Resident Evil (2026) movie review, by someone who barely knows about the franchise

I’m familiar with the name Resident Evil. I know that Resident Evil is a Japanese video game and Hollywood made a movie series based on it. I recognize the Umbrella Corp. logo. I once heard one of my coworkers sighed when the final Resident Evil movie came out in 2017. Four years later, a reboot movie hit theaters and drew overwhelmingly negative reviews. This itty-bitty knowledge aside, I have never seen any of Resident Evil movies, let alone played the video game.

Given my background as a chick flick and classical Hollywood cinema enjoyer, I had zero interest in watching the second Resident Evil reboot that just came out recently. Monsters, blood and firearms? Yuck, let me drown in Wes Anderson’s pastel color palette and 1960s petticoats. My husband had a problem with this inertia and pressured me to stay out of my comfort zone. Starting with the watching the new Resident Evil…and writing a blog post about it. (PS: mild spoiler ahead.)

1. The new reboot

I love this one Letterboxd comment that said Resident Evil (2026) is basically the backstory of a dead NPC in the game. The protagonist is a medical courier called Bryan who gets assigned to deliver an important package to a hospital in Raccoon City. While driving, Bryan hits a zombie woman. Totally oblivious, he brings the injured zombie to his car to get her taken care of in the hospital. Thus, the story of an ordinary guy who had the worst day in his life begins.

Since I don’t play the game, I rely on Letterboxd reviews to find out if this second attempt on the reboot is faithtful to its source material. For Letterboxd standard, the score is pretty glowing – 3.8 out of 5.0. Not only that the movie is game-accurate, but it also skillfully blends the game aspects into the story. The reviews applaud the subtle yet clever references: first-person POV at critical scenes, inventory management and even a door loading screen.

Jumpscares are here and there. The zombies are slimy, nauseating and terrifying. The world building is great and neat. It’s fun to visualize each arc and location as different level stages in the game. The ending is utterly miserable. I like it though. The ending is very upsetting, but it makes sense.

Bryan is played by Austin Abrams, whom I have seen before in Do Revenge. I didn’t recognize him at first, because he was so lean and twinky (just like Timothee Chalamet) in Do Revenge. While here in Resident Evil, he had this awkward nobody vibe (just like Michael Cera). I think Austin Abrams did a fantastic job. Husband is not a fan of a protagonist who got flustered (and cussed) easily while I have no problem with it. I genuinely feel sympathetic for Bryan. He panics a lot, yet maintains to be resilient, combats all the obstacles and keeps a good heart despite the series of unfortunate events.

2. The Milla Jovovich’s version

In the light of broadening my horizon, I keep going on. On the next day, I downloaded and watched the first movie of this installment, Resident Evil (2002). Milla Jovovich in a strappy red dress on the poster is already enough to imply how different the “original” movie and the new reboot are. I expected the movie to be the classic early 2000s cunty watch. Probably like The Matrix, since it also has a lead actor with an extremely pretty face in black leather boots (Keanu Reeves… you will always be famous).

The movie is… I don’t know, 70% of it is close-ups of Milla Jovovich serving face. Unfortunately, I find the movie boring. The movie is also cheesy – there are a LOT of flashbacks with actual flashes. I don’t mind cheesy though. Sometimes cheesy is good and has its own charm. To me, the biggest problem is that there is no wit! The script is so boring, resulting in boring characters. Milla Jovovich’s character, Alice, is understandably nonchalant. However, the rest of side characters are equally monotone (with the exception of Michelle Rodriguez’s character…and I find her unnecessarily snarky).

I can’t comment much on the action and zombies. There are dog zombies, human zombies and the bald, bloody creature… the final boss, I guess? Considering the technology limitations in 2002, they don’t look as disturbing.

The conclusion is, I definitely favor the 2026 version. I find it very enjoyable! I suppose the movie does serve a purpose to introduce the franchise to the general public. Besides Letterboxd reviews, I also went to penguinz0’s video to gather some information from a fan’s perspective. He gives his approval, but it seems like there are many other fans bashing the director for not presenting Leon S. Kennedy, the actual protagonist in the game.

Quoting penguinz0 word by word: “There is never really any value in trying to follow a game one to one when you are making an adaptation. It’s always just going to be worse than the game, straight up. There’s never even a chance. I think the best approach is to have a person who is genuinely passionate about the property, carve their own creative path in that world to pay respect to the property, to adapt it in a way that feels familiar to fans, and feels good to non-fans as well.” I 100% agree with this.