While the domestic trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City may have been a complete mess, the international trailer lends some hope. Rather than be a smorgasbord of action and quick shots, the international trailer focuses on the story. While there are plenty of action shots, they have some sense of context now. Also, praise be to the old ones, the horrific rendition of the 4 Non Blondes classic What’s Up? is nowhere to be found.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
There are heavy thematic references in this trailer. Maybe owing to the mediocre success of 2006’s Silent Hill and the chilling ambiance it provided, we have heavy use of air raid sirens and a lingering shot on a “Welcome to Raccoon City” sign. Claire Redfield features prominently. But, we have a few more shots of the Birkin family, of which Annette doesn’t seem to be involved in the same capacity as the games. Chief Brian Irons also gets more screentime and doesn’t appear to be the creep he was in the games. While considerably different from the games, the international trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City paints the movie as something taking the pieces fans will love and creating their version of it. That’s an effort I can respect. The domestic trailer just looked like a bunch of fan service, while the international trailer looks like a movie.
There are conflicting shots that make me wonder about the timeline for the movie. Initial appearances make it look like they are merging the stories from Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. Fans will know this doesn’t work for a couple of reasons, the first being the timeline. Resident Evil takes place in July and sets up the events for Resident Evil 2. Claire Redfield heads to the doomed city in search of her brother, who disappeared shortly after the events of the first game. The domestic trailer makes it seem like both plots take place during the same period. This may be the case, but some nagging part of me is making me second guess that. It would be weird to cram the events of the first game into a flashback and have Chris working with Claire to escape the city. But even weirder is having both events run simultaneously.
Either way, we’ll find out when Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City releases Thanksgiving week on November 24, 2021.
