I swear this man is underrated when it comes to Resident Evil content, he doesn't sound like a lecturer giving a PowerPoint presentation but rather as a nostalgic fan who's followed RE from the beginning. It really feels like chatting about past games with a friend, the resident evil videos are definitely Phelous' best videos
The first zombie encounter recreation fails because it isn't done for dramatic effect like in the game, it's just "look we re-created the cutscene!". It's just fanservice and nothing else. Give us a story!
To sum up why it seems this movie as a whole failed, reenacting/referencing an iconic moment from the source material is not the same as recreating what actually made that moment great in the source material and/or bringing it to its full potential. If I was asked to explain how I would try to distinguish between genuine fan-service versus shallow "fan-pandering", I would include the above point as one difference to look for.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Something like No Way Home worked very well because it was treated as a stand alone story. You can enjoy it and understand it all well even if you haven't seen or even heard of the other movies. You don't need to know the Raimi Spider-Man's or Electro's complete history. All you need to know is that they're from alternate universes. It's GOOD fanservice. It pleases the fans, but ALSO respects movie going audiences that just want A movie that makes sence on it's own. Bad fanservice means it ONLY pleases fans and normal movie goers can't understand ANYTHING. So something like Welcome to Raccoon City, is not really a movie, but just a fanfilm.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Dude, if you're trolling, just shut up. Either it's too over the top and nobody's gonna take the bait, or you're serious and using so many exclamation marks that nobody's going to waste the time explaining anything to you. You failed. Try again.
From what little I've played, it would have been more appropriate to combine 2 and 3 into a single film. They should have done 1 as its own thing and another one combining RE 2 and 3.
If they tried to be more accurate, combining them wouldn't work due to the time frame. Without accuracy, it... could work maybe? But it would still be a mess.
@@TheListenerCanon But like I just said to someone else, imagine trying to cram both William Birkin and Nemesis in a single 2-hour movie and fully doing them both justice (with all of their different forms), on top of needing to reserve time for zombies and the important medium-sized enemies from both stories, such as Lickers, G-Adults, Drain Deimos, Hunter Betas/Gammas, and Gravediggers. And that it not even taking into account how Mr. X could be a third major monster that people want to see, besides Birkin and Nemesis.
@@markcobuzzi826 The biggest problem would just be making Mr. X a credible threatening presence if Nemesis (X 2.0) is there. Nemesis is supposed to be the action movie equivalent of X fighting a seasoned Bio-Weapon survivor Jill Valentine.
Apparently not the Jill Sandwich we were expecting…and Barry’s not there to make the reference again. Truly Phelous’s greatest issue against the RE movies.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Claire leaving Lisa Trevor behind felt so cruel and out of character. Sure it would be kinda hard to explain a friendly monster to other survivors. But the original Claire would have done everything to save her too. Lisa Trevors friendship with Claire was actually the best idea they had in this movie and they didnt go all the way. Also it was so awesome how she fought the Licker^^
Alot was wrong with this movie..the biggest thing "BARRY WHERE'S BARRY?!" 😭 This could have been great if separated into 2 movies, the first one, a more slow burn horror, the second more action horror.
0 + 1 woulda been fine. They occur back to back. 2 + 3 also fine But knowing how dumb people be, they will follow with 3 + 4, which aren't even in the same country.
@@Gruntvc I still do not think mashing together RE2+RE3 would be a good idea, unless it was a film the size of the Snyder Cut or a TV show season. I think the most glaring issue would be how difficult or impossible it is to do the variety of monsters justice, without keeping them separate installments. Between both games, you would have two giant monsters that pursue the main protagonists and undergo multiple transformations over the story, William Birkin and Nemesis. And if Mr. X is to be considered, that is almost the equivalent of a third main monster. Imagine just trying to cram the amount of action scenes, needed to fully portray the two primary monsters, on top of giving the zombies enough action and reserving the time for important medium-sized monsters too like Lickers, G-Adults, Drain Deimos, Hunter Betas/Gammas, or Gravediggers.
You noted a lot of weird stuff in the film, so I thought I'd help out in no particular order. 1) Leon's dad was supposed to have a role in this film. To save himself from embarrassment, he made sure Leon passed the academy and be dumped in Nowhere, USA. Leon's overeager and naive nature is supposed to be heavily from him trying to prove himself just as capable as any other cop - he'd get a phone call before work remaining him what a failure he is. Once you remove the relationship it comes across Leon - already the comic relief character - is exactly as dumb as looks. 2) Barry and Rebecca were in the movie until a 2020 redraft (let's call it the "CoVID version") which freed them up for a potential sequel since they were going to die in this. They just got name-changes to Richard and Enrico. They could have just used Joseph Frost instead of Richard, but I guess he was just a more recognisable character. 3) While we got to see a Licker and a couple dogs, there were early plans for a Tyrant, some Hunters and Giant Spiders. Sony seems to have cut the budget sometime in early 2019, so while there's concept art for them they were already missing from the mid-late 2019 draft that is in collectors' hands. 4) You have a good theory about CoVID lowering the amount of Extras on screen. The diner scene for instance had more people in the 2019 draft. The bit where USS start shooting would have had more refugees in it akin to Apocalypse and been a little longer, with Irons trying to get their attention and use his position to get through until their orders change to start killing. 5) Ben wasn't a conspiracy nut until the the CoVID version, nor was Claire. I assume that was just a way for Claire to give us exposition. He was instead a journalist and Umbrella pressed charges when he was investigating the drinking water quality. 6) In the 2019 version Wesker's betrayal was entirely at giving Chris up for dead and going for the money, since Jill reveals Ada's been trying to recruit the rest of the team for the same mission (they just turned her down). I assume the whole thing with Wesker and the PDA was a call-back to the S.D. Perry novels, which had *Jill* be hired as a spy for Umbrella's rival right before going to the mansion. He also wasn't shot in this version --- he was wounded by G-Birkin, who'd already mutated before Jill and Chris reached the room. The Wesker-Birkin shootout would have also been somewhat more chaotic, with Wesker not even realising he's shot Annette until she's already dead which is why he's so shocked when talking to Sherry. The CoVID version ends up coming across that Wesker is just lying that he wasn't gonna kill Sherry because he's been caught. 7) Birkin even remembering Chris' name was added into the CoVID version. Chris is just one of many nobodies at the orphanage, and there was no scholarship programme. I suppose they wanted Chris to have character progression in being both personally betrayed by Umbrella and having a reason to butt heads with Claire. 8) The climax was to have Lisa show-up and sacrifice herself saving Claire and co. from Birkin. They cut that in the CoVID version and had nothing to replace it with, which is why it ends so abruptly.
This is probably the best Welcome To Raccoon City review; it has the fewest nitpicks, understands that the obvious humor is supposed to be humorous, and it's straight to the point.
