Resident Evil: Extinction Review
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Tue Sep 25, 07 03:26 PM
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Posted by
Bryan
Kristopowitz on 09.24.2007
Milla Jovovich is back kicking zombie
butt. Boo freaking yeah.
Milla Jovovich- Alice
Oded Fehr- Carlos Olivera
Ali Larter- Claire Redfield
Iain Glen- Dr. Isaacs
Mike Epps- L.J.
Jason O'Mara- Albert Wesker
Ashanti- Betty
Spencer Locke- K-Mart
Mathew Marsden- Slater
Linden Ashby- Chase
Christopher Egan- Mikey
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Screenplay by Paul W.S. Anderson, based on the Capcom video game
series "Resident Evil"
Distributed by Screen Gems, Constantin Film, Davis Films, and
Impact Pictures
Rated R for strong horror violence throughout and some nudity
Runtime- 95 minutes
Website:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/residentevilextinction/
"Resident Evil: Extinction," the third flick in the
horror/science fiction/action franchise based on the popular Capcom
video game series, picks up a few years after the events of the
second flick, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse." The supremely evil
Umbrella Corporation's experimental bioweapon, known as the
T-virus, has spread beyond Raccoon City and engulfed the entire
world, infecting and killing dang near everything on the planet.
Lakes have dried up. Vegetation is basically non-existent. North
America is now, more or less, a vast, harsh desert. The few
remaining human survivors travel the land, desperately looking for
supplies while dodging the growing hordes of "undead" (the usual
human zombies, mutant dogs, and now crows). Life is, well,
hell.
Alice (Milla Jovovich), the short skirt wearing butt kicking
mutant babe hero of the series, is off on her own, riding around
Nevada on a motorcycle looking for survivors and trying to figure
out what to do next. She's no longer a part of a group, having left
Carlos Olivera (the returning Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps)
months ago (she found out that she was being tracked by Umbrella
and decided to leave her friends, figuring they wouldn't be in
danger with her not around). Meanwhile, Carlos and L.J. have hooked
up with another butt kicking female named Claire (Ali Larter), who
is leading a convoy of survivors around the desert. They are
quickly running out of food, supplies, and gas. When they
eventually meet up with Alice (that's not really a spoiler so don't
write in about it), Alice suggests that they all travel to Alaska,
where it is believed that the T-virus infection hasn't taken over.
That's quite the trip (a few thousand miles), and they don't have
the resources to take such a long trip. They're going to have to go
scavenge for supplies in a place they haven't dared venture: Las
Vegas. And so off they go to Vegas.
Meanwhile, what remains of the Umbrella Corporation is trying to
figure out how to contain the worldwide disaster they created.
Under the leadership of Chairman Albert Wesker (Jason O'Mara), the
very British and evil Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) is experimenting on a
new version of the T-virus, something that will allow Umbrella to
"domesticate" the increasingly aggressive zombies still roaming
around. The key to that research, Isaacs believes, is in the DNA
structure of the elusive Alice. So Isaacs has been conducting
experiments with Alice "clones," recreating events from the first
movie in an apparent attempt to find out if the clones actually
match up to Alice's abilities and therefore can be used to create
the domestication virus. Isaacs finds out that the clones, while
just as hot as the original Alice, don't really measure up in the
butt kicking department. Isaacs is going to have to find a way to
capture the original Alice.
And that's pretty much the story.
The "Resident Evil" movie franchise, for whatever reason, takes
quite a bit of hooha from not only general movie critics but from
genre fans as well. I understand the general movie critic side of
it, as genre movies tend to get the shaft from them. But the
animosity from the genre world, despite the fact that they keep
turning out for this series (why would Screen Gems keep forking out
cash to make them if no one wanted to watch them?), to me is
baffling. There's plenty of well staged action set pieces, gore
moments, monsters, and generalized "cool" genre movie crapola
throughout the series to, I guess theoretically, entertain the heck
out of the audience. And there's Milla Jovovich, kicking and
killing everything in sight with flash and brutal panache all the
while still being a babe (every geeky nerd's late night fantasy to
be sure). And yet people complain. I just don't get it. Paul W.S.
Anderson, the director of the first flick and the writer and
producer of all three, has created one of the few enduring movie
franchises based on a video game (quite the mean feat since there
have been so few). He has, along with directors Alexander Witt
("Resident Evil: Apocalypse") and Russell "Highlander" Mulcahy,
made the series its own thing that compliments the video games that
are its source material. Despite how generally despised Anderson is
(another thing I don't fully understand), he's been the only person
in recent memory who has been able to pull off these kinds of
movies with any level of success. Again, this is the third movie in
the franchise, and Screen Gems wouldn't be doling out cash to make
more if people didn't want to see them. So Anderson and his
collaborators must be doing something right.
"Resident Evil: Extinction" is a dang decent horror/science
fiction/action hybrid, with plenty of all three to help keep things
moving. The story is, granted, a rip off of both "Mad Max" and
George A. Romero's "Day of the Dead" (watch the scene in the desert
of the underground Umbrella lab surrounded by a chain link fence
that keeps the gathering zombies at bay. Notice the helicopter
landing. You'll be wondering "where's the Jamaican guy?"), but both
Mulcahy and Anderson make the flick its own thing. Even the bits
that rip off the recent "Dawn of the Dead" remake and Danny Boyle's
own zombie movie rip off "28 Days Later" are done with a skill and
energy that make you go "Hey, isn't that from that English movie?
