Resident Evil Welcome to Racoon City (film)

[paranoid101]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q6UGCyHZCI&ab_channel=SonyPicturesEntertainment

Now I'm a bit conflicted about this movie, I wasn't expecting anything good about it when it was announced, but this trailer isn't half bad lol

Gone from an no interest movie to a wait and see.

[ProfessorChaos]

well that looks infinitely better than the garbage films they've put out up till this point.

as someone who was ob-fucking-sessed with the original trilogy of games on the playstation, i may actually end up going to the theaters and paying to sit through this. surely can't be any worse than either of paul anderson's first two films (which is where I gave up on the film franchise previously).

i had no idea this was even coming out or in development, so thanks for sharing!

EDIT: never have i been a fan of that corny song they used in the trailer, that would have been my only real complaint about what i saw.... i actually found a different trailer without the garbage music and a little different tone. i like this version much better.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSgAc6sHNO4

[MinionZombie]

I just stumbled across the trailer on YouTube a few minutes ago, came here and there's already a post about it. :)

Likewise - wasn't aware this was happening at all, but it does actually look like it could be decent (even if some of that CGI looks a bit iffy). I remember playing the Resi 2 demo quite a lot back in the day over at a friend's house, so some of those references in the trailer are sparking the nostalgia pretty hardcore.

I do hope that it's good. Anderson's movies just went so far off in their own direction and, well, they really weren't that good anyway and just got more and more confusing as they went along, just a load of flashy PG-13 action and stock characters who look and sound like each other.

I assume this is an R rated flick? Seems to be playing it much closer to the actual source material. So many videogame adaptations in the past have been like taking a book, tearing off the cover, and then adapting only that and none of the actual material inside.

[shootemindehead]

The first RE movie is actually a bit of guilty pleasure of mine. Christ only knows why.

[MinionZombie]

The first RE movie is actually a bit of guilty pleasure of mine. Christ only knows why.

More innocent time? Before it got so carried away with super convoluted stories and slapdash editing of hyper stylised action sequences?

There's no doubt cool parts of the franchise, but fuck me, it's simultaneously overcooked and underdone.

I'm hoping this new flick will be good, and not some shonky bit of dreck that does fan service but can't cobble together a compelling set of characters and story. If you don't care what's happening, you're not gonna care about anything - so I really hope they got the story and characterisation sorted.

[paranoid101]

The first RE movie is actually a bit of guilty pleasure of mine. Christ only knows why.

Your not the only one, I really like the First one, the second is ok for the scenes of the cops and Umbrella forces fighting the zombies in the streets of Racoon city, but its pretty much downhill from there.

[sandrock74]

I know I'm in the minority here (and probably everywhere in the world) but I enjoyed the final three movies from Resident Evil. I didn't care for the first three since they had next to nothing to do with the games, but the final three were fun action/zombie movies. (Not good Resident Evil movies!)

[beat_truck]

Your not the only one, I really like the First one, the second is ok for the scenes of the cops and Umbrella forces fighting the zombies in the streets of Racoon city, but its pretty much downhill from there.

Pretty much the same here. I actually liked the first, and the second almost as much. The third was meh. Forth sucked. I made it about five minutes into the next one before turning it off. I have the most recent, but haven't attempted to watch it.

I also didn't know they were thinking about making another. Typical Hollywood. Never miss an opportunity to milk a few more bucks out of a completely worn out franchise.:rolleyes: Maybe it will be a pleasant surprise and not be shit, though.

[MinionZombie]

#1 was okay at the time, #2 was a bit better in certain regards as it felt closer to the games, but beyond that it's all a total blur and total confusion for me. I don't know which one is which, just a few moments that were good (e.g. that one that featured a lot of desert locations, and had that very Day of the Dead inspired moment of a fenced compound surrounded by zombies).

However, the series was just so convoluted beyond #2 that it was impossible to keep track, with too many carboard cutout characters. It's like the Saw franchise - after #3 it was pretty shit.

[beat_truck]

However, the series was just so convoluted beyond #2 that it was impossible to keep track, with too many carboard cutout characters.

I never played the games, but this pretty much sums it up. They just got worse as they went.

From what I saw before I shut it off, #5 was just weird costumes, constant motion and effects, and no plot line that I find. Maybe I could try watching it again, but frankly I have a LOT of better movies that I haven't seen that I could be watching instead.

[JDP]

Which one was the one that has a character who looks inspired by unshaven Rick Grimes? I saw it years ago, but I can't remember which one was it. After the first one, I keep confusing all these movies.

