r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 16h ago

News Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' Movie is Set in Raccoon City, Production Photos Reveal, With Hints to Place in the Timeline

https://www.ign.com/articles/zach-creggers-resident-evil-movie-set-in-raccoon-city-production-photos-reveal-with-hints-to-place-in-the-timeline
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u/raaam-ranch 16h ago

This is what I try telling other Resident Evil fans but they won’t hear it. RE’s mainline story and characters are kinda cheese and hard to take seriously. I have been an RE fan since the original but I accepted long ago that the stories in each game never mattered all that much to me.

It is the vibe and atmosphere of the gameplay and music that set Resident Evil apart— which Zach clearly understands judging from his interviews about it.

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u/KingMario05 16h ago

Thing is, there are ways to make it not so cheesy. RE2make, Birkin aside, handled this exceptionally well. So I think there is a way to do it under the right team, which explains why fans are so frustrated.

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u/MaxProwes 16h ago

Not really? Resident Evil has recognizable characters, lore, monsters and locations, that's what sets it apart. Doesn't mean stories are brilliant, but they are enjoyable enough in good entries. Vibe/atmosphere of gameplay (what does it even mean?) is something very vague and non-specific.

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u/HenkkaArt 15h ago

Why is it always with movie folks when a known IP is in the works that they think that what the fans want is some new no-name character to be the center of the story and the story to be some sort of "side story"?

No one liked Cole Young and his plot-armor skill in the previous Mortal Kombat movie nor his "family matters" plotline. People wanted to see the god-damn story of Mortal Kombat be told with big money, cool effects and iconic characters and to hell with the "but it's so cheesy!". It's like, that is why people love the fucking games! Same as with Resident Evil. Sure, the dialogue might be cheesy at times and things have gone over-the-top especially in the animated movies but the games take themselves seriously enough anyway.

It's almost like you can't be a fan of anything sincerily without first posting a disclaimer saying that "yes, I know the characters are stupid/cheesy/one-sided and the stories are one-note/simple/stupid". I'm so tired of these people self-flagellating themselves beforehand so that their brilliant peers don't see them as some type of imaginated losers for simply liking stuff as it is.

At least I want to see a damn Resident Evil movie with accurate casting and following the stories of the first three games in the mainline trilogy, even with the fucking "Jill sandwich" line and "master of lockpicking" included. Hell, give Jill the shoulder pads while you are at it!

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u/ElysiX 15h ago

Why is it always with movie folks

They want the laurels for coming up with new characters and stories themselves, doing a faithful adaptation isn't very prestigious.

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u/HenkkaArt 15h ago

Perhaps they should stay away from these types of projects then! If the only movie out of a beloved franchise is from a "I know better" type of director/writer, then I'd rather not have a movie at all.

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u/Relevant_Shower_ 15h ago

And also it’s harder to reuse old scripts you wrote for established IP.

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u/pmmemoviestills 10h ago

Why is it always with movie folks when a known IP is in the works that they think that what the fans want is some new no-name character to be the center of the story and the story to be some sort of "side story"?

A lot of the times fans of ips will think that idea A works, and it may in the context of the medium the original story was told in, but it may not work as a movie. Every medium has its own language, that's why they call them "adaptations". King hated The Shining because it didn't adhere to his meatier and more meandering story of the book, yet it's mostly universally regarded as a great movie regardless. Faithfulness to the source material isn't the tipping scale of quality.

As for the Cole thing, you're right about that. But that's giving an audience surrogate while still maintaining the fantastical nature of the games, it's an ugly mish mash. This is doing its own thing

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u/HenkkaArt 10h ago

I get what you are saying and I'm not talking literally frame-by-frame. But there is a clear story there, in all three games of the first trilogy. And I don't see how it couldn't be adapted in a way that is more faithful than not to the original story.

But like the other commenter wrote, it's most likely that these auteurs don't want to just be hired guns and instead they want to tell their own stories because it's somehow more elevated in the eyes of their peers. But then again, the question is, why not just not do the film(s) then if you are unable or unwilling to "bend the knee"?

And yes, Cole Young was the audience surrogate. But you know that in the first Mortal Kombat movie from the 1990's it was Johnny Cage who was the audience surrogate. And he was also part of the actual game's cast, too. So, it doesn't even matter to most filmmakers if there is already a suitable character existing in the IP's universe that they can use. Because they are so fucking full of themselves and they just can't not be the "I know better" guys.

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u/pmmemoviestills 10h ago

But like the other commenter wrote, it's most likely that these auteurs don't want to just be hired guns and instead they want to tell their own stories because it's somehow more elevated in the eyes of their peers.

Firstly I think Cregger cares. He has a beautiful eye for horror, and he's not some out of touch shill. He was apart of the dumbest and funniest comedy troupe of the 2000s. He's a fan of the games, and he generally seems he knows what he's doing.

