Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a reboot of the Resident Evil film series, written and directed by Johannes Roberts. It sets aside the Milla Jovovich-era continuity and returns to the source material, the original 1990s Capcom video games. It combines the stories of the first two games: one half of the film takes place in the decaying Midwestern town of Raccoon City as a zombie outbreak begins, and the other half follows members of the Raccoon City police as they investigate the Spencer mansion.

Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) comes back to the town she ran away from, convinced the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation is hiding something deadly. Her estranged brother Chris (Robbie Amell) is sent to the mansion with Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper). Meanwhile, rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia) gets through his first night on the job at a police station that is steadily being overrun.

Over one long night, the two storylines move toward each other as the survivors run short of ammunition and time, and a town built by a corporation gets ready to pay for that corporation's secrets.

Roberts has said he wanted a faithful adaptation of the games, and the film's main purpose is to bring back the claustrophobic survival horror of the originals: limited ammunition, oppressive darkness and a slowly revealed conspiracy. Underneath the fan service, the film tells a story of corporate rot and abandonment. Raccoon City is a company town that Umbrella feeds on and then throws away, and the only answer the film offers is a small, fragile solidarity among damaged people, especially the estranged Redfield siblings, who have to rebuild trust to survive.

As a love letter: Some viewers see the film as a collage of the games meant mainly for fans, where recognition (locations, notes, items) is the main pleasure, and they forgive its looseness as intentional B-movie energy.

The film arrived after six Paul W.S. Anderson films that fans often criticized for straying from the games. Welcome to Raccoon City tried to reset the franchise by going back to the source material, and it fits into a wider trend of game adaptations built around fidelity and fan service. Critics credited its devotion to the games but felt that fidelity alone could not make a good film. One review called it an affectionately faithful adaptation that further proves its source material is ill-suited to the big screen.

Commercially, it grossed about $42 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, and the planned sequel was cancelled. Its lasting legacy is mostly as a case study in the limits of literal adaptation.

Praised: Players of the original games valued its many details and homages, especially its limited ammunition and oppressive darkness and the faithful R.P.D. station. Several viewers considered it better than some of the earlier live-action adaptations.

Criticized: Reviews pointed to a bland cast, poor special effects, forgettable action and a weak script, plus a messy structure from combining two games. Some called it bland and bungled.

Verdict: Mixed to negative. Fans found enjoyable nostalgia in it, but general audiences found an uneven B-movie, and the film's commercial disappointment ended plans for a sequel.