Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Movie Review: Showcasing The Evils Of A Mindless Franchise
Reviews
oi-Shweta Parande
By Johnson Thomas
Rating:
1.5/5
Star
Cast:
Robbie
Amell,
Chad
Rook,
Hannah
John-Kamen
,
Avan
Jogia,
Tom
Hopper,
Donal
Logue
Director:
Johannes
Roberts
Pandering
to
fans,
director
Johannes
Roberts
who
took
over
from
Paul
W
S
Anderson,
makes
game
affliction
the
credo
for
enjoyment
in
Resident
Evil:
Welcome
to
Raccoon
City.
Using
characters
and
locations
that
will
be
familiar
to
regular
"RE" players,
he
fashions
a
narrative
that
follows
the
'game'
path
rather
than
develop
it
into
a
horror
adventure
movie.
As
an
ordinary
viewer
you
would
be
hard
pressed
to
find
any
thrills
here.
It's,
in
fact,
an
unending
struggle
to
piece
together
any
sense
from
all
the
incoherent
nonsense
that
plays
out
on
screen.
Read
our
review
to
find
out
what
went
wrong
in
the
latest
Resident
Evil
film.
The
film
opens
showing
a
young
Claire
Redfield
(Kaya
Scodelario)
and
her
brother
Chris
Redfield
(Robbie
Amell)
in
an
orphanage
run
by
the
malevolent
William
Birkin
(Neal
McDonough),
located
in
the
heart
of
Raccoon
City.
Cut
to
Years
later,
Claire
returns
to
Raccoon
City
via
a
ride
hitched
with
a
truck
driver.
Chris
(Robbie
Amell)
is
miffed
with
his
runaway
sister.
But
the
aftermath
of
Umbrella
corporation's
nefarious
experiments
with
live
human
specimens
forces
them
to
team
up
with
other
rookie
cops
Jill
Valentine
(Hannah
John-Kamen),
Albert
Wesker
(Tom
Hopper),
and
Leon
S
Kennedy
(Avan
Jogia)
who
lead
the
way
with
Donal
Logue
as
Chief
Brian
Irons
gearing
up
to
save
the
dying
city.
The
tone
here
is
rather
insipid,
there's
not
much
momentum
nor
tension
to
lift
up
the
already
jaded
experience.
If
you
are
not
an
'RE' gamer
you
are
likely
to
miss
out
on
a
lot
of
the
connections.
There
are
way
too
many
popular
elements
from
the
video
game
for
comfort.
You
probably
need
to
play
the
game
to
understand
this
movie's
ideology.
Flimsy
characterisations
and
stilted,
sloppily
timed
interactions
slow
down
the
pace.
Furthermore,
the
cinematographer's
over
dependence
on
close-up's
(rather
expressionless)
puts
paid
to
any
connectedness.
The
survival
horror
concept
takes
a
double
beating
from
the
lack
of
realism
and
silly
mechanics.
The
flash
cuts
of
zombie
heads
growling
and
guns
being
fired
repetitively
makes
it
furthermore
disjointed.
The
final
act
is
imminently
predictable
and
we
are
made
well
aware
that
this
franchise
re-starter
with
younger
actors
is
bound
to
replicate
without
a
care.
Low-grade
CGI,
cheesy
dialogues
and
dead
atmospherics
makes
this
experience
totally
untenable.
Rating
Our
rating
for
Resident
Evil:
Welcome
to
Raccoon
City
is
1.5/5
stars.