[Moon Knight]

Looks like the new film got the “classic first zombie you run into cutscene” into the movie. Finally lol.

[MinionZombie]

I think we all need a little help remembering which movies were which, or what order they came in, or just any of them at all... :lol:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(film_series)#Films

...


Looks like the new film got the “classic first zombie you run into cutscene” into the movie. Finally lol.

lr4gOSGbVQI

[beat_truck]

I just watched the trailers. The first one is crap, but aside from the typical shitty CGI, the second one looks mildly promising.

[shootemindehead]

More innocent time? Before it got so carried away with super convoluted stories and slapdash editing of hyper stylised action sequences?

There's no doubt cool parts of the franchise, but fuck me, it's simultaneously overcooked and underdone.

Oh the series, as a whole, is utter dreck. In fact it became so with the first sequel. Frankly it's astonishing that it's managed to drag on for so long. Oh well, at least it gave Anderson and the Mrs. a career to be thankful for.

The first movie, though, works for me...to a degree. It's far too tame and Michelle Rodriguez' overacting becomes annoying very quickly. And like the game, once the super monsters make an appearance, it loses steam in a big way.

As for this new one, I can't say that I'll be rushing to see it. I'll leave it for a "WTF am I watching this shite for" Netflix night.

[Skinrash]

Looks much more faithful to the games. I recognize key scenes taken straight from the games. Bizarre the Paul Wes Anderson series got to go on for as long as it did. How that clown is still able to get work after people died and got maimed on his last RE film is beyond me.

[paranoid101]

Latest trailer

eAgvxFMryWo

Looking more like a Conjuring movie than a zombie movie now.

[paranoid101]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXtVXL4TaP0&ab_channel=kermodeandmayo

Mark kermode review, he quite enjoyed it "not rubbish and fine" have to see it now lol
,

[MinionZombie]

It turned up on Sky Movies last week, so I gave it a spin.

It's okay.

It manages to get the general vibe right, and I really dug the feeling of a town abandoned by a corporation who have left the remaining residents like sickly spectres, but the film does very little with that concept or with telling that story to the viewer (particularly those who aren't so familiar with the games or the lore). The orphanage-set intro goes on far too long and the titles feel cheap-as-fuck, with the impending destruction of the city at 6am failing to inject any real peril (at least that's how it feels when watching it).

Characterisation is one of the key flaws. At best it's sketch-thin, at worst it's cartoonish/non-existant. Leon Kennedy is particularly clobbered by this, starting out as a bit of a clumsy idiot whose sudden transition to supposed badass just doesn't work. At one point he seems utterly confused by a shotgun (despite being a trained police officer), as if he's a total novice, only to then immediately be John McClane levels of proficient with a 9mm handgun. Claire Redfield is also pretty thinly-sketched with generic 'strong woman' vibes - not the political pandering part, but the 'default sullen face, never really scared by anything, and great with guns' parts. Chris Redfield seemingly vanishes for chunks of the flick despite being one of the more charasmatic actors, while Jill Valentine is a total nothing, similar to Wesker.

A big problem is the film tries to cram too much content into roughly 97 minutes, essentially trying to get the most familiar aspects of RE1 (the mansion, the zombie dog) and RE2 (the police station) crammed into the running time. This also comes with the characters, as the film tries to stuff-in too many big names from the games as if it was a Japanese subway train. As a result nobody gets any real development and you never get attached to anyone.

The film has some moments that work better for bringing aspects from the game to life (unlike PWSA's teen-targeted orgy of gunfire and convoluted plotting that skewed quite far from the games), but the film's direction and writing fumbles any sense of tension repeatedly, so it never really packs a horror punch. There's a few gory moments, but sometimes it feels like they have to shoot around a tight budget, so the true potential of an R-rated RE movie doesn't quite come to pass. Similarly, the CGI is occasionally ropey, giving he movie a bit of a throwback feel unintentionally. We're not talking The Mummy levels of shite CGI, but it feels trapped in about 2008 on a modest budget.

The best moments are copied straight from the games, but beyond that the film struggles, its flaws only getting worse the longer the movie goes on. It gets off to a decent start (once that over-long prologue gets out of the way, that is), but it slowly winds down and down and down. The sequel-bait doesn't really leave you wanting more, either.

I've probably complained more than praised here, but all said and done it's an okay movie, better than some of the PWSA movies certainly.

There's a Netflix series coming soon. I wonder if that'll do any better?

[Moon Knight]

MZ’s first couple lines about Leon is enough for me to avoid this.