The “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” Trailer Has Me Concerned!

The trailer for the upcoming Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City live-action movie has been released and it’s… well, it’s something. I hope the actual movie is good!

With the film’s November 24, 2021, release date coming near, fans had been wondering when they would get a trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. The latest entry in the live-action RE film series will serve as a reboot and has nothing to do with the popular RE movies starring Milla Jovovich. Now, the fans have finally received the trailer, and it turns out that the overall response isn’t the best.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, by Director/Writer Johannes Roberts, was supposed to stick closer to the game’s source material. And while I do see a number of Easter Eggs in the trailer, it’s clear that Roberts took a lot of creative liberty when he decided to combine the narrative threads of RE 1 and RE 2 into a single film. Not only that, the CG looks bad. And the acting isn’t great. Frankly, the entire trailer can be described in one word, said word being ‘Cheap’.

Yes, as a long-time fan of the Resident Evil franchise, I know that the games weren’t the best written and had cheesy B-grade horror movie dialogue. However, having such things occur in a game series that debuted during the late ’90s and seeing them being portrayed on screen in 2021 isn’t the same. The writing-specific faults in the game series were covered by engrossing gameplay. What the heck is going to cover similar faults in this live-action movie? Will today’s audience be ready to accept so much schlock? Sigh! I’m concerned because I want a new RE movie series that’s more horror-centric.

The trailer opens up with Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) narrating how “Every story has a beginning,” which… duh!

Similar to her introduction in RE 2, she does come back to Raccoon City. However, this time (from what I could understand), her brother Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell) hasn’t gone missing yet and Claire’s basically thought of as a conspiracy theorist because she thinks the Umbrella Corporation is up to no good. I mean, her hunch’s right, but I don’t like Claire being portrayed as a conspiracy theorist and considered a crazy person. Even Chris, judging by the trailer, doesn’t believe her.

Another major change in the upcoming film is that the zombie outbreak occurs while Claire’s inside Raccoon City. Apparently, she will get to see certain people slowly turn into flesh-eating monsters around her. In the games, she and Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia) entered the city when almost all of the town had already been infected and zombies were already roaming the streets.

Also, I have to say that Jogia as Leon Kennedy isn’t giving me the iconic character the fandom has grown to love. It could be because of how the trailer was cut, because other than Claire and Chris, the rest of the characters, including the very popular Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), aren’t showing much of a personality. The film does seem to be very Claire-centric. I’m not against it. Claire’s one of my top RE characters. I just hope the script doesn’t push other popular characters to the back to prop her up. I want enjoyable moments from every character.

Anyway, from what I can tell, it feels like while Claire and Leon (who still appears to be a rookie cop) try to survive the zombies in the city, Chris, Jill, and Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper) will be making their way to the creepy Spencer Mansion. I think that Claire and Leon will make their way to the Spencer Mansion to try and save Chris and his STARS team someway or another.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will open in theaters come November 24, 2021. Let’s see how well it ends up doing at the box office and if it can kickstart another live-action RE movie series.

Even though I have my concerns, I will be watching this movie.

What about you?

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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