RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION

(2007)

directed by Russell Mulcahy

 

reviewed by Adam Armstrong

12.6.07

 

What happens when you take a good idea and throw way too much money at it? Well…most of the crap that comes out in Hollywood. Resident Evil: Extinction falls right into this category. Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Highlander II: The Quickening, Ricochet) this is a movie that really tries too hard.

Picking up a few months after Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Extinction follows Alice (Milla Jovovich) and a few of the other survivors as the make their way through a quickly dying world. The T-virus has spread throughout the world drying up water bodies and making zombies just about everywhere. Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) join a bunch of women, apparently added in as eye candy, in a convoy to pick up other survivors while Alice treks out on her own with increasingly greater and greater powers use to beat down zombies and “boss” bad guys that look vaguely similar in each film, while wearing scantly clad clothing.

This movie suffers from Matrix syndrome. When the protagonist gains too much strength the audience begins to be confident that they will overcome any obstacle which robs the movie of any suspense. Big blockbuster action/horror movies such as these would due well to take a lesson from novel writers or from Romero movies. Creating realistic characters that can be hurt easily and are fully flawed as the rest of us, would make the characters more relatable and keeps the audience with them longer.

My advice: rent it when it comes out if you want to know how the trilogy ends, or better yet, check it out from the library.

 

2 out of 5 just because there is a high zombie content.

 

Purchase your own copy of Resident Evil: Extinction