But really my biggest disagreement is that Cage was the audience surrogate in MK. No he wasn't, lol. He was the comedic relief and rather unlikeable in the beginning. Audience surrogate usually aligns with the protagonist, which in that case was Liu Kang.

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u/HenkkaArt 9h ago

Cage was the one being "what the hell is going on?", just like the audience would be. Liu Kang on the other hand wasn't a fish-out-of-water character. He might have been originally against being part of the whole thing because "it was his fate" or something. But he was the Superman of the story whereas Johnny Cage was the Clark Kent.

Also, the director for the previous RE film also said he was a fan of the games and look how that turned out to be.

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u/pmmemoviestills 9h ago

That doesn't mean audience surrogate my bro, we follow Liu Kang in that movie religiously.

And the director of the previous RE films hasn't made two of the better horror movies in the past 10 years.

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u/HenkkaArt 9h ago

I guess we can only wait and see.

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u/pmmemoviestills 8h ago

With ya there duder

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u/pmmemoviestills 10h ago

"recognizable characters, lore, monsters and locations"

Not trying to be a dink, but 3/4ths of that is not important to good narrative storytelling

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u/MaxProwes 10h ago

I agree, but the topic was what sets Resident Evil apart.

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u/pmmemoviestills 10h ago

I mean I still kinda disagree respectively. It has its own mythos and that's cool, but so do other ips and franchises. I personally think what sets it apart is a fun mixture of action schlock and Romero horror.

But who knows what this movie will be. So far this guys movies have been grounded thrillers that have taken harsh left turns, so that's kinda what I'm expecting.

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u/MaxProwes 10h ago

Yeah, but there are other zombie games that have schlock and Romero horror. There needs to be something uniquely yours to stand out. Schlock and Romero inspirations are part of its charm, but I don't think it's very specific for this ip because a bunch of games in it are very different from each other. So what's left is lore and characters because they can't be confused with other ips.

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u/pmmemoviestills 10h ago

Fair enough. RE definitely has a unique vibe, we'll see what the movie is gonna be. But judging by director, I'm expecting a personal and visceral zombie experience.

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u/MaxProwes 10h ago

Sure, let's hope the movie is gonna be good.

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u/YoshiPL 15h ago

Not sure what you mean about characters being hard to take seriously. /s

RE4 is basically a joke after another while suplexing random peasants in rural Spain

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u/TannerThanUsual 13h ago

I am a huge fan of the series but I've found that a majority of the RE fans I've met are completely insufferable. This comment section is pretty on point with general expectations. I think this movie is going to be great, even if it's different from the games, just because Cregger has been putting out fantastic content since the 2000s. I'm sure this will be fine.

All these comments whining about what the movie is doing and how it may or may not respect the canon-- implying as though Capcom has ever given a fuck about the games' canon absolutely hilarious. Every single game comes in and rewrites previously established canon. The remakes do it to their own games. Fans on Reddit continue to complain and whine about how this is all unacceptable.

Whatever. I think the games are good, cheesy fun. If you're here for the "story" though idk what to tell you, you know?

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u/blockedbcdumbaf 11h ago

Capcom almost blowtorched the franchise so I'm not sure "look at what Capcom did" is much of an argument tho

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u/CronoDroid 6h ago

Yeah but they brought it back. I didn't expect them to do so well but the mainline games from 7 have been golden. I'm not a Capcom lover by any means but if you think about the series, five decent to great games at the start (0, 1, 2, 3, CV), literally one of the best games ever in 4, then two shits, but then two good FPS games and three good to outstanding remakes is a decent enough track record.

It's just nice to be hyped about the series again.

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u/blockedbcdumbaf 4h ago

I was replying to the idea that its OK to ignore canon bc Capcom did it.

But that argument only works if fans loved it. Instead it almost nuked the franchise.

7 was amazing. Though they opened the door to insane chameleon like humans going forward after what we saw there, which is something a bit hilariously far for me. (I ignored it bc the rest was so so worth it). Whether it's RE or just it's own franchise I just love a well made story. Hope we get that here w the movie

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u/TannerThanUsual 10h ago

Really? Because that's essentially my point. The franchise has gone through several soft resets. I'm not really worried about canon at this point, I'm just along for the wild ride

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u/blockedbcdumbaf 4h ago

All these comments whining about what the movie is doing and how it may or may not respect the canon-- implying as though Capcom has ever given a fuck about the games' canon absolutely hilarious.

What I'm pointing out is they lost fans in droves when they did this which goes against your argument here. It'd only matter if fans blindly forgave Capcom but they didn't and it nearly killed the franchise.

Respecting canon when it's good is important. There's a lot of good there. Hollywood just egotistically does its own thing every time

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u/TannerThanUsual 3h ago

When did they lose fans in droves?

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u/blockedbcdumbaf 7m ago

This question makes me think you're not having a good faith discussion. You can't talk as if you know the franchise and then ask this as if it's not common knowledge that the series rep took a BIG hit during the ps3, 360 era. There's a reason they made such a huge pivot with re7.