Resident Evil 2021 Early Reviews Mixed On Faithful But Dull Reboot

Resident Evil 2021 Early Reviews Mixed On Faithful, But Dull Reboot

The early Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reviews are rolling in and critics are largely divided on the more faithful adaptation.

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Resident Evil 2021 Early Reviews Mixed On Faithful But Dull Reboot

The early Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reviews are rolling in and critics are largely divided on the more faithful adaptation. Based on Capcom’s survival horror video game franchise of the same name, the film serves as a reboot of the Constantin Film-produced franchise that first began in 2002 with the Paul W.S. Anderson written and directed effort starring Milla Jovovich as original protagonist Alice. Though the Resident Evil films would receive generally negative reviews from critics, they were a commercial success, grossing over $1.2 billion and initially becoming the highest-grossing film series based on a video game until it was surpassed by the Pokémon franchise.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will start from scratch and adapt the events of the first two Resident Evil games as groups of survivors fight against various zombies and experiments in the titular Midwestern town and the nearby Spencer Mansion. The cast for the film is composed nearly entirely of the video games’ characters, namely Kaya Scodelario’s Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen’s Jill Valentine, Robbie Amell’s Chris Redfield, Tom Hopper’s Albert Wesker and Avan Jogia’s Leon S. Kennedy. After over four years of development and delays, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is nearing its theatrical release.

With just days to go until the film’s release, early Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reviews have arrived and critics are largely divided on the latest attempt at adapting the Capcom franchise. The devotion to fan service is a main point of contention amongst reviewers, with some praising the attention to detail while others note them as too heavy handed, and the overall tone and pacing of the film receiving a very mixed reception. See what critics are saying below:

Ferdosa Abdi, Screen Rant:

Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City is fun in its presentation but lacking in substance. It may be entertaining and faithful to the games, but bland characters and half-baked world-building dampen the impact of what could have been a fabulous adaptation.

Taylor Lyles, IGN:

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is certainly not the worst video game adaptation or even the worst Resident Evil movie, but both those bars are pretty low. Director Johannes Roberts does deserve some credit for sticking much more closely to the source material than the Paul W.S. Anderson films, but a short runtime, a rushed third act, and lack of elements to make it truly scary to watch in the dark hold it back immensely.

Eric Eisenberg, CinemaBlend:

Following the end of the previous live-action Resident Evil series, the approach taken in the making of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City was the smart one – the idea being a “back to basics” move. The actual film, however, takes that idea far too literally. It’s perhaps a case of the 1990s source material serving as an influence on the genre in the last couple decades, but that doesn’t excuse so much of the movie feeling so tired.

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Resident Evil 2021 Early Reviews Mixed On Faithful But Dull Reboot

Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy:

While long-time fans will adore the faithfulness to the games, this approach has its own flaws that lead to the new movie lacking bite. You might recognize the locations and characters, yet you’ll experience none of the terror of playing the games.

David Walters, CGMagazine:

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a film I really wanted to love. While I enjoyed the atmosphere, the character direction (mostly), and the progression of the story, I do feel there is room for improvement. Hopefully, a subsequent sequel will build on the foundation set up here and take in new and darker directions.

Sean Keene, CNET:

Still, despite the lack of scares, minor tweaks to the games’ lore and overall silliness, Johannes Roberts’ love for Resident Evil is clear in every moment of Welcome to Raccoon City. With a barrage of Easter eggs — be sure to stick around for the mid-credits sequence — and fascinating takes on classic characters, the film’s a gleeful trip back to the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon Police Department aimed squarely at fans.

Kimber Myers, LA Times:

It feels too on the (decaying) nose to call writer-director Johannes Roberts’ 2021 take on the video game a zombified version of its predecessor, but when a movie is this brain-dead, the metaphor is earned. “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” may reward longtime fans of the video games by returning to the series’ origins, but others will find themselves wanting to leave town, much like the movie’s characters.

