Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City

[Ikawaru]

Also 2, Irons isn't giving me villain vibes in the trailer. Maybe they changed his role somewhow?

Something I also noticed. He seems like a good guy small town kinda good cop from the kind of movies that were released in 1998, where pro cop sentiment was much stronger back then than it is now. You'd think they'd capitalize on the recent BLM/Antifa f* the popo momentum and make Irons even more of an arch villain but I guess they decided to go the good ol' boy route. Strange.

 

[KevinStriker]

I've been out of the loop, so I'm just going to crawl out of my cave and quit lurking to say that this looks like a fan film.
Also, "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes has NO business being in this trailer. Somebody at Sony's marketing department must have had their brains chewed out.

On top of being one of my most hated songs of all time

 

[Ikawaru]

On top of being one of my most hated songs of all time

It was very well liked in the Eurozone at the time so th..... I see your point

 

[Hardware]

How is a theatrical exclusive release gonna hurt its numbers?

But I just watched the international trailer and it looks a lot better, don’t know why they didn’t just go with that one. I still don’t have HUGE hopes for this.

Your post was a bit ambivalent, as you highlighted the misfortunes of recent theatrical releases as well as some VOD ones while also praising the convenience of watching a movie "for free" at home (it's not really free BTW).

I believe the theatrical-only release COULD harm the movie because in a lot of countries (and this is not an all-American venture, where only the US market counts - the latter is also less relevant today even for bona fide Hollywood stuff), especially here in Europe, there are limitations on the number of people that can get in. Where I live, theaters can only have 80% of their seats occupied (there must be at least two seats from one person to the other \ one group from the other) and everyone must prove they have been vaccinated. That means fewer tickets sold even at the best screening times. Add to that the fact people have become lazier under lockdown and they know everything is going down the VOD drain in a few months and you get why releasing it in theaters could be harmful. I mean, Disney and Scarlett Johansson recently went to court because of "Black Widow" getting released simultaneously in theaters and on VOD - which is also how most movies have been released this year, including "Godzilla Vs. Kong" and "Cruella" (two movies that are more likely to bring in huge crowds than Resident Evil).

 

[Hardware]

Something I also noticed. He seems like a good guy small town kinda good cop from the kind of movies that were released in 1998, where pro cop sentiment was much stronger back then than it is now. You'd think they'd capitalize on the recent BLM/Antifa f* the popo momentum and make Irons even more of an arch villain but I guess they decided to go the good ol' boy route. Strange.

My two cents is that Irons is still on Umbrella's payroll but he's not the sadistic psycho from the games: maybe, this time around, he's been paid to just look the other way and pretend nothing happened without him knowing in full what was going on. Should it be the case, there's a chance we'll get an emotional scene about Irons regretting his actions. Or maybe he's just a good ol' cop as he was supposed to be in 1.5. I seriously hope they'll stay away from his more psychotic persona: not because I don't like it, but, with Umbrella torturing Lisa and dooming a city, the obvious orphanage bit from RE2make (that's where Claire and Chris have been raised) and Birkin being shown as unscrupulous in his research even in the trailer, the movie is already filled with human monsters. Adding Irons' hobbies to the collection is a bit too much for a single film.

 

[Bran]

My two cents is that Irons is still on Umbrella's payroll but he's not the sadistic psycho from the games: maybe, this time around, he's been paid to just look the other way and pretend nothing happened without him knowing in full what was going on. Should it be the case, there's a chance we'll get an emotional scene about Irons regretting his actions. Or maybe he's just a good ol' cop as he was supposed to be in 1.5. I seriously hope they'll stay away from his more psychotic persona: not because I don't like it, but, with Umbrella torturing Lisa and dooming a city, the obvious orphanage bit from RE2make (that's where Claire and Chris have been raised) and Birkin being shown as unscrupulous in his research even in the trailer, the movie is already filled with human monsters. Adding Irons' hobbies to the collection is a bit too much for a single film.

