When it was first announced that Zach Cregger would take on Resident Evil following Weapons, it was met with a ton of excitement. That excitement began to fade as loud, angry fans complained about every single thing they could possibly come up with, seeking to downplay a movie that hadn’t even remotely come out yet. Well, now that it’s out, Cregger just might have been vindicated in all of his choices.

Resident Evil, Zach Cregger, and Not Listening to Rabid Fans

There is an old adage, mostly in sports, about listening to fans. “If you listen to the fans, you’ll be sitting up there with them,” it goes. Buddy Ryan, Pat Summitt, and others have been credited with popularizing and saying something along those lines.

In sports, it’s essentially a warning not to let fans influence decision-making because they don’t know what they’re talking about. They think because they watch and engage with the sport, they know what moves should and shouldn’t be made. Nine times out of 10, they’re wrong, and football people know better.

It’s not exactly 100% accurate in the same way if you transfer the saying over to art, but it mostly works. If artists listen exclusively to what fans say they want, it will result in poor art. They won’t get cut from a team like in sports, but there will be negative consequences.

We have seen that play out, and Zach Cregger didn’t want that to happen for his own film. Coming off a fantastic two-film stretch with Barbarian and Weapons, the auteur wanted to honor the games with his own original story of, essentially, what it might’ve been like for a regular guy (a.k.a. someone not as skilled as Leon Kennedy) to navigate the outbreak of the T-virus.

That decision proved to be a costly one, at least in terms of reaction. He has spent pretty much every waking moment since the first trailer dropped defending his movie that hadn’t even come out yet. Comment sections were filled with ridiculous takes accusing him of using the Resident Evil label to profit off a regular horror movie or that he hasn’t even played any of the games.

Neither claim is true, but that’s hardly the point. The point is that there was backlash to his creative decisions in a movie that hadn’t been seen. Fans complaining online had literally no clue what the actual movie was like, and they were still complaining that it wasn’t an Easter egg-fest with a million Resident Evil game characters à la The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Well, people have seen the film now. The early reactions are in, and it’s just the sort of reaction that those toxic fans did not want to see. Resident Evil is sitting at an awesome 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with 99 reviews. It’s essentially guaranteed to be in the 90s when it’s all said and done. That is obviously the best score for a Resident Evil film, and it’s not particularly close.

It is also the highest rating for a video game adaptation ever. The previous record was held (fairly) by Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which got an 86% critic approval rating. It’s possible that it tanks as more people see it, but it’s highly unlikely it drops low enough to not keep that record. For good measure, it’s sitting at a 3.8 on Letterboxd and 7.9 on IMDb, which is a review site known for being review-bombed. In other words, angry fans haven’t been able to tarnish the score yet.

Had Cregger listened to the fans, they might’ve been happy (but it’s doubtful, since his version of the events and characters of the games likely wouldn’t quite live up). Since he refused to listen to them, the rest of the world (read: the majority) is going to be happy. Stay tuned for our review coming this weekend. We’re excited to either prove or disprove this take!