I've said it before, and I'll probably continue to be of this opinion: Phelous just gets better with every video. The writing, the jokes, the self-referential humor, and, of course, the sarcasm have all been honed over the years. His recent videos have added real critique and actual suggestions for what could have improved something. I think a lot of content creators hand-wave that by saying, "Not my job to tell the filmmakers/game devs how to improve." That's fair enough, but Phelous just gave story notes that could have made this movie significantly better, and he did it in 32 minutes... and it was entertaining! Keep it up Phelous!
Phelous always does the best RE reviews imo, he goes over how the shitty Alice movies failed in better detail then any other reviewer I've watched, and I was really looking forward to your take on Welcome to Racoon City. It was a good review, dude! Well done!
1.) It should be a requirement that anyone who wants to adapt a video game into a movie must do two completionist playthroughs of said game, and to be quizzed after each run. 2.) God, they really managed to not even get the spirit of the characters in this cast (and nice job with making the one black lady be uncharacteristically aggressive 🙄). 3.) It feels as though they wanted to adapt RE2 (namely the remake), but were forced to also focus on RE1 as to not mix up the overarching time line of events. If this is the case, then unfortunately, they did not succeed. 4.) Sheesh, talk about decorating before the house is even built. Go nuts with the references and Easter eggs AFTER the meat of the story is present.
_"It should be a requirement that anyone who wants to adapt a video game into a movie must do two completionist playthroughs of said game, and to be quizzed after each run."_ Nah, obviously the director and/or writer played the games. They just have no storytelling skills.
Okay, hearing Phelous describe what he would've done differently...somebody give _him_ the reins on the next movie. I don't care if he's never helmed a film, it could actually be _good_ .
Or at least make him an advisor or assistant director so that someone else can handle the complex technical stuff and he just focus on the feel, ambiance, and how the set pieces should be utilized.
If they wanted to swap moving parts to fit this movies narrative, would it have been that hard to just add Enrico, have Wesker follow him around, heel turn and take his pilot to serve his own interests? Enrico: ...YEAH.
Leon in this movie reminded me of something you said about the portrayal of Shredder in TMNT: Coming Out of Their Shells. Welcome to Raccoon City’s Leon is even more insultingly incompetent at points than the RE characters in Paul WS Anderson’s films, yet more competent than any of them in the same movie, when he actually kills Birkin at the end.
@@isaacvizas2343 that would probably result in Jason Scwartzman as Chris Redfield, Owen Wilson as Leon Kennedy Jeff Goldblum as Wesker and Bill Murray as Nemesis
I don't know why this seems to be kind of a weird trend for Leon's character, when they seemingly just remember him as the rookie cop who got tied in with the Raccoon City outbreak and nothing else, RE6 even did this to an extent. A lot of people, including myself, think of him foremost as the agent who single-handedly took down the las plagas cult (although Ada did help at points).
Jill being so gun happy is prolly what pissed me off the most. Shooting the crow right next to his face, not checking her corner before shooting Wesker in the back, even if she were just a cop instead of a STARS member in this universe, she'd be God awful.
Also in the Resident Evil universe, Jill is supposed have received Delta Force training, an accomplishment since no woman was allowed to be part of Special Forces until 2015 and the movie/game is supposed to take place in 1998, which means she's really the best of the best to recieve this Delta Force training. And yet they reduce her to this.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Phelous talking about something RE is the kind of comfort nostalgia I needed to hear. Seriously, why no Hunters? Would even of made more sense to use them in the very first RE movie!
For real. When Sherry wakes up from her nightmare, she gives a description of a monster that sounds just like a Hunter. I really hoped at that point that meant we were going to see one, but no. Just another one of those pointless references.
@AT Productions Crimson Heads were also supposed to be in the movie, but they're cut WAY late into development, like there's video of a fella decked out in full makeup, and POOF, no more Crimson Heads.
Love the review man. Not sure what's with using Jennifer Paige's song 'Crush' at 15:35 min, but darn it. Now you associated that song with Resident Evil, 'Crush' is becoming part of the unofficial soundtrack of this movie and RE2 remake in my head.
Of all the movies I’ve watched with my sister, this movie had her get visibly angry in the theater. She did not like the fusing of games, and she definitely didn’t like what they did with Leon.
@Chandler Burse Given the current trend of Hollywood politics, it was likely more of the latter. Probably also why the stripped Claire of her humor and wit.
Bertolucci: "Leon S. Kennedy, huh? What's the "S" stand for? Small-time?" Leon: "NO. You're... small... time..." Leon pauses awkwardly before slinking off. Chris can be seen around the corner with a notepad showing "guys Rebecca is allowed to date". He nods stoically before circling Leon's name.
Capcom needs to start reading these scripts for anything to do with live action Resident Evil, seems like they just sign off on anything and hope it works out for the best. Also the fact that they had the Mansion Incident happen on the same day as the Destruction of Raccoon City is insane.
Capcom is done deaf. Just look at that new EDF knock off game with dinos. What a giant flip of the bird to Dino Crisis fans. Crapcom definitely earns that nickname, again.
I think part of the problem is inherent to most modern games: most of them have realistic enough art direction and cinematic storytelling while also being uniquely interactive... that turning them into films without significant alterations is pointless. While the classic games were ripe for cinematic adaptation, what we got in that department was a serious diversion anyway. The remakes essentially fulfilled the same role as what we'd want from film adaptations...while still being enjoyably playable experiences.
"This movie is an example of how a direct adaptation wouldn't work." LOL wtf are those people talking about?? Other than some weirdly accurate little details this had almost nothing to do with the stories of either games!
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168lol what? This doesn’t adapt the stories of either game well at all, all it’s doing is shoving in references without rhyme or reason as to why it worked in the source material. It shouldn’t be hard, just have the story of the first game, and if you want to mash two games together, combine 2 and 3 since those stories are happening concurrently. My mom (who loves zombie stories and liked watching me play RE2 remake) when William Birkin started transforming played, leaned over to whisper to me “This is stupid.” And I couldn’t agree more. It’s not just a bad Resident Evil adaptation, it’s objectively a bad movie. Its story is nonsense since it kept interrupting itself so the plot kept getting sidetracked. Phelous gave good suggestions that could really improve the movie. You’d know if you listened to him.
In theory it really shouldn't be that hard to make a good adaptation of Resident Evil. Most of the games are so short that you wouldn't even need to cut much. I get that sometimes alterations need to be made so the adaptation flows better, but it's always the things they shouldn't change. Anyways, petition to get Phelous to help make a good RE1 adaptation, as well as play Barry. Jokes aside, I love your RE reviews, and now when I play the games I sometimes say the in jokes you make in these
@Chandler Burse they piggybacked on 1 and 3 mixing them together, ruining the plot elements, the main characters and adding useless changes to existing ones. i'd call those movie garbage but i'd be giving them waaaaaaaaay to much credit.
it really shouldent be that hard your right I mean hell with a small budget airsoft guns and fan customing you could probably do like 70 percent of the film
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They need to let it rest. Paul Anderson murdered the franchise in the crib. every other sequel, reboot, etc feels like playing around with the franchises corpse. oddly fitting in a way
It was better than RE Infinite Darkness, but that one was pretty boring. At least Welcome to Raccoon City is funny bad and Chris Redfield was accurately portrayed unlike both Wesker and Jill.
Watching that scene of "Wesker" APOLOGIZING to his team mates for doing a bad to them just gave me the BEST laugh of my life Like, the howling tears-flowing kind of laugh Man, how could you screw up a character more? Okay, well aside from "Leon"...
Phelous, just like your Mortal Kombat film review I have been anxiously awaiting your thoughts on this. You have been my go-to authority for MK and RE for over 10 years. I would not have known about the compelling stories and characters of these franchises without your influence, so thank you for all your videos on these back to the very beginning.
9:08 The Raccoon City being behind the times is odd for a larger city, but pretty run of the mil for most of America/ the world: Louisville, Kentucky is quite contemporary, but a lot of smallest Ky towns have dirt floors with no doors. Idaho is an even better example: Napoleon Dynamite was set in then current early 00s, but ran the gamut of looking 70s to 90s, which was exactly my experience when I was there.
I’m sorry? Dirt FLOORS with NO DOORS? Dude I lived in one of the poorest counties Kentucky in the south east and what you’re describing hasn’t been a thing for decades. It ain’t 1920.
@@chandranapier2259 The location I'm talking about was from awhile ago, but it was in Eastern Kentucky. The I-64 goes through it. And to reiterate, some places it really can feel like nearly 100 years in the past.
@@Delightfully_Witchy outside of historic cabins, been all over this state and it’s back hills. Those things were built long ago and kept up (some times) because of their antiquity. They aren’t housing standards, just relics. People don’t live in the very rare ones. You can get cabin kits, or chop down logs and recreate old living cabins but you can do that in any state and is considered fashionable by some. Do you go to Boston and think people still think it’s the 1700’s with their historic buildings?
Kinda reminds me of the Ratchet and Clank movie. Like yeah it’s the same story outline more or less, but they sacrificed the writing and character growth for references and making a more kiddy Hollywood movie.
I like to think that everything in the movie is off because there is no Barry in this universe, if he were there everything would have become as it should have been.
What an excellent review, Phelous! You really know your Resident Evil. You’d be an invaluable asset to anyone looking to make an accurate movie, but does Hollywood hire you as a consultant? No! They don’t. And because of that vile oversight, we get subpar movie adaptations. Thanks for taking the time to watch the movie and review it so thoroughly for us. Your awesomeness never ceases to amaze me!🖤
I feel like just the first game would be a great movie on its own if they added their own spin on the RE formula. Like do all the Spencer Mansion stuff and have them show their bonds as a team and have the Wesker reveal be a really tense and heartbreaking moment. Even with a low budget they could do a lot of great character moments. Even add some other creatures like Hunters or Yawn to kill off Barry to ramp up the tension. They could even reveal that Wesker was in contact with William the entire time giving him information on the virus test subjects.
I'd actually have locations not make much sense too much placement-wise. While that doesn't make sense for resident evil considering, y'know, how map-heavy the series is, the trade off is that the characters would be lost and that would provide the feeling of getting lost you get in the games sometimes. Only for it to be revealed that the mansion was actually designed to be that way... like in the games. With the added bonus of explaining that, like most theme park haunted houses, there are hidden doors and rooms you don't see as a 'guest' that the 'crew' could use to get between places more quickly if you know where they are. Makes it convenient to explain how Wesker was able to move around so easily.
Phelan, you forgot the best Claire moment where after the itchy tasty zombie reference lady attacks her, she leaves a child behind with the zombie. What a hero. Also, movie G-Birkin in his first form felt more like a classic chessy Wesker than the Wesker we got.
I've heard rumors that Capcom seems to think that an accurate adaptation of their Resident Evil games would siphon sales AWAY from their games SOMEHOW. If the rumors are true, then I think it shows that Capcom's being led by a bunch of idiots. Their focus on smaller, less important details from the games also shows that the filmmaker's priorities were VERY skewed!
So with 4 different live action portrayals, the most accurate Albert Wesker we had is still the cannibalistic tentacle-mouthed henchman who was killed by a door. Nice. Also if they wanted to mix two games, they should have adapted RE1 with elements of RE0 to give some more time to Bravo team.
The Evil Within (another Mikami game) did itchy tasty better. In it a doctor/corner keeps mumbling "itchy" as he expecting a body while scratching the meat off his skull in one place before turning into a zombie
how can people say "being faithful isn't always good" when some videogame adaptations just use references out of context in an incoherent way. like that's the REAL problem lol
It's sad that THIS is the closest we've come to a good Resident Evil movie. Especially because you can see just how close this gets to being good in places. They should have just recast a few people, made Wesker behave and look like Wesker, and made this an adaptation of Resident Evil 1. They should have saved 2 for a potential sequel. That would also have saved the money they spent on the 2 parts of the movie so that they might have been able to use it to make Yawn the Snake and the Neptunes.
This is every bit as good of a review as I knew it would be, given how big Phelous is on Resident Evil. I honestly wanna see this movie because I think I'd still be able to enjoy it a bit, given its flaws. It seems like the creators tried to make a faithful adaptation, but things got muddled along the way.
I didn't want to beg you to do this vid... I was certain you would get to it in due time. After a long day at work I finally was able to relax and check this vid out. Man, you never disappoint. I just want to thank you for not only the best Resident Evil reviews on the web, but for helping me be able to still laugh from time to time. You pull no punches. Not too flashy but... deadly accurate. For reasons like this you remain in my top favorite 3 channels on TH-cam. Cheers Phelan. edit: seriously though... where tf was Barry?!?
It's one of those adaptations where they think that cramming enough references to the games is enough, and making a coherent and well paced movie is an afterthought (kinda like that Warcraft movie, though even that one didn't make so many pointless and unnecessary changes from the game)
Several members of this cast remind me of more famous actors, so I was expecting Irish Bison to mention that the idiot zombies are attacking the stunt doubles.
i cant help but feel like there was some executive meddling going on that they were originally going to just fo the first games story when the executives made them do the second game too to try and cash in on re 2s remake
@Chandler Burse I think it's in one of the books that he broke up with his girlfriend before going to Racoon City and got wasted at a motel the night before he arrived and strongly considered just not going to the city at all. Someone at Capcom then said in an interview that it was considered canon.
I recently rented this on Prime. And while I think it's a much better attempt at being an adaptation of the games than the other _RE_ movies, its biggest problems are they not only smushed the first 2 games into one movie but they also rushed through it. And, of course, the movie's portrayal of Leon was stupid.
It’s a shame they didn’t save the RE 2 stuff for a sequel because I actually like the idea of a Mega corporation leaving this small town they control to fall apart and die after their experiments get out. There’s some commentary to be had there plus having a Resident Evil movie taking on more of a Silent Hill-like vibe would be really cool.
23:17 It's a shame, that could've have been a front story for Wesker and had him to "Syke! I was the mastermind ALL ALONG!" 28:26 Another lost opportunity here as he could have kept her alive not out of "kindness" but because she is needed for experiments and/or because her dad is now trying to track her down to infect with the virus as a host.
Now all phelous needs to do is cover RE Vendetta and RE Infinite Darkness and he'll have covered all Resident Evil Movies & Shows. At least until that live action Netflix show comes out.
@Emo Gamer R In my opinion, RE Vendetta was definitely the weakest of the animated films, especially when they try to emulate the overblown absurdity of RE6's action style. Meanwhile, I thought the first three segments of RE Infinite Darkness were actually quite engaging. But then it gets seriously botched by the fourth episode rushing to wrap things up quickly, the climax just being a weaker version of Degeneration's end battle, and Claire being even more wasted than Rebecca in RE Vendetta.
FINALLY! I've been waiting for you get to this one. Personally, I give it a 5 out of 10 and that's me being generous. While I do like that the director is a fan of the games, he really needed to pay attention to what he was doing and should've gotten a writer because the dialogue was pretty awful. All the references were nice, but some of their placements didn't make sense at all (Lookin' at you "Itchy Tasty" 😑). The characters were poorly done, especially Leon and Wesker, and that's a shame because Leon is probably my favorite character and seeing him look/act like a dumbass was pretty aggravating. Also, if the director was going to combine two games, then he should've combined RE2 and RE3 because they overlap each other, while RE1 and RE2 happened within months of each other. Oh well.
If Johannes Roberts wanted to include "Itchy Tasty", he could have at least had Chris search the body of the mansion's first zombie, find a notebook in its pocket, and discover that same passage in the notebook. I can easily imagine such a moment playing out like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" from The Shining. Granted, if he had the exact same passage that early one for Chris, it would kind of hint at the laboratory twist at little too soon. But then again, his movie already gives that away at the beginning, so it would not necessarily create any new issues for the film.
man, I haven't seen you or a video from you since....2011. looking freer than ever my man. Glad to see you're still work'n. Loved your shit back in the day. about time I checked you out again.
Good question when it comes to Hunter not being in the movies. Hell how about a big snake monster, there were movies which had bigger snakes. Same for bigger sharks or giant spiders or plant monsters. Yea the Arklay mansion or even what happen in Resident Zero with Rebecca Chambers, both fit for smaller cast and amps the suspense.
I swear this man is underrated when it comes to Resident Evil content, he doesn't sound like a lecturer giving a PowerPoint presentation but rather as a nostalgic fan who's followed RE from the beginning. It really feels like chatting about past games with a friend, the resident evil videos are definitely Phelous' best videos
he kinda stoped all the content except those ninja turtles cartoons and those come like every 2 months too, so yeah
I know he's a total daddy and comes off as a stoner
@@alekpo2000 stopped*
One of his most rewatchable series.
Phalous should be involved in making these movies, he’s got great ideas for adapting the games
Wesker apologizing to Chris is the most un-Wesker-like I've ever seen.
And would it hurt to at least make him wear sunglasses?!
And isn’t he supposed to be pitiful?
@@MforMovesetsThey give him the sunglasses at the end.
We can't have villains anymore. Apparently.
@@Pixie桜 Yeah. Like, Wesker is supposed to be an unapologetically bad (and badass) character.
Now I'm just imagining Wesker struggling to read the pilot through the sunglasses.
“As long as I do those and other Barry things, it means this was a good review.” LOL!! Always love his takes on RE movies.
The first zombie encounter recreation fails because it isn't done for dramatic effect like in the game, it's just "look we re-created the cutscene!".
It's just fanservice and nothing else. Give us a story!
To sum up why it seems this movie as a whole failed, reenacting/referencing an iconic moment from the source material is not the same as recreating what actually made that moment great in the source material and/or bringing it to its full potential.
If I was asked to explain how I would try to distinguish between genuine fan-service versus shallow "fan-pandering", I would include the above point as one difference to look for.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Put down the ritalin. Or take some more. I forget how it works with you people.
@@lorcanoliver3168 Something like No Way Home worked very well because it was treated as a stand alone story. You can enjoy it and understand it all well even if you haven't seen or even heard of the other movies.
You don't need to know the Raimi Spider-Man's or Electro's complete history. All you need to know is that they're from alternate universes.
It's GOOD fanservice. It pleases the fans, but ALSO respects movie going audiences that just want A movie that makes sence on it's own.
Bad fanservice means it ONLY pleases fans and normal movie goers can't understand ANYTHING. So something like Welcome to Raccoon City, is not really a movie, but just a fanfilm.
This is it. The culmination of all of Phelous' work: a Wesker joke directly into a Palm Pilot joke. Genius!
27:00 "... the lab, which seems massively downscaled from the games..."
I think I can safely say the RE2 remake had a larger budget than this movie.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Dude, if you're trolling, just shut up. Either it's too over the top and nobody's gonna take the bait, or you're serious and using so many exclamation marks that nobody's going to waste the time explaining anything to you. You failed. Try again.
Yeah, where the hell are they gonna keep the horrifying plant mutants in that thing? Maybe they’re in a broom closet or something
From what little I've played, it would have been more appropriate to combine 2 and 3 into a single film. They should have done 1 as its own thing and another one combining RE 2 and 3.
If they tried to be more accurate, combining them wouldn't work due to the time frame. Without accuracy, it... could work maybe? But it would still be a mess.
Definitely. RE1 should've been it's own but RE2 & 3 should've been in one since it was taken around the same place.
@@TheListenerCanon
But like I just said to someone else, imagine trying to cram both William Birkin and Nemesis in a single 2-hour movie and fully doing them both justice (with all of their different forms), on top of needing to reserve time for zombies and the important medium-sized enemies from both stories, such as Lickers, G-Adults, Drain Deimos, Hunter Betas/Gammas, and Gravediggers. And that it not even taking into account how Mr. X could be a third major monster that people want to see, besides Birkin and Nemesis.
@@markcobuzzi826 The biggest problem would just be making Mr. X a credible threatening presence if Nemesis (X 2.0) is there. Nemesis is supposed to be the action movie equivalent of X fighting a seasoned Bio-Weapon survivor Jill Valentine.
@abhi rao I'm guessing they got impatient to get to Leon and Claire. Basically "Marvel multiverse envy syndrome"
Apparently not the Jill Sandwich we were expecting…and Barry’s not there to make the reference again.
Truly Phelous’s greatest issue against the RE movies.
The live action sequences from the PS1 game is the best RE film.
"It's a Jill sandwich now"
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Jill Sandwich line made me throw up in my mouth a little
@@anubusx I want that Wesker so bad. They made him so over the top cool in the intro that I was sad he heelturned.
So Leon is now Carlos, and Jill is now Shiva. Except a dumb and angry version of them.
Claire leaving Lisa Trevor behind felt so cruel and out of character.
Sure it would be kinda hard to explain a friendly monster to other survivors.
But the original Claire would have done everything to save her too.
Lisa Trevors friendship with Claire was actually the best idea they had in this movie and they didnt go all the way.
Also it was so awesome how she fought the Licker^^
1:38 The Orphanage has Wabuu as the mascot? It looks like RE: Welcome to Racoon City really is run by Wabuu and Old Man.
Alot was wrong with this movie..the biggest thing "BARRY WHERE'S BARRY?!" 😭
This could have been great if separated into 2 movies, the first one, a more slow burn horror, the second more action horror.
I would have RE2 be more of a mix. Have bits of the action horror but then slow it down with creepier parts of the RPD and umbrella lab.
@@phelous yeah that would be spot on, maybe some day the movie licence will be so worthless, us fans can get a crack at making a movie. 😂😭
They could mash RE2 and RE3 together as they both occur roughly around the same time.
But RE1 and RE2? Terrible idea.
0 + 1 woulda been fine. They occur back to back.
2 + 3 also fine
But knowing how dumb people be, they will follow with 3 + 4, which aren't even in the same country.
@@Gruntvc
I still do not think mashing together RE2+RE3 would be a good idea, unless it was a film the size of the Snyder Cut or a TV show season. I think the most glaring issue would be how difficult or impossible it is to do the variety of monsters justice, without keeping them separate installments.
Between both games, you would have two giant monsters that pursue the main protagonists and undergo multiple transformations over the story, William Birkin and Nemesis. And if Mr. X is to be considered, that is almost the equivalent of a third main monster. Imagine just trying to cram the amount of action scenes, needed to fully portray the two primary monsters, on top of giving the zombies enough action and reserving the time for important medium-sized monsters too like Lickers, G-Adults, Drain Deimos, Hunter Betas/Gammas, or Gravediggers.
You noted a lot of weird stuff in the film, so I thought I'd help out in no particular order.
1) Leon's dad was supposed to have a role in this film. To save himself from embarrassment, he made sure Leon passed the academy and be dumped in Nowhere, USA. Leon's overeager and naive nature is supposed to be heavily from him trying to prove himself just as capable as any other cop - he'd get a phone call before work remaining him what a failure he is. Once you remove the relationship it comes across Leon - already the comic relief character - is exactly as dumb as looks.
2) Barry and Rebecca were in the movie until a 2020 redraft (let's call it the "CoVID version") which freed them up for a potential sequel since they were going to die in this. They just got name-changes to Richard and Enrico. They could have just used Joseph Frost instead of Richard, but I guess he was just a more recognisable character.
3) While we got to see a Licker and a couple dogs, there were early plans for a Tyrant, some Hunters and Giant Spiders. Sony seems to have cut the budget sometime in early 2019, so while there's concept art for them they were already missing from the mid-late 2019 draft that is in collectors' hands.
4) You have a good theory about CoVID lowering the amount of Extras on screen. The diner scene for instance had more people in the 2019 draft. The bit where USS start shooting would have had more refugees in it akin to Apocalypse and been a little longer, with Irons trying to get their attention and use his position to get through until their orders change to start killing.
5) Ben wasn't a conspiracy nut until the the CoVID version, nor was Claire. I assume that was just a way for Claire to give us exposition. He was instead a journalist and Umbrella pressed charges when he was investigating the drinking water quality.
6) In the 2019 version Wesker's betrayal was entirely at giving Chris up for dead and going for the money, since Jill reveals Ada's been trying to recruit the rest of the team for the same mission (they just turned her down). I assume the whole thing with Wesker and the PDA was a call-back to the S.D. Perry novels, which had *Jill* be hired as a spy for Umbrella's rival right before going to the mansion. He also wasn't shot in this version --- he was wounded by G-Birkin, who'd already mutated before Jill and Chris reached the room. The Wesker-Birkin shootout would have also been somewhat more chaotic, with Wesker not even realising he's shot Annette until she's already dead which is why he's so shocked when talking to Sherry. The CoVID version ends up coming across that Wesker is just lying that he wasn't gonna kill Sherry because he's been caught.
7) Birkin even remembering Chris' name was added into the CoVID version. Chris is just one of many nobodies at the orphanage, and there was no scholarship programme. I suppose they wanted Chris to have character progression in being both personally betrayed by Umbrella and having a reason to butt heads with Claire.
8) The climax was to have Lisa show-up and sacrifice herself saving Claire and co. from Birkin. They cut that in the CoVID version and had nothing to replace it with, which is why it ends so abruptly.
Where did you get this info from, might I ask?
@@DuelaDent52You can find it on Google though it's a mess
This is probably the best Welcome To Raccoon City review; it has the fewest nitpicks, understands that the obvious humor is supposed to be humorous, and it's straight to the point.
I've said it before, and I'll probably continue to be of this opinion: Phelous just gets better with every video. The writing, the jokes, the self-referential humor, and, of course, the sarcasm have all been honed over the years. His recent videos have added real critique and actual suggestions for what could have improved something. I think a lot of content creators hand-wave that by saying, "Not my job to tell the filmmakers/game devs how to improve." That's fair enough, but Phelous just gave story notes that could have made this movie significantly better, and he did it in 32 minutes... and it was entertaining! Keep it up Phelous!
Phelous always does the best RE reviews imo, he goes over how the shitty Alice movies failed in better detail then any other reviewer I've watched, and I was really looking forward to your take on Welcome to Racoon City. It was a good review, dude! Well done!
Leon in this movie looks more like Carlos from resident evil 3 remake
I think Wesker got lost on his way to a Hallmark Christmas movie.
10:41 What a pleasant photo of two people definitely in the same place at the same time together.
1.) It should be a requirement that anyone who wants to adapt a video game into a movie must do two completionist playthroughs of said game, and to be quizzed after each run.
2.) God, they really managed to not even get the spirit of the characters in this cast (and nice job with making the one black lady be uncharacteristically aggressive
🙄).
3.) It feels as though they wanted to adapt RE2 (namely the remake), but were forced to also focus on RE1 as to not mix up the overarching time line of events. If this is the case, then unfortunately, they did not succeed.
4.) Sheesh, talk about decorating before the house is even built. Go nuts with the references and Easter eggs AFTER the meat of the story is present.
_"It should be a requirement that anyone who wants to adapt a video game into a movie must do two completionist playthroughs of said game, and to be quizzed after each run."_
Nah, obviously the director and/or writer played the games. They just have no storytelling skills.
It's clear from the references that if nothing else they watched a playthrough of the remakes. But yeah, they are not good writers.
@Chandler Burse Why are you telling me this? I was merely quoting the OP.
1:34 - 1:58
Dear Davis Films,
Nobody needed Resident Biohazard: The Last Shyamalan.
Love, Jean-Luc Renard
Okay, hearing Phelous describe what he would've done differently...somebody give _him_ the reins on the next movie. I don't care if he's never helmed a film, it could actually be _good_ .
Or at least make him an advisor or assistant director so that someone else can handle the complex technical stuff and he just focus on the feel, ambiance, and how the set pieces should be utilized.
At the very least, let Phelous have executive producer power and script approval.
couldn't be worse than the last 2 attempts. so far the closest we have gotten was the George A. Romero script
Hearing Irons yell at Leon was an amazing experience and I need more
With how silly they made Leon is in this, we should've gotten the Claire sandwich line from him at least.
Barry voice, "Take a look at THIS! What IS it?"
Good to see your Resident Phelous back in action.
I’d pay to see him make a RE film. He gets the material
"I've got a shotgun...." I'm so excited you're doing more reviews.
Best review of this move that I've seen, it was a good review sandwich!
16:29 "What the hell happened here?"
"It looks like a crow made a Forest sandwich".
If they wanted to swap moving parts to fit this movies narrative, would it have been that hard to just add Enrico, have Wesker follow him around, heel turn and take his pilot to serve his own interests?
Enrico: ...YEAH.
Leon in this movie reminded me of something you said about the portrayal of Shredder in TMNT: Coming Out of Their Shells.
Welcome to Raccoon City’s Leon is even more insultingly incompetent at points than the RE characters in Paul WS Anderson’s films, yet more competent than any of them in the same movie, when he actually kills Birkin at the end.
It does not help that he does not look anything like the Leon from the games. At least he did not get a giant beard like the Shredder.
@@isaacvizas2343 Owen Wilson as Albert Whesker, let's go!
"oh wow, Chris...hey, yeah, hey man...so I'm just gonna go ahead and shoot ya bud."
@@isaacvizas2343 that would probably result in Jason Scwartzman as Chris Redfield, Owen Wilson as Leon Kennedy Jeff Goldblum as Wesker and Bill Murray as Nemesis
I don't know why this seems to be kind of a weird trend for Leon's character, when they seemingly just remember him as the rookie cop who got tied in with the Raccoon City outbreak and nothing else, RE6 even did this to an extent. A lot of people, including myself, think of him foremost as the agent who single-handedly took down the las plagas cult (although Ada did help at points).
Jill being so gun happy is prolly what pissed me off the most. Shooting the crow right next to his face, not checking her corner before shooting Wesker in the back, even if she were just a cop instead of a STARS member in this universe, she'd be God awful.
Also in the Resident Evil universe, Jill is supposed have received Delta Force training, an accomplishment since no woman was allowed to be part of Special Forces until 2015 and the movie/game is supposed to take place in 1998, which means she's really the best of the best to recieve this Delta Force training. And yet they reduce her to this.
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Cause it isn't decent. I will give it that it's better than the Aliceverse though.
Phelous talking about something RE is the kind of comfort nostalgia I needed to hear.
Seriously, why no Hunters? Would even of made more sense to use them in the very first RE movie!
No Mr. X or Tyrant 😞
For real. When Sherry wakes up from her nightmare, she gives a description of a monster that sounds just like a Hunter. I really hoped at that point that meant we were going to see one, but no. Just another one of those pointless references.
It's the tongue.
@AT Productions Crimson Heads were also supposed to be in the movie, but they're cut WAY late into development, like there's video of a fella decked out in full makeup, and POOF, no more Crimson Heads.
Because they're not really all that unique, as at the end of the day Hunters are just Lizardmen given a different name.
I've been waiting for this video, Thankx for bringing back Barry Burton who is yourself and staying true to Jill Sandwiches🥪
Love the review man.
Not sure what's with using Jennifer Paige's song 'Crush' at 15:35 min, but darn it. Now you associated that song with Resident Evil, 'Crush' is becoming part of the unofficial soundtrack of this movie and RE2 remake in my head.
The actor who plays Leon played Beck in Victorious I had to double check online to make sure it was him 😊😊
I was kinda hoping there'd be an Alice cameo at the end to continue the nightmare for Phelous, lol.
Of all the movies I’ve watched with my sister, this movie had her get visibly angry in the theater. She did not like the fusing of games, and she definitely didn’t like what they did with Leon.
I’m so puzzled why Leon got the treatment he did .
@@chandranapier2259 If I had to guess they it was probably some misguided attempt to make him more "relatable".
@Chandler Burse Given the current trend of Hollywood politics, it was likely more of the latter. Probably also why the stripped Claire of her humor and wit.
This was in theaters:O
NUUU
Bertolucci: "Leon S. Kennedy, huh? What's the "S" stand for? Small-time?"
Leon: "NO. You're... small... time..." Leon pauses awkwardly before slinking off.
Chris can be seen around the corner with a notepad showing "guys Rebecca is allowed to date". He nods stoically before circling Leon's name.
Can't wait for the TV series reviews. Feel like they just make these now so Phelous can make videos about them.
Capcom needs to start reading these scripts for anything to do with live action Resident Evil, seems like they just sign off on anything and hope it works out for the best. Also the fact that they had the Mansion Incident happen on the same day as the Destruction of Raccoon City is insane.
Capcom is such a lazy company. Except for copyright.
Capcom is done deaf. Just look at that new EDF knock off game with dinos. What a giant flip of the bird to Dino Crisis fans. Crapcom definitely earns that nickname, again.
In the games the RE1 Mansion incident took place July 1998 and RE2/RE3 happened September to October 1998.
Phelous finally learned to say Cerberus instead cerebrus! The House of Hades rejoices!
If Dead Meat gets a cameo in Scream 2022, Phelous should get one in the next live action adaptation.
I think part of the problem is inherent to most modern games: most of them have realistic enough art direction and cinematic storytelling while also being uniquely interactive... that turning them into films without significant alterations is pointless.
While the classic games were ripe for cinematic adaptation, what we got in that department was a serious diversion anyway. The remakes essentially fulfilled the same role as what we'd want from film adaptations...while still being enjoyably playable experiences.
I love Phelous' Barry look. Barry is such an underrated character. 💪🔫
"This movie is an example of how a direct adaptation wouldn't work."
LOL wtf are those people talking about?? Other than some weirdly accurate little details this had almost nothing to do with the stories of either games!
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@lorcanoliver3168 Cause it sucked lol
@@lorcanoliver3168lol what? This doesn’t adapt the stories of either game well at all, all it’s doing is shoving in references without rhyme or reason as to why it worked in the source material. It shouldn’t be hard, just have the story of the first game, and if you want to mash two games together, combine 2 and 3 since those stories are happening concurrently. My mom (who loves zombie stories and liked watching me play RE2 remake) when William Birkin started transforming played, leaned over to whisper to me “This is stupid.” And I couldn’t agree more. It’s not just a bad Resident Evil adaptation, it’s objectively a bad movie. Its story is nonsense since it kept interrupting itself so the plot kept getting sidetracked. Phelous gave good suggestions that could really improve the movie. You’d know if you listened to him.
In theory it really shouldn't be that hard to make a good adaptation of Resident Evil. Most of the games are so short that you wouldn't even need to cut much. I get that sometimes alterations need to be made so the adaptation flows better, but it's always the things they shouldn't change.
Anyways, petition to get Phelous to help make a good RE1 adaptation, as well as play Barry. Jokes aside, I love your RE reviews, and now when I play the games I sometimes say the in jokes you make in these
@Emo Gamer R problem? rocklauncher, done
@Chandler Burse they piggybacked on 1 and 3 mixing them together, ruining the plot elements, the main characters and adding useless changes to existing ones. i'd call those movie garbage but i'd be giving them waaaaaaaaay to much credit.
it really shouldent be that hard your right I mean hell with a small budget airsoft guns and fan customing you could probably do like 70 percent of the film
I can’t believe it! Even when they make a live-action Resident Evil film that’s actually good, Phelous and all the others still don’t approve of it!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!! They made a live-action Resident Evil film that was dark and mysterious, and had some genuinely good moments of comedy and adequate fan service, and everyone is saying that it’s no better than the godawful franchise that came before it! THERE’S JUST NO PLEASING YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY CAN’T YOU RELENTLESS PESSIMISTS JUST APPRECIATE AN ACTUALLY DECENT LIVE-ACTION RESIDENT EVIL FILM????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please don't blame this on too many cooks in the kitchen. They refused to do a 30 second wiki scroll-through about any of the characters.
They need to let it rest. Paul Anderson murdered the franchise in the crib. every other sequel, reboot, etc feels like playing around with the franchises corpse. oddly fitting in a way
It was better than RE Infinite Darkness, but that one was pretty boring.
At least Welcome to Raccoon City is funny bad and Chris Redfield was accurately portrayed unlike both Wesker and Jill.
Watching that scene of "Wesker" APOLOGIZING to his team mates for doing a bad to them just gave me the BEST laugh of my life
Like, the howling tears-flowing kind of laugh
Man, how could you screw up a character more?
Okay, well aside from "Leon"...
Phelous, just like your Mortal Kombat film review I have been anxiously awaiting your thoughts on this. You have been my go-to authority for MK and RE for over 10 years. I would not have known about the compelling stories and characters of these franchises without your influence, so thank you for all your videos on these back to the very beginning.
9:08 The Raccoon City being behind the times is odd for a larger city, but pretty run of the mil for most of America/ the world: Louisville, Kentucky is quite contemporary, but a lot of smallest Ky towns have dirt floors with no doors.
Idaho is an even better example: Napoleon Dynamite was set in then current early 00s, but ran the gamut of looking 70s to 90s, which was exactly my experience when I was there.
I’m sorry? Dirt FLOORS with NO DOORS? Dude I lived in one of the poorest counties Kentucky in the south east and what you’re describing hasn’t been a thing for decades. It ain’t 1920.
@@chandranapier2259 The location I'm talking about was from awhile ago, but it was in Eastern Kentucky. The I-64 goes through it.
And to reiterate, some places it really can feel like nearly 100 years in the past.
@@Delightfully_Witchy outside of historic cabins, been all over this state and it’s back hills. Those things were built long ago and kept up (some times) because of their antiquity. They aren’t housing standards, just relics. People don’t live in the very rare ones. You can get cabin kits, or chop down logs and recreate old living cabins but you can do that in any state and is considered fashionable by some. Do you go to Boston and think people still think it’s the 1700’s with their historic buildings?
It really looked like they had a tight budget making it more baffling why they didn't just adapt one game.
Kinda reminds me of the Ratchet and Clank movie. Like yeah it’s the same story outline more or less, but they sacrificed the writing and character growth for references and making a more kiddy Hollywood movie.
I like to think that everything in the movie is off because there is no Barry in this universe, if he were there everything would have become as it should have been.
That’s why the Anderson movies killed him off so fast
This must not have been a good adaptation because I wasn't crushing on Leon. Everyone crushes on Leon.
15:34
What an excellent review, Phelous! You really know your Resident Evil. You’d be an invaluable asset to anyone looking to make an accurate movie, but does Hollywood hire you as a consultant? No! They don’t. And because of that vile oversight, we get subpar movie adaptations. Thanks for taking the time to watch the movie and review it so thoroughly for us. Your awesomeness never ceases to amaze me!🖤
I feel like just the first game would be a great movie on its own if they added their own spin on the RE formula. Like do all the Spencer Mansion stuff and have them show their bonds as a team and have the Wesker reveal be a really tense and heartbreaking moment. Even with a low budget they could do a lot of great character moments. Even add some other creatures like Hunters or Yawn to kill off Barry to ramp up the tension. They could even reveal that Wesker was in contact with William the entire time giving him information on the virus test subjects.
I'd actually have locations not make much sense too much placement-wise. While that doesn't make sense for resident evil considering, y'know, how map-heavy the series is, the trade off is that the characters would be lost and that would provide the feeling of getting lost you get in the games sometimes. Only for it to be revealed that the mansion was actually designed to be that way... like in the games. With the added bonus of explaining that, like most theme park haunted houses, there are hidden doors and rooms you don't see as a 'guest' that the 'crew' could use to get between places more quickly if you know where they are. Makes it convenient to explain how Wesker was able to move around so easily.
Another great review my dude. (anybody else catch Wabuu on the gate? Racoon City lol)
Should’ve seen the sign that this wouldn’t be a faithful adaption with Barry out of the picture. :(
14:22 yeah this is the same guy who saved the president’s daughter they really respect him here lol
I have to admit, I was laughing like an idiot at this part. That police chief's outburst at Leon was just so random.
Phelan, you forgot the best Claire moment where after the itchy tasty zombie reference lady attacks her, she leaves a child behind with the zombie. What a hero.
Also, movie G-Birkin in his first form felt more like a classic chessy Wesker than the Wesker we got.
I mean, it's just as well, I don't think she shares a single word with Sherry in the movie. I guess movie Claire doesn't like kids.
That zombie is the mother of the child. They both were turning at that point.
IT'S JUST....A, A LITTLE CRUSH, CRUSH, NOT LIKE I FAINT, EVERY TIME WE TOUCHHH
Phelous always has the best flowing commentary and breakdowns. Very easy and entertaining to follow. Great job!
at 2:53 that that was so hilarious what the S stands for stupid game reference yeah lmfao lol that was a good one Phelan
I've heard rumors that Capcom seems to think that an accurate adaptation of their Resident Evil games would siphon sales AWAY from their games SOMEHOW. If the rumors are true, then I think it shows that Capcom's being led by a bunch of idiots. Their focus on smaller, less important details from the games also shows that the filmmaker's priorities were VERY skewed!
So with 4 different live action portrayals, the most accurate Albert Wesker we had is still the cannibalistic tentacle-mouthed henchman who was killed by a door. Nice. Also if they wanted to mix two games, they should have adapted RE1 with elements of RE0 to give some more time to Bravo team.
The Evil Within (another Mikami game) did itchy tasty better. In it a doctor/corner keeps mumbling "itchy" as he expecting a body while scratching the meat off his skull in one place before turning into a zombie
It's GREAT to see Phelous doing another live action movie review! Especially an RE review!
BEST in the business, is Phelous!!
how can people say "being faithful isn't always good" when some videogame adaptations just use references out of context in an incoherent way. like that's the REAL problem lol
10:54 they couldn't even take a picture of the two of them together?
neat Wabuu on the gates his yellow eyes stand out
I agree. As silly as this movie is, I’d still take it over the Alice movies.
There is no doubt your review will be more entertaining than the actual flick. As always, great points, and great video Phelan!! 👍
It's sad that THIS is the closest we've come to a good Resident Evil movie. Especially because you can see just how close this gets to being good in places. They should have just recast a few people, made Wesker behave and look like Wesker, and made this an adaptation of Resident Evil 1. They should have saved 2 for a potential sequel. That would also have saved the money they spent on the 2 parts of the movie so that they might have been able to use it to make Yawn the Snake and the Neptunes.
This is every bit as good of a review as I knew it would be, given how big Phelous is on Resident Evil. I honestly wanna see this movie because I think I'd still be able to enjoy it a bit, given its flaws. It seems like the creators tried to make a faithful adaptation, but things got muddled along the way.
I didn't want to beg you to do this vid... I was certain you would get to it in due time. After a long day at work I finally was able to relax and check this vid out.
Man, you never disappoint.
I just want to thank you for not only the best Resident Evil reviews on the web, but for helping me be able to still laugh from time to time.
You pull no punches.
Not too flashy but... deadly accurate.
For reasons like this you remain in my top favorite 3 channels on TH-cam.
Cheers Phelan.
edit: seriously though... where tf was Barry?!?
2021 (with the exception of Ghostbusters Afterlife) sure was the year of fanservicy movies with no substance based on things Phelous likes
It's one of those adaptations where they think that cramming enough references to the games is enough, and making a coherent and well paced movie is an afterthought (kinda like that Warcraft movie, though even that one didn't make so many pointless and unnecessary changes from the game)
Several members of this cast remind me of more famous actors, so I was expecting Irish Bison to mention that the idiot zombies are attacking the stunt doubles.
i cant help but feel like there was some executive meddling going on that they were originally going to just fo the first games story when the executives made them do the second game too to try and cash in on re 2s remake
Oddly enough Leon was the most accurate character in this movie given that he was hungover at the start.
@AT Productions a lot of the casting in this was bad.
@Chandler Burse I think it's in one of the books that he broke up with his girlfriend before going to Racoon City and got wasted at a motel the night before he arrived and strongly considered just not going to the city at all. Someone at Capcom then said in an interview that it was considered canon.
They did Leon so dirty in this movie.
I recently rented this on Prime. And while I think it's a much better attempt at being an adaptation of the games than the other _RE_ movies, its biggest problems are they not only smushed the first 2 games into one movie but they also rushed through it. And, of course, the movie's portrayal of Leon was stupid.
The 2002 movie is the only one I can tolerate of the Alice-literal-waifu-fanfiction sevenilogy.
X2. From Apocalypse onward the series became a Matrix rip off for horney fans. With all its faults, I rather prefer to watch WTRC again.
This movie makes the Paul Anderson Resident Evil movies look like Michael Mann's Heat.
Michael Mann should make a RE film.
At least Anderson managed to get Wesker right.
The lack of Barry is terrible, but what about the lack of Wabuu ? He have his face on the orphanage door yet he doesn’t even talk !
0/10 !
"That's sooooooo Stupid...."
It’s a shame they didn’t save the RE 2 stuff for a sequel because I actually like the idea of a Mega corporation leaving this small town they control to fall apart and die after their experiments get out.
There’s some commentary to be had there plus having a Resident Evil movie taking on more of a Silent Hill-like vibe would be really cool.
This was a fairly balanced review. You didn't take cheap shots and at least kept it objective.
15:33 So I just watched that scene on TH-cam. Imagine my surprise that Phelous did not edit that song in and that is actually the movie.
23:17 It's a shame, that could've have been a front story for Wesker and had him to "Syke! I was the mastermind ALL ALONG!"
28:26 Another lost opportunity here as he could have kept her alive not out of "kindness" but because she is needed for experiments and/or because her dad is now trying to track her down to infect with the virus as a host.
Wabuu: Did someone said Racoon City?
Now all phelous needs to do is cover RE Vendetta and RE Infinite Darkness and he'll have covered all Resident Evil Movies & Shows. At least until that live action Netflix show comes out.
@Emo Gamer R lets not forget in Vendetta a BSAA using a rail gun to destroy three or four buildings to try kill a tryant
@Emo Gamer R
In my opinion, RE Vendetta was definitely the weakest of the animated films, especially when they try to emulate the overblown absurdity of RE6's action style. Meanwhile, I thought the first three segments of RE Infinite Darkness were actually quite engaging. But then it gets seriously botched by the fourth episode rushing to wrap things up quickly, the climax just being a weaker version of Degeneration's end battle, and Claire being even more wasted than Rebecca in RE Vendetta.
Omg I’m so glad this is happening i was waiting for this review.
This was the right review vibe for the movie. I hereby dub this as the definitive RE: Welcome to Raccoon City review.
Leon is played by Beck from the TV Show Victorious
FINALLY! I've been waiting for you get to this one.
Personally, I give it a 5 out of 10 and that's me being generous. While I do like that the director is a fan of the games, he really needed to pay attention to what he was doing and should've gotten a writer because the dialogue was pretty awful. All the references were nice, but some of their placements didn't make sense at all (Lookin' at you "Itchy Tasty" 😑). The characters were poorly done, especially Leon and Wesker, and that's a shame because Leon is probably my favorite character and seeing him look/act like a dumbass was pretty aggravating. Also, if the director was going to combine two games, then he should've combined RE2 and RE3 because they overlap each other, while RE1 and RE2 happened within months of each other. Oh well.
If Johannes Roberts wanted to include "Itchy Tasty", he could have at least had Chris search the body of the mansion's first zombie, find a notebook in its pocket, and discover that same passage in the notebook. I can easily imagine such a moment playing out like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" from The Shining.
Granted, if he had the exact same passage that early one for Chris, it would kind of hint at the laboratory twist at little too soon. But then again, his movie already gives that away at the beginning, so it would not necessarily create any new issues for the film.
man, I haven't seen you or a video from you since....2011. looking freer than ever my man. Glad to see you're still work'n. Loved your shit back in the day. about time I checked you out again.
Good question when it comes to Hunter not being in the movies. Hell how about a big snake monster, there were movies which had bigger snakes. Same for bigger sharks or giant spiders or plant monsters.
Yea the Arklay mansion or even what happen in Resident Zero with Rebecca Chambers, both fit for smaller cast and amps the suspense.
Phelous gets Resident Evil and his RE reviews are always spot on.