Episode 287: Resident Evil Triple Feature: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021); Vendetta (2017); Death Island (2023)
CatBusRuss is excited about the third horror feature from acclaimed director Zach Cregger ("Weapons" and "Barbarian"), but is a bit skeptical about the subject matter. The former "Whitest Kid You Know" is taking on the cinematically divisive franchise of "Resident Evil".
To this point, none of the live-action adaptations of the Capcom video game series have been "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes (or nearly fresh with the least rotten being 39%, 21% from critical acclaim). Cregger has made it clear that his film will not be centered around any of the video games' protagonists. Russ was a fan of most of the Paul W.S. Anderson series (with the exception of the one that scored 39%), but was that more about his fandom for the director's "Mortal Kombat" and "Event Horizon"?
The Japanese CG-animated features stay in the continuity of the video games, and have a reasonable hit-to-miss ratio. Our host just watched the last two features in that franchise, "Resident Evil: Vendetta" and "Resident Evil: Death Island", to demonstrate that, especially in an age of successful gaming adaptions, being loyal to the source material is a wise decision.
CatBus did not get around to the feature in theaters since the COVID-19 restrictions were just getting lifted in 2021, but he felt "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" was a fun feature. The actors may not have looked like their video game counterparts, but it knew that the story of the games was worth bringing to the big screens. It is really silly that this has been written off because it took just one liberty when compared to the original six Screen Gems flicks.
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