Resident Evil movies was their lack of connection to Capcom's video game series. While the various sequels would pull in some locations, creatures or characters from the games, they ultimately had little connection to the source and these nods often felt like fan service.
Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City sought to redress the balance and please those who felt underwhelmed with the previous movies. It combined the storylines and heroes from the first two games together, featured more of a horror movie tone and drew influence from the works of John Carpenter. Sadly, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City would prove underwhelming in its own ways and was let down by an unfocused plot and forgettable action.
That's not to say Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City doesn't have its moments, including a scene-stealing turn by Donal Logue or the Lisa Trevor scenes. Another highlight is Avan Jogia as Leon S. Kennedy, a key character from the video games. In Resident Evil 2, rookie cop Leon arrives in Raccoon City to start his new career - only to find it overrun with zombies and assorted monsters. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City roughly follows that same formula with Avan Jogia's Leon, who starts his first day in the R.P.D with a horrible hangover and finds himself teaming with Kaya Scodelario's Claire Redfield to escape.
In Resident Evil 2, Leon Kennedy was very much a lead character, but the Avan Jogia version is a side role. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City has so many characters to balance that Leon often vanishes for big chunks, but despite this, Jogia's sheer likeability makes Leon one of the most relatable characters. He's clumsy, easily startled and not a great fighter, but he keeps pushing through. Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City makes Claire the focal character, who arrives to help uncover Umbrella's spill, but this attempt to stitch together the narratives of the first and second games often feels needlessly convoluted.
Avan Jogia's Leon feels like he would have served as the more logical character to bring viewers into the story. In Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, he's brand new to the city and is often struggling to keep up, and this would have allowed the story to unfold as he learns it too. Director Johannes Roberts also partly based Leon on Jack Burton from Big Trouble In Little China, played by Kurt Russell, who is a hero who talks a big game but is often totally unprepared for a fight. Jogia brings a charm and dry wit to the role, while Claire is oddly aloof through much of the story. Avan Jogia's Leon even ends up killing the final monster, and if a Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City sequel ever happens, it would probably be best to give him the spotlight.
