Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Has Screened, See What People Are Saying About The Video Game Adaptation

The Resident Evil video game franchise is one of the few that can be said have spawned a successful big screen adaptation. While none of the franchise of movies were ever particularly well received by critics, they were largely successful at the box office. It’s little surprise that it’s now already getting rebooted into a new movie. Unfortunately, based on some of the early responses, it doesn’t look like this new Resident Evil is going to fare much better with critics, but that doesn't mean the movie is all bad. 

The first batch of critics have now seen Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and to call the responses to the movie mixed would be generous. CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg was one of those who got to see the new film. He was also one of its harshest critics. While he leaves open the possibility that others might like the movie better, he really did not. 

But the truth is that many others actually did like the movie better than Eric. Including our Managing Director Sean O'Connell, who thinks that fans of the game are going to really like a lot about this movie.  It's not perfect, but it feels like the game in a way that, the previous films rarely did. 

Certainly, there do not seem to be rave reviews that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is the video game movie that will finally put game-based movies in the same space that comic book movies now hold. Nobody seems to think the movie was great, but several critics think it was fine, and at least somewhat enjoyable.

Not all that bad is certainly faint praise, but it does seem that there are some things that fans of the game series will enjoy. While the first run of Resident Evil movies focused on an original character played by Milla Jovovich, and only included characters from the game series in supporting roles, this one puts those characters front and center which fans will likely appreciate. 

Critics certainly aren’t in love with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, but neither do most have any significant problem with it. It sounds like the movie has some things going for it and that there is an audience for this sort of movie. 

Based on the response to the new Resident Evil movie, it looks like Welcome to Raccoon City might find itself in a similar place as the previous generation of films based on the games. If fans get behind it the box office will be there, and we’ll likely see the birth of a new franchise. If not, it doesn’t look like the critics’ responses are going to be dragging anybody to the theater to check this one out. 

Still the old movies reviewed so badly that even these lukewarm responses, when they become, one assumes, lukewarm reviews, might actually mean this movie could be the best reviewed live-action Resident Evil movie to date. I guess that’s something.