Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City movie review (2021)

From the very beginning of “Welcome to Raccoon City,” fans of the games will note the references to the world they know and love. The film opens with a young Claire Redfield and her brother Chris in an orphanage in the heart of Raccoon City, a place run by the malevolent William Birkin (Neal McDonough). Years after a creepy opening in which Claire sees a disfigured girl named Lisa Trevor (Janet Porter), she’s coming back to Raccoon City via a ride hitched with a truck driver. Now played by Kaya Scodelario, Claire has heard that something nefarious is happening in her home town courtesy of the Umbrella Corporation. She picked the wrong day to come home.

It starts before she even gets into Raccoon City, when the driver hits a girl on the road. As he’s arguing with Claire, the girl gets up and walks away. The trucker’s dog goes to lick the bloody spot and anyone who played the early games will yell “Zombie Dog!” at least in their head. (Those damn zombie dogs were one of the most terrifying things in game history.) She eventually makes it to the Raccoon City Police Department building, which has been remarkably recreated from those early games. I wanted to look behind the reception desk in the lobby for ammo.

The inhabitants of the RPD will be familiar to players and even fans of the Anderson movies: Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), and Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia) lead the way with Donal Logue appearing as Chief Irons and chewing all the scenery he can find (his first scene plays like he might think he's in a parody of bad cop movies). While the names may be familiar, the characters are depressingly thin. John-Kamen gives Jill a little spark but Scodelario looks bored, something no one could ever say about Milla Jovovich.

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