Whoa, that was a pretty cool neck snapping there." The story, as it
is, really doesn't have an overall point. Beyond the vague plot of
survival, there's very little the characters are trying to
accomplish beyond that. Normally I'd be annoyed by that. But,
again, Mulcahy and Anderson make the most of it and make it
entertaining. The convoy probably should have had fewer people in
it, it would have been nice to find out a little more about Claire
(like, is she looking for her brother Chris? All of you "Resident
Evil 2" nerds out there know what I'm talking about), and it would
have been nice to know what the heck happened to both Jill
Valentine and Ashley Ashford, but then maybe we'll find out about
them in a fourth movie (and I certainly hope there is another one.
I want to see what we see at the end come to freaking full on
cinematic fruition).
Milla Jovovich, back to kicking butt in a coherent movie, is once
again outstanding as Alice. She looks good doing everything she
does here (she even gets to do a little emotional acting a few
times). There probably wouldn't be much of a movie without her. The
returning Oded Fehr, as Carlos, doesn't get to do as much as he did
in the previous movie, but what he gets to do is pretty dang good.
Fehr has a good look, has plenty of screen charisma, and can handle
the action stuff, so why the heck hasn't he been given a chance to
be a genuine leading man action star? Ali Larter does a good job as
Claire, but, again, it would have been nice to see more from her
and about her. Ashanti does an okay job as Betty the medic of the
convoy. Mike Epps, who still has the gold plated Desert Eagle, gets
to do more action stuff in this flick, which is weird because you
normally don't think of him in that way. Iain Glen is somewhat
generic as the evil Dr. Isaacs, but then again when you're British
you can be both generic and memorable. The man is evil. And it's
fun as all hooha to see that bastard Wesker on screen. Jason
O'Mara, with the iconic dark as heck sunglasses, is quite the evil
prick. I hope we get to see more of him in a fourth flick.
So what do we have here? A close up of the eye of Milla Jovovich,
Milla Jovovich naked in the shower, gratuitous referencing of the
first "Resident Evil," that freaking laser hallway thing, a
chopping door, a sliced in half gurney, machine guns in the wall,
gratuitous guys in white biohazard suits, a massive underground
elevator shaft, a trench filled with plenty of "beautiful" dead
bodies, gratuitous George A. Romero's "Day of the Dead," gratuitous
"Mad Max," an abandoned TV station, an old fat woman, a rip off of
both the cannibal family scene in "Judge Dredd" and the pit
fighting scene in George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead," zombie
dogs, dogs on spikes, a ceiling cave in, a hot chick suiting up and
getting on her motorcycle, a zombie eating a guy's guts in the
middle of the road, bus wheel spike to the face, gratuitous "Inna
Godda Davida," gratuitous cut scene of computer schematic of
underground Umbrella lab, a hologram, crossbow arrow to the head,
"Free chili and cheese," a penny jar, flies feasting on a hanging
dead body, crows eating a zombie's eyes, a book, gratuitous
Austrailian guy that kind of looks like Heath Ledger, a gold plated
Desert Eagle, neck snapping, gratuitous Tar Man reference from
"Return of the Living Dead part 3," domesticating a zombie,
gratuitous bus driver that kind of looks like Hugh Laurie, creating
a perimeter, a dust storm, Milla Jovovich sleeping in a giant water
gel bubble, rock levitating, walking acorss the desert, zombie crow
attack, flamethrower attack, a giant cloud of fire in the sky, a
desert funeral, a Casio watch that monitors satellite movements, a
disgusting man boob wound, Oded Fehr smirking, Vegas covered in
sand, a shipping container filled with aggressive zombies, Milla
Jovovich with two knives kicking the crap out of everything in
sight, shotgun blast to the head, knife to the head, a great zombie
massacre, gratuitous Winchester pump, fighting a satellite, running
double knife zombie throat slashing, slashing a zombie from crotch
to throat, a tentacle whipping zombie monster, a tractor trailer
battering ram, gratuitous cigarette smoking, a massive explosion,
bodies on spikes, strangling a naked Milla Jovovich, psychic butt
kicking, and setting up another sequel.
Best lines: "Take a sample of her blood and then get rid of her,"
"You bitch, you dropped my baby!," "Jesus Christ, he's dead!,"
"That was a juicy one," "Claire, would I lie to you?," "Simply
demanding results will not guarentee them," "You like playing
rough, huh?," "Well, Claire, if we can run these trucks on rust
we're looking pretty good," "I want my perimeter up!," "Activate
#87!," "Oh, hell no, let's get out of here!," "My research has
intensified," "Sometimes aggression has its uses," "My research
will change the face of everything," "If you pick a side, make sure
it's the right one," "What's your name? K-Mart," "Carlos, it's
12:14. Why, do you got somewhere you got to be?," "Alaska," "She's
right. Vegas is our best bet," "Pork and beans are lethal. I don't
know how you cowboys do it," "Climb the Eiffel Tower with a high
powered rifle. A few years ago that would have caused a stir," "She
really is magnificient," "Back to base!," "The anti-virus! Get me
the anti-virus!," "Wish I had a smoke," "I'm sorry. I didn't mean
to startle you," "I knew your sister. She was a homicidal bitch,"
"Alice. Good luck," "You can't kill me," "I've told you. I can't
die," "I am the future," "No, you're just another asshole," and
"Yeah, you're the future, all right."
"Resident Evil: Extinction" is a blast for nerds and anyone else
in the mood for a well done, fun as heck horror/science
fiction/action hybrid movie. I highly recommend it. Give it a
chance.
Go see it. Let's get another one.
http://www.411mania.com/movies/film_reviews/60253
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Link:
http://blog.bitcomet.com/news/post_730/
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