YMMV / Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The recreation of the Ashford Twins film from Code: Veronica. It gives us no new insight into the events of the film, comes out of nowhere with zero foreshadowing, and is never brought up or mentioned again.
• Broken Base: On whether this film is better or worse than the original Resident Evil Film Series. Those who prefer this film love the Truer to the Text approach and how much more faithfully it sticks to the story, characters, and atmosphere of the game series along with all the Easter Egg nods to the game series’ lore. Those who prefer the old film series simply found those movies to be more enjoyable action flicks and didn’t mind their departure from the source material, finding this movie dull by comparison.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Even the film's harshest critics agree that Lisa Trevor is easily the best part of the film, and that making them a Tragic Hero trying to help the main characters is a neat twist.
• Fan Nickname: "Leon Stupid Kennedy" for Leon, after the degrading nickname two bumbling cops gave Leon. Phelous latched on to it after seeing how much of an Adaptational Dumbass Leon is.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In the opening at the Raccoon City Orphanage, the first thing we see is Claire and Chris sharing a bed because the former can't sleep, firmly establishing that the sweet brother-sister relationship from the games is present here after the two were basically In Name Only versions of the characters in the Anderson films.
  • While still The Mole and technically a villain, this version of Wesker genuinely cares for his team, with him seemingly having a special affection for Jill, and is acting more out of desperation than maliciousness.
  • Lisa Trevor's role as a Guest-Star Party Member, while brief, gives the character a more hopeful portrayal. Being more aware of her surroundings, she tails the group to protect Claire, as the two recognize each other as surviving orphans from Umbrella's child testing labs. When Lisa shows them the hidden path to the Spencer Mansion to meet up with Chris's group, Claire and Lisa share one last look of mutual gratitude.
• Narm:
  • The theatrical trailer went with a cover of 4 Non Blondes "What's Up?" to set its mood, a song that was hard enough to take seriously even before this came along and turned it into an outright comedy bit.
  • The very end of the movie is subject to this; when Raccoon City implodes, a digitally inserted cow moos in distress as its blown off-screen.
• Narm Charm: For those who aren't put off by it, the bad CGI adds to the camp factor the games were known for.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • When a human turns, there's no quick turn like in the original film series. Instead, it's a cruel, slow burn to turning undead. They start to tear up with blood before slowly growing less and less sapient, and more and more irrational, until they are reduced to the level of a flesh-eating predator. Soe of the people even lapse into Zombie Infectee in a futile attempt to mask their transformation. When compared with the infections of the original film series, this style of infection is drawn out, more realistic, and skin crawling, for both the people In-Universe and the audience. Could also count as Darker and Edgier, as some infected seen are simply poor citizens begging to be let into the police station, having been exposed to Umbrella's infected water supply.
  • The Itchy Tasty scene, particularly with the zombie sketching those words on a glass door with her own blood.
    • "You need help." Cue the zombie barreling through the glass door, screaming her lungs out and attacking Claire.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • Forgetting the bad CG on the monsters (with the exception of the worm, which isn't too shabby) for a second, the conspicuous CG for numerous background elements is rather noticeable too. When Leon steps outside to lock the gate of the police station, the rain falling on him is clearly a cheap digital overlay instead of real water. He's even completely dry when he goes back inside.
  • The main hall of the Spencer Mansion and the lobby of the Police Station are both CGI to match the game locations better. You can almost see the exact point where the scenery actually ends and where the compositing begins.
  • Any time fire or explosions are on screen, the elements used for them are very obvious.
  • The Licker vs. Lisa Trevor fight looks really bad. When Lisa gets her cuffs around the Licker's jaw to break its neck, the CG model has noticeable artifacts around the real, physical prop.
  • Even the real physical sets aren't exempt. When Birkin is packing up his samples of the G-Virus, the lab looks less like the high-tech, futuristic labs from the games, and more like an ordinary high school classroom.
• So Bad, It's Good: With bizarre cast direction resulting in questionable acting, less than ideal CGI, and very odd shoehorning of the video game's lore, it can make for a very funny film.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While many still find it hard to call an all right movie, the movie is nonetheless praised for being Truer to the Text than the Anderson movies as well as at least attempting to recreate the magic of the horror elements from the original games that longtime fans love.
• Tainted by the Preview: The U.S. trailer left some fans a little wary on the movie. On one hand, it looked very true to the source, with some scenes lifted straight from the games and the story focusing on the plot from said games (namely the first and second ones). However, many complained that the characters didn't look right and that some of the CGI effects on the monsters looked very unpolished (though some argued in return that the games were a love letter to B-movies and that the visual effects fit the tone). The international trailer was a bit better received due to getting more to the point about the film.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A few examples:
  • Jill is noticeably Out of Focus and doesn't get much to do compared to the other main characters, which is most apparent in the final battle, where she is the only one who didn't really get to contribute. Considering how beloved she is in the game series, many fans were disappointed that she didn't get more focus.
  • Barry Burton being left out of the movie entirely is seen as a waste to many fans, as his Fountain of Memes status could have brought a lot of humor to the film.
  • The lack of Mr. X or Nemesis is also seen as a missed opportunity to have a powerful recurring foe throughout the movie while still allowing William Birkin to be the Final Boss of the story.
  • Sherry Birkin spends most of the film being dragged along by her parents until her mother is unceremoniously shot by Wesker and her father mutates after injecting the G-Virus. She doesn't even meet Claire (her most significant ally in the games) until the end of the movie and they barely say a word to one another.
  • For that matter, Annette Birkin is one of the most morally complex characters in the games. She's certainly not a good person, helping with her husband's insane research, but her genuine love for her daughter means she has redeeming qualities. Here, she's reduced to a Neutral Female who is completely unaware of her husband's experiments, and after being killed by Wesker she's pretty much forgotten.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Since the movie combines the plots of both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, with the first game only really contributing the mansion scenes in the middle plus the Lisa Trevor appearances, many wished that the first Resident Evil game got the movie to itself rather than only getting inserted into the middle of the Resident Evil 2 plot.
• Unexpected Character: Let's be honest: Who the hell expected Lisa Trevor to make their onscreen debut in this film?

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