Today’s quick review: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) returns to Raccoon City to warn her brother Chris (Robbie Amell) that the Umbrella Corporation has been poisoning the town, only to have her fears confirmed when the locals begin turning into zombies. As the town is overrun, Claire and Chris join forces with police officers Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia) and Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) to escape.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a zombie survival horror movie based on the Resident Evil video game series. Unlike the previous live-action adaptations, Welcome to Raccoon City hews closer to its source material, mashing up the plots of the first two games. The movie blends zombie action with a heavy dose of atmospheric horror. However, mediocre characters and some peculiar presentation choices dent an otherwise solid story.
Welcome to Raccoon City handles its horror well. The movie does a good job of conveying Raccoon City as a dying, desolate town that is home to some nasty conspiracies. Every now and then the movie gets carried away trying to unnerve the audience, shattering the illusion, but Umbrella’s experiments are interesting enough to reel the audience back in. The atmosphere and the dark mystery
That said, Welcome to Raccoon City has plenty of flaws. Chief among these is that the characters never quite click. Their reactions to the events around them are not entirely believable, and two or three weirdly stylized scenes heighten the sense of disconnect. Inertia and a few good lines are enough to keep the audience rooting for the survivors, but the movie misses the chance to make the characters more engaging.
Welcome to Raccoon City also suffers from pacing and logic issues. The slow build-up sets the tone quite nicely but drags out the plot, wasting time in the predictable early stages of the outbreak and pushing the more interesting material on Umbrella to the end of the movie. The action is likewise back-loaded, only hitting its stride later on. Finally, the plot is pocked with minor holes that will diminish the enjoyment of attentive viewers.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is an interesting experiment with a few points in its favor, but its many flaws make it a rocky pick. Fans of the games or of the horror genre may want to give it a shot, as much for its idiosyncrasies as for its story and atmosphere. But viewers who are looking for either straightforward zombie action or masterful horror may want to steer clear.
For a less faithful but more action-packed adaptation of the same source material, try the original Resident Evil and its sequels. For a classic horror movie about the early hours of a zombie outbreak, try Night of the Living Dead. For a superhero horror movie that toys with a similar setup, try The New Mutants. For an action movie set in a police station under attack, try Assault on Precinct 13.
[5.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6920084/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for a a promising mystery hurt by some questionable choices along the way.