Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film becomes the highest rated video game movie in Rotten Tomatoes history
Its current score of 97% easily overtakes the previous holder of the top spot
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is out on Friday, and the critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive.
The film currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% based on 91 reviews, meaning almost every critic has delivered a positive review.
This makes it the highest-rated movie directed by Cregger to date, which is no mean feat considering he already has three 90+ films to his name – Companion (93%), Weapons (93%) and Barbarian (92%).
The score also comfortably makes Resident Evil the highest-rated video game movie in Rotten Tomatoes’ history, with a gap of more than 10%.
Before this, the previous highest-rated video game movie on the site was Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which enjoyed a critic rating of 86% and an audience rating of 94% on the site.
The site’s current top 10 highest rated video game movies by critic score (as opposed to the separate audience score) is as follows:
- Resident Evil (2026) – 97%
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) – 86%
- Werewolves Within (2021) – 86%
- The Angry Birds Movie 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 Super Mario Bros Movie (2023) – 59%
Naturally, this means Cregger’s film also far outscores the previous six-film live-action Resident Evil series starring Milla Jovovich and written by Paul W.S. Anderson (who also directed entries 1, 4, 5 and 6).
The highest rated of these was the sixth entry, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which only managed a Rotten Tomatoes score of 39%, placing it just under the Uncharted movie (41%).
It remains to be seen whether ‘fan’ backlash will affect the audience score
Because the Resident Evil movie has not yet been released, it currently doesn’t have an audience rating. It remains to be seen, therefore, whether this score will be negatively affected by a subset of Resident Evil fans who have been against Cregger’s approach to the film since he first started discussing it.
Cregger is a Resident Evil fan, and recently told Deadline that he had no interest in making any other franchise movies, and that he only took on Resident Evil because he loves the games.
Last year, however, he stated that the film won’t feature any characters from the games and will instead focus on new story taking place in parallel with the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but moved to a modern day setting – news that rankled some Resident Evil fans.
“Let me say this – this is not breaking the rules of the games,” Cregger told Inverse last year, insisting that the new movie will still respect Resident Evil lore. “I am the biggest worshipper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games.
“It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story. I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.”
“See the movie. If you still feel the same way after you’ve seen it, then whatever you think is fair. You’re going to decide if I’m an actual Resident Evil fan or a fake.”
Cregger said that if any players were hoping to see characters like Leon, Jill, Chris or Claire appearing in his movie, “they can play the game” to see their stories.
This week he also revealed that an early cut of the film had more humour in it, until test screenings convinced him to remove some of the jokes, something he believes resulted in a better film. This led to some Resident Evil fans on social media suggesting he wasn’t taking the series (which has previously featured a playable block of tofu) seriously enough.
Earlier this month, Cregger told The Playlist that he felt like he had “been on somewhat of an apology tour”, adding: “I feel like I’m running for office, trying to get these people not to call me a LARPer.
“Now, I’m just like, you know what? See the movie. If you still feel the same way after you’ve seen it, then whatever you think is fair. You’re going to decide if I’m an actual Resident Evil fan or a fake. What can I say? I think the movie is going to speak for itself.”
