Johannes Roberts has repeatedly said that he fell in love withtheResident Evilfranchise, including the six films starringMilla Jovovich. But Johannes wanted to take an approach that pulled more heavily from the video games. Instead of relying purely on all-thrills action cinematics, he would employ settings and characters familiar to video game fans.
There would be many concerning steps taken in the production process that would lead the film astray from the original vision. So here we are going to look at what the team could have done to turnResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City(2021) into a better adaptation of the celebrated video game franchise that has seen over 20 years of success.
Fix the Timeline
Many nods and subtle indicators inform the audience that the production team studied the games, making sure finer details stayed faithful to the source material, which makes the decision tocompletely disregard the timelinethat’s been confirmed in the games all the more glaring. Johannes had said he wanted to depict the events of the first two games in the same film as if they happened on the same night. In the games, however, the events in Spencer Mansion happened two months before the outbreak overtaking Raccoon City.
What makes this even odder is that there is a game where events overlap with Claire & Leon’s story in Raccoon City. After surviving the Spencer Mansion incident, Jill Valentine stays behind in the city, hoping to dig up more dirt on the Umbrella Corporation. This would lead to Jill taking on a terrifying story arc all her own. If the team wanted to focus on two games set in Raccoon City, they easily could have chosenResident Evil 2&Resident Evil 3. They could have even elected to have an entire film focused on the events of the first game from both Chris & Jill’s points of view. But instead, they decided to compound events, which would also lead to many other questionable decisions that we’ll discuss below.
Make Leon More Accurate to the Source Material
Leon S. Kennedy is the rookie. And yet, in the video games, he was never presented as inexperienced or as someone prone to freezing in a moment of peril. Leon is a hero who had dreamed of becoming a police officer after having his life saved by one. He even requested to be assigned to the Raccoon City Police Department because of all the gruesome murders that he heard were happening around the town. And when he discovered what was going on, he set out to defend as many innocents as possible.
In the film, however, we are treated to aperformance by Avan Jogiathat falls more in line with the personality of Carlos Oliveria, a character featured inResident Evil 3. A careless attitude, a tendency towards humor. The character even shares the same sly smile. His scene wielding the RPG shares more similarities with Carlos' bravado than Leon’s cool demeanor. If Leon were allowed to keep a more level head and shake the nerves, he would be a much more accurate depiction of what hardcoreResident Evilfans expect.
Related:Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Director Explains Character Changes and the Casting Process
Make Wesker More Evil
Despite the script’s changes to the character, Tom Hopper does an admirable job portraying Albert Wesker. In this film, we see Albert as a double agent who is betraying his teammates, whom he seems to honestly care for, to help Umbrella Corp. destroy all evidence of their involvement with the viral outbreak.
While the story arc of being a double agent stays faithful to the source material, in the games, Albert Wesker is a sociopath who fully believes that humanity needs to either evolve or die, with no compassion for others outside his vision. And yet, in the film, Albert expresses remorse to Jill for his actions and even states that he would never have shot a child despite his threat to do so. These actions rob Wesker of what made him such a potent antagonist, as he was willing to do whatever it took to see his vision become a reality, even turning on Umbrella down the line.
Related:Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Director Wanted to Return to Franchise’s Horror Roots
Separate Claire And Leon
The story ofResident Evil 2is told from two differing perspectives, with Claire & Leon meeting up at random points but mostly remaining separated by choice or circumstance. This would help add more to the story, with Leon mainly contending with Mr. X and teaming with Ada Wong, while Claire would look after Sherry Birkin while being chased by a terrifying G-Monster.
While the film would still split into multiple perspectives, Claire and Leon would remain together for most of the film, stunting both characters' potential growth. Another reason for the film to have focused on one game instead of both was that the expanded screentime would have allowed ample opportunity to show Claire and Leon’s story arcs respectably.
Bring on the Tyrants
While the film featured many memorable zombie scenes taken straight from the game, includingthe Cerberus and Lickersthat were CGI’ed expertly into their respective scenes, the compounding of the timeline and the film’s limited runtime led to theexclusion of fan-favorite monsters. Were the focus to fall on the Spencer Mansion, we may have seen the original Tyrant attack the STARs unit.
And were the focus fallen on Leon’s venture in the police precinct, we could have seen the domineering presence of Mr. X. Audiences were even teased with the possibility as we had a scene eerily similar to Mr. X’s attack on a reporter. In the film, however, the gentleman looking to expose Umbrella was instead killed by a random zombie. Even if we were only to see one Tyrant-level threat rise, audiences would have loved to see the Nemesis stalk the team across the city while destroying anything in its path.
Give Ada Wong More Screen Time
It is common for directors and writers to leave breadcrumbs in the post-credits scenes, moments, and character reveals that are supposed to increase demand for a sequel. And the team forResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)got a part of this recipe correct! The inclusion of Ada Wong makes people excited to see the fan-favorite character in a future film, though there is one glaring issue. The storyline that made fans fall in love with the character has already come and gone, and she had little to no involvement in the events of Raccoon City.
In the video gameResident Evil 2, Ada is encountered by Leon and initially states that she is an FBI agent looking into the accusations made against Umbrella. It would be revealed that Ada had been working for someone else, and while she appears cold-blooded, her demeanor would change when Leon was put in danger. Ada would even risk breaking her cover of death by supplying Leon with the RPG he needs to finally kill Mr. X. The film lacks Ada’s interactions with Leon and instead seem to imply that she is set to begin working with Wesker. While she may still be a double agent, the fact that she hasn’t received her connection to Leon has deprived viewers of a truly well-done character adaptation.