Irons will definitely have elements of his character, though mostly just the cop on the cut.

What worries me is that Rebecca and Barry seemed to have been cut (no actors listed, though they have Kevin Dooley and Enrico listed on IMDb).

At least Ada is in the movie.

I kinda figured, but I'm still surprised that the person on the VHS tape Claire plays is Ben.

 

[Hardware]

What worries me is that Rebecca and Barry seemed to have been cut (no actors listed, though they have Kevin Dooley and Enrico listed on IMDb).

I am pretty sure they are not in the movie - which is a good thing as the cast is a bit overcrowded and most of the people in the STARS team are going to get munched so that only Jill and Chris make it out of there.

I kinda figured, but I'm still surprised that the person on the VHS tape Claire plays is Ben.

Personally, I don't mind them taking minor characters from the games and rearranging their role in the story. Ben as the journalist who locked himself in one of the cells (as per OG RE2) doesn't make much sense in a movie. In the remake it was better from a cinematic standpoint (Irons locked him up and he wants to get out) but, still, why didn't the chief just kill him? It's OK in a game because it puts you on a quest to open the cell and retrieve the keycard, but in a movie it would still feel hard to believe.

 

[Bran]

I am pretty sure they are not in the movie - which is a good thing as the cast is a bit overcrowded and most of the people in the STARS team are going to get munched so that only Jill and Chris make it out of there.


Personally, I don't mind them taking minor characters from the games and rearranging their role in the story. Ben as the journalist who locked himself in one of the cells (as per OG RE2) doesn't make much sense in a movie. In the remake it was better from a cinematic standpoint (Irons locked him up and he wants to get out) but, still, why didn't the chief just kill him? It's OK in a game because it puts you on a quest to open the cell and retrieve the keycard, but in a movie it would still feel hard to believe.

Oh, I meant from his appearance. They kind of took him from looking like he just stumbled onto the conspiracy to someone that looks like they've been knee deep in it for a couple years. He looks more like one of the TV people from the original Dawn of the Dead after the world went to ****, and comes up with extreme measures to save humanity. Lol.

He just looks like they took his remake design to extremes.

 

[Hardware]

It's totally impossible to faithfully adapt Resident Evil with respect for the source material. The cast HAS to be garbage otherwise it'll never work. Stories NEED to be jumbled together otherwise it would never work. Characters HAVE to be altered in strange ways and completely omitted otherwise it just won't work. There's no other possible way to make a good Resident Evil film that's faithful to the source material and actually does it justice. No way in hell. It just can't be done and definitely won't be praised or make money at all without horrible changes that make it more appealing than the name Resident Evil itself.

I wouldn't know about that...I mean, if by "Resident Evil" you mean RE1, yeah, there's no way to faithfully adapt that game for the screen - its storytelling only works because it's a game - take the same elements, put them in a movie, and you'll most definitely end up with a failure. However, if we are talking about RE as an idea (or, more likely, a set of ideas), then a movie that feels like a RE game can be made. I mean, Romero's script, despite not being that good, does give off a vague idea of what a real RE movie would be like. The biggest problem would still be getting the audience (especially those who didn't play the games) into the narrative - that's why Chris was not a STARS member in Romero's script: that way, the audience was going to get introduced to the whole story slowly, discovering new elements along with Chris.

 

[Bran]

I wouldn't know about that...I mean, if by "Resident Evil" you mean RE1, yeah, there's no way to faithfully adapt that game for the screen - its storytelling only works because it's a game - take the same elements, put them in a movie, and you'll most definitely end up with a failure. However, if we are talking about RE as an idea (or, more likely, a set of ideas), then a movie that feels like a RE game but it's a movie can be made. I mean, Romero's script, despite not being that good, does give off a vague idea of what a real RE movie would be like. The biggest problem would still be getting the audience (especially those who didn't play the games) into the narrative - I think that's why Chris was not a STARS member in Romero's script: that way, the audience was going to get introduced to the whole story slowly, discovering new elements along with Chris.

