Directed by: Russell Mulcahy
Premise: The third film in the Resident Evil franchise. Years after the events of the
previous film, the world has been overrun by the zombie virus and a group of
survivors in the Nevada desert attempt to find transportation to Alaska while a
corporate scientist performs experiments in an underground bunker.
What Works: Based on a video game, Resident
Evil: Extinction follows along the same lines as the previous films, mixing
gunfights and chase scenes with bloody violence. The film has a steady stream of
jump scares that are mostly effectively staged.
What Doesn’t: This Resident Evil falls far
below the bar set by films like Land
of the Dead. Even those who liked the first two films, which were not
particularly good, will find this film wanting. There are a lot of holes between Extinction and the previous Resident Evil installments. Alice
(Milla Jovovich) suddenly has telepathic powers and the ending of the previous
film does not match up the opening of this film. With no atmosphere and little
tension, Resident Evil: Extinction isn’t scary and its action sequences
are not very well done. The chases and fights are chaotic and don’t make much
sense and the action keeps coming with no logic or reason. The characters in the
film are not very interesting and are underdeveloped. Amusingly, most of them
are twenty-somethings who look more like Victoria’s Secret models than ragtag
survivors of a zombie apocalypse. The film draws liberally from The
Road Warrior and George A. Romero’s Day
of the Dead as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s The
Birds and as a result the film is a patchwork of rehashed scenes that
are far inferior to the original presentations.
Bottom Line: Resident Evil: Extinction is a lousy film, failing even to make it as light popcorn entertainment. Viewers would be better served by re-screening The Road Warrior or Day of the Dead than watching this lazy rehash.