Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City director Johannes Roberts promises that the reboot captures the game characters adequately. The new Resident Evil film, billed as an origin story to the Capcom games upon which it is based, features fan-favorite characters Clair Redfield (Kaya Scodelario), Chris Redfield (Robbie Amell), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper), Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia), and William Birkin (Neal McDonough).
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will depict the downfall of Raccoon City, a once-thriving community that becomes ground zero for the outbreak of the deadly t-Virus. While sharing the same source material, Welcome to Raccoon City is not connected to the previous Resident Evil films starring Milla Jovovich. The Jovovich Resident Evil films were generally not received well by critics and focused almost entirely on Alice; a new character created just for the films. Many fans criticized the movies for departing too far from the source material.
In a new interview with IGN, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City Roberts discussed his upcoming film, particularly his approach to casting and doing justice to fan-favorite characters. He suggests his film will portray classic Resident Evil characters differently from previous movies and expresses his desire to create more well-rounded and believable characters that significantly impact the story. Discussing this approach, Roberts said:
"The difference with this film as opposed to the previous movies is that it is an ensemble where each of the main characters carries huge importance to the narrative. They are not just cosplay characters who have the exact hair and costume of the characters. It was hugely important with the whole casting process to find people who embodied the spirit and energy of the characters I wanted to portray."
The original Resident Evil films tend to prioritize action over character, something that Roberts seems keen to change for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Although the look of the characters will still be critical, it's apparent that Roberts has placed a greater emphasis on building complex, emotionally resonant characters with his take on the franchise (in addition to making it scarier). He went on to say: "I think often in game adaptions one of the big flaws can be just casting someone to look visually like the characters…but not really trying to give the audience the thing that a movie does better than a game – which is to create a three-dimensional character that you can really connect with and believe in."
The phenomenon Roberts mentions, where characters in video game movies feel more like cosplays than fully developed, three-dimensional characters, has plagued countless video game movie adaptations in the past, not just the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil films. Poorly received movies like Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, Hitman, Hitman: Agent 47, Doom, Warcraft, Max Payne, Mortal Kombat (1995), and many more have also struggled to create genuinely interesting characters that both do justice to the source material while still offering movie-going audiences more depth and complexity.
Poorly written, developed, and casted characters might, at least in part, explain why video game film adaptations seem to struggle to garner critical acclaim so frequently. Although many game adaptations deemed "poor" by critics can be liked by fans, such as this year's Mortal Kombat, many fans would likely agree that audiences have yet to experience a truly excellent game adaptation that satisfies fans and general movie audiences alike. Suppose Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City can indeed gift audiences with a cast of fascinating, complex characters. In that case, it already has a leg up on past video game adaptations and may have a chance to raise the bar for video game movie adaptations across the board when it opens in theaters this November.
Source: IGN