Following Tuesday's glowing social media reactions, the review embargo for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil has now lifted.
Full reviews usually tend to be a little more balanced than initial reactions, but not in this case. With 75 verdicts counted, the Sony Pictures reboot is currently sitting at a near-perfect 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Only three or four negative reviews have been added to the aggregator so far (we're sure that'll change), with criticisms mainly focusing on tonal inconsistencies, some out-of-place humor, and a messy third act.
However, the majority of critics seem to be in agreement that Cregger has delivered not only the best Resident Evil movie yet (not a high bar, in fairness), but one of, if not the best video game adaptations of all time.
Cregger has been met with quite a lot of backlash from RE fans for his decision not to utilize characters and storylines from the games, which he addressed while speaking to THR after last night's premiere.
“The idea that I had just didn’t need any of them, and I felt like bringing them in would be to invite a lot of problems that I felt like would have been distracting from the central story. I know that when you dive into an IP you’re going to get flak, to a certain degree, from the fandom. It would be weird if I were shocked that that was happening. But I think that when the people who love these games the way I do see the movie, my hope is that they feel seen and they feel like this movie is paying homage to the games, because it is, it’s obvious.”
You can have a read through some of the reviews at the links below.
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
The cast also includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser. Cregger directs from a screenplay he wrote with Shay Hatten, and producers include Robert Kulzer, Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Carter Swan, and Asad Qizilbash. The executive producers are Oliver Berben, Victor Hadida, Richard Wright, and Robert Bernacci.
Resident Evil is set to be released in theaters on September 18.