Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

The Resident Evil film saga is finally back in our theaters. Despite the unevenness of the films, in which we had the pleasure of following a character that does not exist in the saga, Alice (Milla Jovovich), a secret agent who fights against the misdeeds of the Umbrella company responsible for an apocalypse on earth and the presence of zombies as fat as they are scary. With no less than six films directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (producer of the six films), Alexander Witt and Russell Mulcahy, of varying degrees of quality, the saga has earned more than 1.2 billion dollars and has become one of the most profitable video game adaptations for the big screen. It is easy to understand the desire of Sony Pictures Releasing to offer a film that appears to be a real reboot of this cinematic saga and by placing the character of Claire Redfield, who was already in the credits of some of the previous films, at the center of the story. 

This time, it is the actress Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans (2010), The Maze Runner (2014), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Crawl (2019)) who takes over this role to our great pleasure and finally gives it a real psychological dimension. In the same way, the presence in the script and in the direction of Johannes Roberts proves to be an excellent idea. After films like Storage 24 (2012), The Other Side of the Door (2016), 47 Meters Down (2017) and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2018), he shows that he not only has a real culture on the Resident Evil universe but proves to be a worthy descendant of John Carpenter in his way of setting the scene and proposing us a real disturbing immersion in a horrific universe.

While the previous films, notably by Paul W. S. Anderson, took a certain distance from Capcom's video games, the writer and director Johannes Roberts prefers to stay very close to the game universe created and thus brings to life before our eyes his version of the first two video games which were phenomenally successful and above all has the excellent idea of placing the action only one night in the practically abandoned city of Raccoon City which is about to disappear completely.  Raccoon City was once the thriving headquarters of the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation but over time has become a dying Midwestern town. The exodus of society has left the city abandoned. In the depths of this city, the company's many scientific trials have created something evil that will unleash.  A group of survivors composed of the city's police force (including Claire Redfield's brother) and of this one will have to unite their strength while succeeding in surviving not only zombies but also monsters of all kinds including, as in every action video game, a colossal boss at the end of the level and here perfectly brought.

If Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City turns out to be totally mastered and above all proves to be the best adaptation of the Resident Evil universe to date in the cinema, it's because its writer and director Johannes Roberts was able to give life to a film mixing perfectly action and horror. Some shots of the film remind us of John Carpenter's work (Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982) but also Stephen King's approach starting from a credible reality to dive into a horrific and uncontrollable climate. Even if zombies have become a real fashion in movies but also more recently in series such as The Walling Dead, Johannes Roberts offers here his own version and we must admit that it is totally disturbing and striking. In the same way, the excellent idea of putting the sublime Kaya Scodelario in the female lead role, makes us adhere totally to this film without ever letting go of its hold on us. While the whole world is still under the threatening grip of a global pandemic linked to covid 19, this film shows once again the dangerous by-products of certain pharmaceutical laboratories capable of creating both deadly viruses and creatures against the laws of nature.

We can't advise you enough to discover this movie in a big screen to let you immerse yourself in a real cinematographic experience. Also stay until the middle of the end credits to not miss an extra scene with a very important female character from the video game Resident Evil 2.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Written and directed by Johannes Roberts
Based on Resident Evil by Capcom
Produced by James Harris, Hartley Gorenstein, Robert Kulzer
Starring Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, Neal McDonough
Cinematography : Maxime Alexandre
Edited by Dev Singh
Music by Mark Korven
Production companies : Screen Gems, The Fyzz Facility, Constantin Film, The Tea Shop and Film Company, Davis Films
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing (International), Constantin Film (Germany), Elevation Pictures (Canada), Metropolitan Filmexport (France)
Release date : November 24, 2021 (United States/Canada), November 24,2021 (France)
Running time : 107 minutes

Seen on November 19, 2021 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 3 seat A21 

Mulder's Mark: