Many complaints can be made about the first Resident Evil movie series. Its lack of fidelity to its source material is a particular sticking point for fans of the games. While it used characters and locations from the games, its focus on Milla Jovovich's Alice and over-the-top action made it into its own beast.
Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City will be a serious departure from its predecessor. Director Johannes Roberts has promised that it will be true to its video game roots. While it won't shot for shot adapt the games, the trailer confirmed it will be taking its cues from two classic Resident Evil titles.
Which Video Games Is Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City Based On?
Welcome To Raccoon City is based on the first two games released in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. It's something fans have known for months after preview photos were released in August; however, it was made even clearer by the trailer's promise to reveal the "origin of evil."
Welcome To Raccoon City will star the first two games' protagonists. It will feature supporting characters, antagonists and creatures from those games as well. The trailer puts a specific focus on the Redfield siblings, Chris and Claire. Claire is introduced as a college student who stumbles upon the zombie outbreak while searching for Chris in the games. She has been recast as an anti-Umbrella Corporation activist that Chris dismisses as a conspiracy theorist until she's proven right.
What Is the First Resident Evil Game About?
The first Resident Evil game debuts long-running protagonists Chris Redfield and his fellow Raccoon City Police Department member Jill Valentine. It also introduces the Umbrella Corporation, the company whose experiments create zombies and other creatures that act as the games' primary enemies. It serves as the power behind the events of multiple franchise games. Resident Evil is one of the few games in the series that lives up to its title in a literal sense. It takes place entirely in the titular malevolent home instead of the multiple locations of future installments.
Chris and Jill are part of the RCPD's special operations division, S.T.A.R.S., investigating cannibalistic murders on the outskirts of the city. After an encounter with zombified dogs, they take shelter in the nearby Spencer Mansion. Unfortunately for Chris and Jill, but conveniently for the plot, the mansion turns out to be the center of Umbrella's experiments. In addition to learning about Umbrella's misdeeds, they also find out that one of their teammates is a double agent working for Umbrella.
What Is Resident Evil 2 About?
Taking place two months after the events of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2 throws fresh-faced protagonists into the middle of Raccoon City's zombie outbreak. Claire, Chris Redfield's sister, and Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop arriving for his first day of work at the worst possible time. While they meet up at the beginning of the game, they wind up being separated and gaining their own allies before potentially reuniting, like Chris and Jill in the original.
Resident Evil 2 differed from its predecessor by offering unique paths out of Raccoon City for each character. It's unclear if that will make it into the movie adaptation, given that it also has to accommodate Resident Evil's cast and introduce Umbrella. However, it will include a character that only appeared in Leon's story, femme fatale Ada Wong.
Welcome To Raccoon City risks overstuffing the first entry in a new Resident Evil movie series with characters. It's the trade-off it's making from not boiling the games down to a setting as the first Paul W.S. Anderson movie did. It will be interesting to see if a closer adaptation of the games will stick the cinematic landing better than its predecessors.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will be released in theaters Nov. 24.