Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film is out on Friday, and the crucial reception has been overwhelmingly optimistic.
The movie at the moment has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97% based mostly on 91 evaluations, which means virtually each critic has delivered a optimistic evaluation.
This makes it the highest-rated film directed by Cregger thus far, which is not any imply feat contemplating he already has three 90+ movies to his identify – Companion (93%), Weapons (93%) and Barbarian (92%).
The rating additionally comfortably makes Resident Evil the highest-rated online game film in Rotten Tomatoes’ historical past, with a spot of greater than 10%.
Earlier than this, the earlier highest-rated online game film on the positioning was Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which loved a critic score of 86% and an viewers score of 94% on the positioning.
The positioning’s present prime 10 highest rated online game films by critic rating (versus the separate viewers rating) is as follows:
- Resident Evil (2026) – 97%
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) – 86%
- Werewolves Inside (2021) – 86%
- The Indignant Birds Film 2 (2019) – 72%
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) – 69%
- Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) – 68%
- Gran Turismo (2023) – 65%
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) – 64%
- Mortal Kombat 2 (2026) – 64%
- The Tremendous Mario Bros Film (2023) – 59%
Naturally, this implies Cregger’s movie additionally far outscores the earlier six-film live-action Resident Evil collection starring Milla Jovovich and written by Paul W.S. Anderson (who additionally directed entries 1, 4, 5 and 6).
The best rated of those was the sixth entry, Resident Evil: The Last Chapter, which solely managed a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 39%, inserting it slightly below the Uncharted film (41%).
It stays to be seen whether or not ‘fan’ backlash will have an effect on the viewers rating
As a result of the Resident Evil film has not but been launched, it at the moment doesn’t have an viewers score. It stays to be seen, subsequently, whether or not this rating can be negatively affected by a subset of Resident Evil followers who’ve been towards Cregger’s strategy to the movie since he first began discussing it.
Cregger is a Resident Evil fan, and not too long ago advised Deadline that he had little interest in making some other franchise films, and that he solely took on Resident Evil as a result of he loves the video games.
Final yr, nevertheless, he said that the movie received’t characteristic any characters from the video games and can as a substitute deal with new story happening in parallel with the occasions of Resident Evil 2 and three, however moved to a modern-day setting – information that rankled some Resident Evil followers.
“Let me say this – this isn’t breaking the foundations of the video games,” Cregger advised Inverse final yr, insisting that the brand new film will nonetheless respect Resident Evil lore. “I’m the largest worshipper of the video games, so I’m telling a narrative that could be a love letter to the video games and follows the foundations of the video games.
“It’s obedient to the lore of the video games, it’s only a totally different story. I’m not going to inform Leon’s story, as a result of Leon’s story is advised within the video games. [Fans] have already got that.”
“See the film. For those who nonetheless really feel the identical approach after you’ve seen it, then no matter you assume is honest. You’re going to resolve if I’m an precise Resident Evil fan or a faux.”
Cregger mentioned that if any gamers had been hoping to see characters like Leon, Jill, Chris or Claire showing in his film, “they’ll play the sport” to see their tales.
This week he additionally revealed that an early lower of the movie had extra humour in it, till check screenings satisfied him to take away a number of the jokes, one thing he believes resulted in a greater movie. This led to some Resident Evil followers on social media suggesting he wasn’t taking the collection (which has beforehand featured a playable block of tofu) significantly sufficient.
Earlier this month, Cregger advised The Playlist that he felt like he had “been on considerably of an apology tour”, including: “I really feel like I’m operating for workplace, attempting to get these folks to not name me a LARPer.
“Now, I’m identical to, you understand what? See the film. For those who nonetheless really feel the identical approach after you’ve seen it, then no matter you assume is honest. You’re going to resolve if I’m an precise Resident Evil fan or a faux. What can I say? I believe the film goes to talk for itself.”
