Film Round-Up: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, The Matrix: Resurrections and Encanto
Let’s do some more film reviews.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
A zombie outbreak starts in Raccoon City and a selection of survivors must escape the city. There have been many Resident Evil films over the years but apart from a fascination with the Umbrella Corporation, they haven’t had much link with the games. But Chris Redfield fans rejoice! This film is essentially a movie retelling of the first and second games, which yes does work because they happened simultaneously. What happens is a fairly ok zombie movie. You have plenty of guts and gore like you’d expect, a creepy atmosphere and seeing the humans midway through the zombie transformation was genuinely very disturbing. What the film lacks is a plot that truly engages and actors that can bring any sort of weight to the film, though admittedly they are better than their video game counterparts. I’m also not sure if this wants to be a scary zombie film or if it wants to be a bit more pulpy and fun as the film veers from tone to tone. But if you need some zombie action, this is not the worst thing to watch.
The Matrix: Resurrections
Thomas Anderson discovers once again that he is stuck in the Matrix and must return to being Neo to free his true love Trinity. There is something amusing that there is a whole segment of this movie essentially decrying forced sequels when this whole film is a forced sequel. I think that Lana Wachowski might have just been doing this because otherwise she’ll never be given a big budget again. And that feeling of ‘we’re only doing this because we have to’ is in the movie. After a great start which does what the first Matrix did so well, make you question what was real, it eventually settles down into being a fairly bland sci-fi film with some decently cool action scenes. And some long speeches about philosophy too, can’t forget them. Which I suppose is a solid distillation of the entire trilogy as that also started off very great before tailing off. I think Matrix fans will get a kick out of it but there’s nothing here to pull in people who haven’t already taken the red pill. Oh wait that phrase got ruined didn’t it?
Encanto
Mirabel is the only person in her magical family that hasn’t got powers but she must come to the fore when their gifts are threatened. Even though Encanto flopped at the box office, you can thank Omicron for that, it has become a big hit due to its presence on Disney+ and the fact it inspired at least 14 trends on TikTok. The power of that app is terrifying. But it has done good because Encanto deserves to be popular. It’s yet another Disney film which just gets things right. The songs are brilliant and while it is surprising that We Don’t Talk About Bruno is the first time a Disney song has hit number one in the charts, it’s deservedly so because of how well constructed it is. Mirabel is a very likable hero who is allowed to have some unlikable moments which fleshes her character out more than the standard Disney archetype. And the message about not putting pressure on family members is a good one that everyone can learn something from, not just kids. It doesn’t really innovate or do anything that pushes it over the top of any other recent Disney films in the same ilk, but this is going to be fondly remembered for years to come no matter what.