Valerie Complex, Deadline:

The storytelling is more efficient, does well to build tension, with better character building. At other points, it’s slow, and disjointed, with sub-par VFX on par with graphics of PlayStation 2 video games. With the balance of good and bad, it’s just an ok film that tries to do a lot in such little time.

Resident Evil 2021 Early Reviews Mixed On Faithful But Dull Reboot

Phil Hornshaw, GameSpot:

Fans of Resident Evil will likely enjoy that Welcome To Raccoon City is a closer conception of the horror ideas of the games, as well as their lighter side, than past adaptations. Its take on Resident Evil’s characters are similarly close to the source material, made all the better by some solid changes in backstory and a cast that is both having fun and selling the scares. But the movie never seems willing to lean into its good ideas, or to risk coloring too far out of the lines established by the game series.

Charles Bramesco, The AV Club:

Alas, there’s no covert greatness to the just-plain-underwhelming Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, a reboot totally bereft of the visual distinction or creative personality that often made its predecessors intriguing diamonds in the rough. Gone is Anderson’s innovative fusion of practical and nascent digital effects; the occasional existential pondering of identity, humanity, and how mega-conglomerates degrade both; and the charisma dynamo of a cocktail-dress-clad Milla Jovovich, the reigning muse in the Cinematic Wife Guy Hall of Fame. They’ve all been replaced by nothingness, a marked lack of flavor rather than a decisive new one.

Mark Hanson, Slant:

Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil films remain a benchmark of success for video game adaptations, and at their best (the original, Afterlife, and Retribution) they brought the games’ visions to life with addictively cool techno-goth aesthetics, eye-popping production designs, and demented action set pieces. Failing to adequately replace any of these things, Raccoon City only reveals its lack of personality the longer it progresses, particularly since no one among the anonymously attractive cast is able to fill the shoes of Milla Jovovich’s badass Alice.

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Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post:

The film is empty-headed good fun that’s blessedly under two hours and has just enough character development to make you kind of care when someone gets bitten.

Nick Schager, Variety:

Capcom’s zombie video games get new big-screen life with “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” a reboot that does away with its signature leading lady and aims for a more faithful adaptation of its interactive source material. That tack proves to be a complete misfire, as writer-director Johannes Roberts supplies plenty of fan service but scarce coherent plotting and even fewer scares. Throw in chintzy CGI effects, and the theatrical prognosis for this undead saga appears dire.

Heather Wixson, Daily Dead:

While I wouldn’t call Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City a perfect movie by any means, it’s still a perfectly entertaining time at the theater (if you’re comfortable doing so) that gets more right than it gets wrong. There are definitely some elements that could have used a little extra tweaking (I will forever remain saddened by the monsters in this), but as a whole, Johannes Roberts has crafted a video game adaptation that’s bursting with love for those games as well as the horror genre, and it’s his enthusiasm and attention to detail, plus Scodelario’s performance, that saved the movie for me and made it a rather entertaining viewing experience.

Early Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reactions weren’t much more glowing than the reviews, leaving many audiences keeping their expectations in check from the film reboot. The full reviews are largely as mixed as the reactions themselves, with critics clearly divided on Roberts’ devotion to a faithful adaptation of the first two Resident Evil games and the plethora of Easter eggs on display in the film. With many critics noting their lack of interest in the source material or believing fans of the franchise will enjoy these efforts, audiences will likely take this criticism with a grain of salt as the accuracy angle of the film has been a key point of interest for viewers throughout the film’s development.

The negative reception to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’s visual effects lines up with viewer’s concerns from the trailers for the film, which have shown a range of exciting recreations of the zombified dogs and lickers to a bland unidentified large monster. With Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil films never landing higher than a 37 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it will be interesting to see which end of the spectrum the reboot ultimately lands on and how audiences connect with the film. Only time will tell when Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hits theaters on November 24.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/resident-evil-2021-movie-early-reviews/

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