The first news of a better adaptation of Resident Evil game (not a reboot, don't call it that, Anderson's series were vaguely based on the game and that always bothered me!) was exciting, but when I saw the first images and trailer I instantly felt I wouldn't like it.

To start, the abysmal take of Leon, one of the main characters, a badass hero, is portrayed here as a useless, stupid wimp, who looks virtually the complete opposite to the character in the game. So it's not the first impression from the images about the total miss cast in terms of look, the character was destroyed in an insulting way and Avan Jogia performance is terrible. That pretty much ruined the movie for me.

Jill Valentine is the other terrible miss cast, even if you put aside the look of the actress, the character doesn't feel like what it was in the game.

I've read an interview with the (terrible) director and writer of this mess, Johannes Roberts, saying basically that he didn't care that much about the look of the actors (bad approach, in my opinion, but well..), but wanted to get actors that feel like the characters in the game. I wonder WHAT game did this guy play. Honestly. Absolute miss.

But if you leave Leon and Jill characters poor adaptations off the movie, it still looks and feel amateurish and poorly written. The dialogs, pace and action, it's quite an eye roll fest.

Lots of scenes are poorly light, and I don't mean too dark, it's just cheap and lousy cinematography. Not all though, some scenes look good, but unfortunately they're the least. The colouring also feels like a bad choice, everything looks yellowish, like if it was filmed using tungsten lights and not fixed afterwards. More amateurism or just poor creative choice.

The action was quite lame, cliché, poorly choreographed and shoot, I don't remember a single one that I liked, and there were some serious continuity issues that felt confusing when Chris and the other guy get attacked fist time in the mansion. (not a real spoiler here, that's obvious to happen, right?)

Now for what I give some credit to this movie, is for the effort on (at least trying) to keep the atmosphere, setting and characters of the game, including some of the classic monsters.

The first minutes after the orphanage scene were good actually, a good pre-first scene of the game RE2, I really liked it, with the truck, the dog... But as soon as Leon appears, it totally spoiled everything.

And the mansion! Along with Chris Redfield casting (the best one, I wish they did a better effort casting all the rest) the mansion was nailed in terms of atmosphere and look, it totally brought me back to my memories playing RE 1, 2 and 3. It was pretty wasted though, I do appreciate that the keys and secret doors and stuff like that from the game appear here, but all that was poorly implemented and the story just drags making no sense. To be honest, half of what was going on, I only understood because I know how the game goes and this was following that line, but the story didn't feel solid at any point as a movie.

The CGI was quite mediocre, but didn't ruin the movie for me, and it gave the classic monsters from the game the chance to be there.

What else to say, looking to the other movies this director and writer has, I'm not surprised this was a bad movie, I'm only sad and disappointed that I'll have to keep waiting for a good RE adaptation, if this one didn't just kill the franchise.

I'd be surprised if any sequels are made for this mess, it looks like the director is hopeful, seeing the after credits scene. If so, I hope someone else picks up on directing and writing and they change Leon's actor.

A decent Resident Evil movie with some gore, cheap jump scares and a lot of fan-service. Not everything clicks and it's incredibly easy to be overly critical of this movie but in my opinion it was certainly a lot better than the trash that was Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. I grabbed some popcorn, candy and a coke with my expectations firmly in check and I had a decent overall time. I'm a big fan of schlocky B-movies and it's nice to see something in theatres that isn't related to superheroes or overly-serious dramas. What I didn't like the most though was how Leon was portrayed but I guess that's because I got done playing RE4 on the oculus and I'm used to that representation of him.

After watching Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City I read a lot of the reviews on IMDB and the only reviews being liked are from people who bombed the film. Are people really that desperate to hate on a movie they haven't seen? What are your expectations going into a Resident Evil movie if you have seen it?

I would like to make one thing clear from the get-go;

I'm a "newer" fan of the Resident Evil video game franchise. I always knew about the video game when it first came out in 1998, but back then I was into PC's and by the time I had my first PC building experiences, the Resident Evil franchise wasn't on my must-play radar.

My first "experience" with Resident Evil was pretty much the first Live Action movie featuring Milla Jovovich. And while I 'knew' it wasn't "faithful", honestly, I appreciated it for what it was, a genetics-military-zombie action-flick that you can easily watch and just enjoy the music, ambiance and energy without going into full-on "2001-A-Space-Odyssey-mode". (I'm more a Star Trek type, I like Sci-Fi, Psychological Horror, Cultural movies, etc..)

In the recent years, my actual gaming experience with RE first came with the RE2 Remake, which I really loved and that pushed me to go back and pretty much play every Resident Evil game I could play on PC, in order of release.