Correct on that. There is also some thematic elements that was part of Romero’s social commentary that was present within the story he was telling.

 

[Fishcakes]

Ok so I'm sure that most of you heard that another RE movie is coming out this year telling of the story of RE1 and 2. The pictures of the cast came out of Twitter, and please tell me I'm not the only one. Why can't these movies have good casting? I mean, Chris is the only one that's recognizable. Jill is not even in her iconic uniform, and Leon and Claire both look like cosplays. The actor for Leon would be a great Carlos, but not Leon. The hairstyle is even wrong. (Leon is Italian, right?) Claire's actress looks ok, but she needs red hair and put it in a ponytail. I mean, how hard is that? Apparently it's a low budget movie.

I completely agree with you, however I love the fact that they tried to keep the scenes looking similar to the movie. But the cast is disappointing. Fans got mad at the REmake of re3 because of the smallest differences, this will be so much worse. I think they should've waited to find suitable looking actors, changed the cast, made new characters (except Chris and "Carlos") or made the characters CG like in the remakes, would've been more faithful despite less realism

 

[Hardware]

New trailer

 

[Fishcakes]

New trailer

Still looking forward to watching it

 

[Jonipoon]

Looks like they hired someone with better trailer editing skills. This makes the movie look much more impressive and less ”low budget” than the previous two.

Maybe it’s just me, or does the CGI look better in this trailer than the earlier ones? I mean it’s not unusual for first trailers to utilize unfinished CGI scenes, so there’s a chance that what we’re seeing now is the final touch.

 

[Bran]

Looks like they hired someone with better trailer editing skills. This makes the movie look much more impressive and less ”low budget” than the previous two.

Maybe it’s just me, or does the CGI look better in this trailer than the earlier ones? I mean it’s not unusual for first trailers to utilize unfinished CGI scenes, so there’s a chance that what we’re seeing now is the final touch.

I agree.

It's entirely possible either the effects just weren't done in time before they started work, or someone saw the comments and they went back and touched them up. Brings to mind the entire Sonic the Hedgehog debacle.

 

[Hardware]

It's not uncommon for trailers to feature work-in-progress VFX. I have heard some VFX people commenting on the Dune trailer and how rough everything looked at that stage - to them, at least. Given WTRC has like 1\3 of the budget of Dune (officially at least - it might've cost less than that), it's not surprising to hypothesize its WIP VFX are going to look crummier.

 

[Bran]

It's not uncommon for trailers to feature work-in-progress VFX. I have heard some VFX people commenting on the Dune trailer and how rough everything looked at that stage - to them, at least. Given WTRC has like 1\3 of the budget of Dune (officially at least - it might've cost less than that), it's not surprising to hypothesize its WIP VFX are going to look crummier.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the film has less than $40 million budget. But yeah, it leaves me with hope that the final film will have better VFX.

 

[Hardware]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the film has less than $40 million budget. But yeah, it leaves me with hope that the final film will have better VFX.

Yeah, I too reckon they probably managed to pull it off for a little less than what they say - hard to say how much from the trailer though. But we both know movies are sold for more than what they actually cost.

 

[Jonipoon]

Official poster:

 

[Hardware]

Guys, I gotta say it: despite the cast hardly looking like the characters and the "cheap" CG (it ain't that cheap, especially if they got the collisions right - I lensed a couple of projects with very cheap VFX and they looked way worse than that), this movie seems to have the right style. I remember when the first Anderson movie was about to get released: the poster was pretty sterile and uninteresting (Jovovich and Rodriguez with some wireframe graphics in the background: it could've been anything) and the trailer had its only bloody shot (the zombified J.D.) badly altered so that the blood was blue. This thing at least is trying to be a real horror movie: maybe we'll get a half-decent flick this time around.