I have seen the original Resident Evil franchise with Mila Jovovich. I own all the films except the first one. Its because I did not like the first one. I was excited for this movie especially because of the cast. The movie stars Kaya Scodelario, Robbie Amell, Hannah John-Kamen, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue, and Neal McDonough along with Tom Hopper. I know all of them except Tom Hopper. I finally got to see this recently.

As a movie, I thought it was a solid movie. It was a little different than the prior films. First of all, this is a prequel set in 1998. It was stated that it was not a prequel to the main movies but a prequel to the games themselves. I never really played the games. I tried once and got frustrated so I moved on. I did enjoy the movies which I am aware they did not follow the games at all other than some minor things here and there. I know that’s why a lot of the fans of the games did not care for the franchise especially since the star of that franchise was an original character who never existed in the games. This movie seemed a bit slower which is fine. However, it did not waste much time before zombies started showing up. It was a bit more atmospheric. I believe the games are more that way in general as opposed to what the main franchise of films was which were zombie action movies for the most part. I think it has a solid cast. They all do a good job with what they have. I was very excited when it was announced Robbie Amell would be playing Chris Redfield mostly because Chris and Claire Redfield are main characters. It felt like Chris was not in the movie as much and there seemed to be a bit more focus on Claire. One thing that did bother me a little bit was they did not have much screen time together. A big chunk of the movie was spent with Claire away from Chris. They were both off with other characters. They only had a few scenes together. I would have liked to see more brother and sister together especially since in this movie they were estranged for many years. I was a little bummed especially because I was looking forward to seeing Robbie Amell have a large role in the movie. I have been fan of Robbie Amell since he was on True Jackson VP. Robbie Amell did a good job as Chris and Kaya Scodelario made a good Claire. It would have been nice if they had more screentime together. Donal Logue plays Chief Irons and the character seemed similar to when he played Bullock on Gotham. Neal McDonough always seems to play a villain. At this point in time, I have only seen him in one role where he was not a bad guy and that was his role as Dum Dum Dugan in the MCU. I am sure there are other projects where he isn’t a villain, but I have yet to see one where that is not the case. The trailer made it seem that he was up to no good anyway, so it was hardly a surprise when that was confirmed in the movie. Avan Jogia plays Leon and I thought he did a good job. I found the character a bit annoying at times, but he also was the rookie of the police force. I did find myself getting annoyed at how many times he would fall asleep when he was supposed to be doing something else. I would have liked to have seen Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine a little more. I felt like she was a bit sidelined same as Chris Redfield.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is a good Resident Evil movie. It is different than the other films, but it does seem to lean a bit more into the horror genre than those films did. It has a solid cast, and it did set up some things that could be continued in potential future films. The ending itself was a bit abrupt and left open ended. I think that was the point since this is also a prequel. It also has a midcredit scene that introduces another character from the game as well as reveals the fate of a character. I think it would be cool to see that explored more in another film. I also would like to see more of Chris and Claire together. I don’t know if there are plans for more films or if this was considered a one and done. Time will tell but the film itself did not do well so this may very well be a one and done. If that is the case, it is a solid movie. It also would be nice to see another movie where there could be more opportunity to explore the characters a bit more and at least give some of the others more substantial screentime.