Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City - The (Video) Game is Afoot in Occasionally-Entertaining Prequel

By Thom Ernst

Rating: C-plus

Leaving an afternoon screening of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, I overheard someone ask, “Do you know if this is based on the first game or the second?”

The question was not directed at me. It’s a gamer question, and gamers are quick to suss out an outsider. Besides, I’d given myself away when I was the only one in the audience who didn’t let out an appreciative gasp at an end credit reveal. There were only seven people in the theatre, six of whom were likely avid gamers or have a playbook knowledge of video games. 

Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario are out to take out some evil creatures - and they’re not raccoons.

I left the theatre wondering what effect not playing the game will have on my film review. Would knowing the video game provide me with a different perspective of the film aside from appreciating how essential elements of the game are worked into the plot? 

It’s a tricky question to answer. 

So, I won’t bother to try.

Besides, if game critics aren’t expected to see the movie before reviewing the game, why should I be expected to play the game before seeing the movie? On that argument, I vindicate myself from any concern, and I commit to serving the film community by critiquing Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.  

I come from the arcade era of Galaxian and Space Invaders, where the images were pixilated like carefully arranged pegs from a Lite-Brite set. Back then, games came without backstories or sequels. I’m aware that the Resident Evil franchise began as a video game. But after six sequels, I assumed the film franchise took on a life of its own, and ties to the video game had long been severed.  

I enjoyed the original Resident Evil without ever considering its video game heritage, despite a dazzling ensemble of booby traps, snarling canines, and the genre-chewing stars of the show—zombies.  

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

My problems are solely with the sequels.  

But Welcome to Raccoon City is a Resident Evil reboot, although as reboots go, Raccoon City looks a lot like a prequel. The story takes place in the 80s, preceding Alice (Milla Jovovich)’s foray into action-star status.

God bless the genius who thought to include what is likely to be the best era-indicating prop in cinema—the Palm Pilot.  There are treats in Welcome to Raccoon City—the inclusion of a Palm Pilot is one of them.  

In lieu of Alice (who would still be in grade school according to the timeline of the Resident Evil universe) is former Umbrella Orphanage resident Claire Renfield (Kaya Scodelario). Claire is every bit the fighter Alice will become. It turns out that Alice could have skipped the intensive military training and when all it takes to become a kick-ass zombie killer is to be raised on the streets. But then Alice wouldn’t have had that ultra-cool bodysuit. 

Claire returns to Raccoon City, now a miserable ruin of bankruptcy and decay. She has lost contact with an environmental activist (Josh Cruddas) whose dire warnings about the fate of Raccoon City has Claire worried for her brother Chris (Robbie Amell). Seems she’d left him behind after fleeing the orphanage—a plotline that bears a striking resemblance to the recent horror film, Antlers.

But there is no time for family reunions, what with the population of Raccoon City collapsing into a mass of vicious flesh-eaters. Soon Claire, Chris, and a small army of cops are blasting their way through hordes of the walking dead plus a grab bag of monstrous creatures, all courtesy of the evil Umbrella Corporation.  

Welcome to Raccoon City is a harmless and occasionally entertaining distraction despite forced expositions, animatronic zombie-birds, a gum-smacking waitress, motorcycles that start without keys, a town where the primary industry appears to be law-enforcement (seriously, what’s with all the cops?) and endless variants on ways to deliver the phrase, “What the f**k!” with nods to, “Who the f**k!” and “How the f**k!” said in equal measure. 

Raccoon City is most fun when showcasing Avan Jogia as a rookie cop who’d been transferred to Raccoon City after accidentally shooting his partner in the butt—a bad joke that Jogia turns into a workable gag. 

Veteran actor Donal Logue (remember The Tao of Steve?) also puts in a decent turn as the bulldog police chief. Logue is saddled with the script’s worst bit of exposition dialogue which he delivers cognisant of the task he’s been handed.  

Neal McDonough, as Dr. Birkin, meets all the requirements to step in as a caring physician with company ties. And it’s hard to imagine a character more primed for PTSD than Sherry Birkin, played by Holly de Barros, the cast's youngest member when not counting the zombie kid. 

I still don’t grasp the significance of the film’s final tag-on scene (a la the end of every movie in the Marvel Universe). But I acknowledge that the knowing response from those in audience who do, was deep and heartfelt.  I’m tempted to ask the gamers in the room, but fear that it might become a conversation I wish I never started. I don’t mind leaving a film without all my questions being answered.  

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is directed and written by Johannes Roberts and stars Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, and Neal McDonough.  Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City is currently playing in select theatres.