Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I vividly remember growing up and playing “Resident Evil” on Playstation as a kid, and being hooked nearly instantly. It was a game like no other. It was horrifying, creepy, violent, and was a fairly complex puzzle game that created a near infinite series of sequels. Now, not every sequel has been great (looking at you in particular “Resident Evil 6”), but they have generally been a great series of games. Now the movies? Well, that’s up to personal opinion. While the 2002 Milla Jovovich movie had very little to do with the games narrative wise, they at least captured some of the essences of the characters and the evil of the Umbrella corporation. They have a soft spot in my heart for being big dumb action movies, that ended up getting progressively worse over the next 5 films. After Resident Evil: The Final Chapter I was pretty sure that Sony was going to let the franchise rest, until I noticed a trailer for Welcome to Raccoon City. New actors, a creepy vibe, and what looked like to be a complete reboot of the series. The original Milla Jovovich films aren’t exactly high art so I have very little negative reaction to the series being rebooted, but something felt “off” just by watching the trailer.

Well, my nagging doubts sadly were proven right. Something was definitely off in the world of zombies. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City goes even farther off the rails (narrative and character wise) than the Jovovich films did. While those were dumb fun, this is just dumb. Characters are there in name only, as writer/director Johannes Roberts just slams a bunch of people into one location, giving them iconic names, and then taking bits and pieces from the game and creating something more akin to a Resident Evil/Silent Hill hybrid than anything remotely resembling the games or the movies that came before it.
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I’m going to say this off the bat. There is no real narrative flow to the movie. The movie just dumps us into the world of Raccoon City with an opening scrawl telling us that the Umbrella corporation is moving out, leaving nothing but the police and the poor people who couldn’t afford to move. Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) is coming back to the city to find her estranged cop brother Chris (Robbie Amell) and tell him that something is wrong with the city. And yup, something is wrong. People are starting to act strangely at first, but soon go insane as they turn into the undead bioweapons that we all know and love. Now the rest of the police left in town (comprised of officers Albert Wesker, Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine) have to band together to get the heck out of dodge before they get eaten alive by the Umbrella corp monsters.

There’s a small sub story with how Claire and Chris were kids that were almost tested on with the original T-virus by the malevolent Dr. Birkin (Neal McDonough), but everything else is just a survival game. One of the biggest problems with the whole movie is just how narratively stunted the movie is. No one is even remotely who they were in the games except maybe Chris. Leon is a whiny rookie kid (Avan Jogia) who comes from a rich family and is NOWHERE near the bad boy he is usually. Albert Wesker is just a self serving cop who sold secrets, and Jill Valentine makes smart alec comments and likes her fully automatic weapons. Even Claire is just a shell of her normal self too. Much of this could be forgiven if it wasn’t for the abysmal acting, cheap CGI that looks WORSE than the 2002 movie in many ways, and is just a boring and flat film that really just shouldn’t exist.




Rated R for strong violence and gore, and language throughout.




4K Video: Video:

Welcome to Raccoon City was filmed using a variety of Arri Alexa cameras (Mini, LF, Mini LF an SXT cameras) and finished at a native 4K master for this release. The film is dark, atmospheric, and slightly red and yellow tinged, but is a looker for sure. Even in the dead of night and under pitch black circumstances you can still pick out plenty of detail. Yes some scenes look a bit soft on purpose, but the Dolby Vision gives us some DEEP silky blacks that don’t ever artifact, even during the infamous truck explosion scene (dark shots on digital mixed with flames tend to cause color banding). This is a great looking disc that, while stylized and not meant to look bright and shiny, is still an incredible looker as the DV really enhances the reds of Claire’s jackets, and most importantly, the black levels that this film thrives on.










Audio:

One thing that ANY Resident Evil movie is really known for is the killer audio. The Dolby Atmos track found on the disc is a killer mix as well. It’s not super duper nuanced with tons of overhead support (overheads are used moderately with the helo crash, or with things raining down from above) but the bass is absolutely killer, and the surrounds are really used to full potential as screams, flames, and all sorts of debris pelter all around during the chaos. Guns are deep and powerful, and vocals are never hard to hear. The track isn’t perfect, but it’s just as in your face as you would expect for a movie of this ilk.







Extras:

• Replicating the DNA
• Cops, Corpses and Chaos
• Zombies, Lickers and the Horrors of Resident Evil

Final Score:
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I wanted to like Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City as I’m not too hard to impress with dumb action movies like these. I enjoyed much of the Milla Jovovich franchise and loved the games…..even the bad ones. So for me to literally sit there with my jaw hanging down to my knees and say “what were they even thinking?!” says a lot. The movie is bland, the narrative nearly nonexistent, and the action absolutely boring. The 4K disc is pretty solid with good video and powerhouse audio, but this is just a stinker of a film. Skip it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Avan Jogia, Neal McDonough, Nathan Dales
Directed by: Johannes Roberts
Written by: Johannes Roberts
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 8th, 2022

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'll take your recommendation, Mike.

 

[phillihp23]

Yup , I thought it was complete garbage. Just a bunch of random stuff thrown on the screen with little storyline or plot. If you hadn’t watched the originals you would be lost as the script was almost void.

 

[Michael Scott]

Yup , I thought it was complete garbage. Just a bunch of random stuff thrown on the screen with little storyline or plot. If you hadn’t watched the originals you would be lost as the script was almost void.

there was a script?

 

[phillihp23]

there was a script?