The Resident Evil movies have been some of the most successful game to movie adaptations to date in terms of box office success, but the films released so far have been widely criticized for being unfaithful to the source material. The upcoming Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is looking to deliver the first live-action Resident Evil film that is a (mostly) faithful recreation of the video games, and a new video shows exactly how the movie is taking its cues from the games.
The video, presented by Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City director Johannes Roberts, compares clips from the film to the video games to show just how faithful the movie is to the source material. In the video, viewers can see that the Raccoon City orphanage in the movie looks almost exactly like the video game version, and how the filmmakers built the mansion and the police station to be almost identical to their game counterparts.
Based on the video and what was seen in the Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City trailer, it seems like the film is going to be full of references to the video games and Easter eggs for diehard fans to search for. Whether or not it all amounts to a quality moviegoing experience is up in the air, but fans will find out once Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City hits theaters next month.
One detail in this video that has some fans scratching their heads is a brief clip that appears to show the monstrous Lisa Trevor standing alongside Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy. The clip seems to suggest that Lisa may be cooperating with Claire and Leon, potentially leading them to Umbrella's secrets. This would be a drastic departure from the way the character is presented in the video games, which seems to go against the narrative that the film is trying to be accurate to the source material.
However, it's far too early to judge and adaptations almost always have changes of some kind. There will be other changes in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City besides Lisa Trevor's potentially expanded role, like how the mansion incident from Resident Evil 1 seems to be taking place on the same night as the events of Resident Evil 2, and how the characters find out about the Ashford twins from Code: Veronica well before they do in the video game series.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City's theatrical debut is right around the corner, so fans will find out sooner rather than later exactly how accurate the film is to the video games.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City premieres November 24 in theaters.