Nobody’s going to hold up Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil franchise as a paragon of cinematic virtue, but the six-film series definitely had plenty of fans, as evidenced by a box office haul in excess of $1.2 billion making it the highest-grossing string of video game adaptations ever.
They may have done big business, but critics were never left particularly enthused. In fact, the top-rated installment on Rotten Tomatoes is The Final Chapter, which boasted a distinctly unspectacular 37%. Many fans who didn’t care for the sci-fi actioners were hoping that Johannes Roberts’ Welcome to Raccoon City would be the shot in the arm the property needed, but it’s actually become one of the lower-ranked entries.
At the time of writing, Welcome to Raccoon City holds an RT score of 26%, which is ahead of the 19%, 21% and 25% of Apocalypse, Afterlife and Extinction, but behind The Final Chapter, Resident Evil and Retribution, although those numbers could still drop when you consider the fact the movie has only been in theaters for 48 hours.
On the plus side, Welcome to Raccoon City ties the franchise-high user rating with 60%, so at least the diehards are pleased with what the reboot has to offer, even if critics have been left cold.