Five years after the original “Resident Evil” film series concluded with “The Final Chapter,” filmmaker Johannes Roberts rebooted the film franchise with 2021’s “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.” , specifically to the first two main installments, narrating a police squad that investigates a sinister mansion on the outskirts of the city while zombies invade Raccoon City. Also, instead of relying on an entirely new protagonist like in the previous films, Roberts focused on the classic characters from the games, which have been reworked for his adaptation.
“Welcome to Raccoon City” certainly feels familiar to any fan of the games and is loaded with franchise-related Easter eggs, but it simply tries to accomplish too much in its 107-minute runtime. The new cast is serious enough, with Kaya Scodelario’s Claire Redfield as the highlight, and it’s the first “Resident Evil” movie in a sometimes scary time, but it’s all a remarkably rushed affair. With such a solid cast and faithfulness to the source material, hopefully these sensibilities will hold up in potential follow-ups because, for all its flaws, “Welcome to Raccoon City” feels more like a love letter to the franchise. What previous adaptations.
