyed that one the most out of all the CG "Resident Evil" movies I watched. So I'm gonna go do that next, and hopefully, I can get the awful taste from this movie out of my mouth.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment