Just got back from seeing it. I wasn't spoiled by anything luckily, the only thing I knew is that it was rated incredibly high on Rotten and I loved Barbarian. I heard rumblings the only complaints were RE fans saying it wasn't RE enough. For reference given RE's previous movie history I didn't care much, I went in open minded just wanting a good horror movie with some nods, nothing more. I knew what I signed up for.
With that said, it was neither. It felt like an overly comedic "horror" movie, a fun popcorn flick but never once allowed tension to build. The force fed lines of the MC detracted from any tension, it was honestly just goofy. The plot felt like it was made as a generic horror movie and re-purposed, which probably detracted from whatever it originally was while also not fitting into the Biohazard world either. It's honestly puzzling, it almost felt forced how it had easy layups to be a BIO movie and went out of its way not to.
I went in expecting to leave and side with the normal movie goer instead of fellow fans, because after so many flops I was FINE with it being just a great horror movie with some slight Bio nods. I was wrong. I don't hate it or anything, but it was highly forgettable and nothing I'd watch again. I think it missed as a horror movie, especially being a Cregger movie after Barbarian and it clearly missed as a RE movie too. Full scale I'd give it a 5/10.
P.S. This is something I probably said in 2006 or something, 20 years later I've since gave up on caring about getting a good RE movie adaption... but after watching this and seeing it titled simply "RESIDENT EVIL", why in the hell can we not have a movie based on RE1? It is the single most easily adaptable game to movie ever created. Laughable really.
Was glad to read this from you, because after what I've witnessed since watching the first trailer and from what many other fans who've seen it are saying now, I was confident that was what it was going to be, even without seeing the movie. It's shit like that which does damage to the brand. I'm most concerned with Capcom looking at all the (inauthentic) praise/sales and implementing these new movie elements into the games, just like they did with Anderson's, but to a worse extent - because Capcom is creatively-bankrupt more now than ever when it comes to the (un)originality of their modern games, as much as I like them.
Not sure how much you've read yet on social media, but the media and RE tourists have been using the movie's "success" just to slander the actual RE fans of the games and the games themselves, and dismiss valid criticisms. I almost view it like a mass attack on RE.
The only upside I'm hearing is that survival horror elements were focused on, so Capcom has even more excuse now to lean more into that from a business standpoint... but the downside is that, once again, the RE story/lore isn't being taken seriously enough, because a lot of retards misinterpret the series "goofiness" that started in RE's beginnings as an intentional core element of the series. I've expressed this before, but RE is NOT about jokes and silly voice acting - which was just a product of the times. That's why I've always said RE was NOT meant to be camp and it's unnecessary for it, and that's not to say I don't love some of its now iconic one-liners (RE4 OG is the most perfect balance of serious/humor, in my eyes).
We're now seeing the basic-bitch RE "fan" opinion manifest itself as more Hollywood slop.
That is why "gatekeeping" RE is important, here.
I'm glad some fans didn't ultimately buckle to the hivemind - whether they saw the entire film or not. That's exactly why I said I didn't even want to give them my money and see it, out of principle. I wasn't being close-minded in judging the entire movie based off of lousily-implemented easter eggs more recently. I was right (for myself) in making that decision.
This movie did NOT have to be RE. It sounds like a survival horror-themed movie alone would've been more fitting.