The games are pretty fresh in my mind, and I might make reference to one or two during my 'review' of this movie.

So, on to my thoughts about the movie!

MOVIE REVIEW ============

For the most part, I appreciated this more "nerdy" and subtle attempt at the Resident Evil franchise compared to the movies with Alice as the protagonist. While far from perfect, I feel like my time was well spent here. I'm already looking forward to watching it a second time. Usually, I find the second time let's you notice or see things you missed the first time and this movie has plenty of little subtle details and "easter" eggs that point back to the games, or characters.

Where I enjoyed this movie especially, was with the toned-down action sequences, they felt more realistic, more like the video games actually and less like superhero movies. Slower paced, not extravagant running and jumping scenes with huge explosions and all that ridiculous overdone superhero crap that has flooded the market.

The setting - small town, rain, nighttime - was the right choice for setting the mood and recreating the setting and feel from the games.

One of the more subtle detail that really pulled me in, was the way the actors handled their firearms. Resident Evil is (for those who don't know) about a pharmaceutical/experimental company (Umbrella) that also tries to create these creatures for military purposes, and the story always revolves around some containment breach and having to fight some zombies, monsters and other freak creatures. Where Capcom differs from many other "similar" styles of games, is that they tend to go in with a slightly more realistic feel to weapons and such.

The movies recreated this very well and it shows the actors had the proper training sessions to know how to properly move, handle and use the firearms (for movie-level entertainment anyways). I appreciated this, because it felt like I was watching scenes from the game, but with actors.

Another area I appreciated, was the locations that were visually recreated, like the Police Department (and the underground parking lot) and the Mansion Entrance and surrounding forest.

The actors really played their roles VERY well, although, I am puzzled by some of the liberties taken with actors, but I'll touch on that further down.

So, why not 7, 8 or 9/10 ?

I feel a little divided on the whole Claire and her childhood parts. It felt like it ate away at the movie and wasn't necessary. But at the same time, I think I understand the motive; which was most likely to make the video game adaptation a little more palatable by an audience that may have never played or even know about the games. But being a fan of the games, it felt a little out of place.

While the actors seriously did a very good job and I cannot say anything negative about their acting skills, I was quite puzzled by the choice of the actors in terms of looks. Apart from Chris Redfield, the other actors weren't even remotely close to the look of the in-game characters. I can't say I particularly appreciated that.

I also did not like how they introduce the meeting between Claire and Leon, nor the way they portrayed Leon at the start. It felt "off". I would have preferred seeing something like them meeting at the front of the Police Department instead of Leon being portrayed as a little bit of a loser.

But all that was "okay" in terms of liberties taken when adapting a video game. Where it loses most points, in my own opinion, is the pacing and the lack of scenes in the very memorable locations.

I was honestly expecting a little more slow creep and exploration of the Mansion and the Police Department. I would have like them to at least have a little more of the puzzle element that is one of the main points in the video games.

I don't mean they have to copy the puzzles in the games and recreate them in the movie, but at least a memorable room that would have forced the characters to go find something somewhere else to unlock a particular location.

All we see of the Mansion is the entrance, a room with a piano and a tunnel leading to a "secret" exit. The mansion hides MANY secrets, many rooms and, well, it felt a little shallow and like they took too much time with Claire's childhood, but too little with the locations that really set the tone for the video games.

Same goes for the Police Department; sure, the underground parking felt good, the PD entrance was really cool, but they could have "recreated" some form of video game backtracking/puzzle by making them have to find a special weapon in the equipment room, by having to go back to Police Chiefs office desk for the right key, but backtracking there would have led to a few standoffs with some "walkers".

While I think Birkin (the end monster) was VERY cool with the eyes on the shoulders and all that, it was slightly underwhelming. The bazooka shot in the closed train was maybe of a little bit much.

And the scene with the Licker and how it was "easily" dispatched in a struggle with that masked test-girl (I forget her name) really didn't feel all that hot.

In the end, when I look back and think of the time I spent watching the movie, I feel like this is a step in the right direction when it comes to a movie-adaptation of a video game... and thank the movie realms for this not turning into a Uwe Boll movie!

I actually appreciate the feeling in Johannes Roberts horror-style movies (I really like horror movies!) and I think he did a pretty good job adapting and melding two video games into a movie that is palatable by fans and by an audience that might completely ignore the games.

Naturally, this is going to be a pretty devisive aspect, and anyways, 5 or 6 out of 10 in the realm of "horror" is pretty good! So 6.5 or 7/10, I feel, is pretty good!