First things first : the third (and probably not the last – this thing will likely run forever with straight to DVD sequels and spin-offs its ultimate destiny) in the RESIDENT EVIL movie franchise still suffers from the limitations we have come to expect from a Paul W S Anderson screenplay. Its plot mechanics and key moments rely on the reuse of powerful imagery from earlier genre films : notably, a zombie-domestication sub-plot that has already been used sundry times since DAY OF THE DEAD’s “Bub”, and an ALIEN RESURRECTION-inspired sequence in which the heroine confronts an assortment of clones of herself. Anderson’s scripts are also (un)distinguished by an overall lack of wit and characters so barely developed that they hardly qualify for the description “one note”.
The good news is that EXTINCTION is a quantum leap above the miserably un-engaging first sequel, APOCALYPSE and, unlike that movie, largely delivers the goods we would hope to find in a RESIDENT EVIL movie. Director Russell Mulcahy, making a welcome return to theatrical release territory, gives it the snazziest visual style of the series, proffering the showy camerawork that made his name and displaying a fondness for elaborate pull-back crane shots. The best of these, revealing a decimated Las Vegas, gave the trailer a nice visual coup.
Interchangeable new characters in EXTINCTION are played by a wasted Ali Larter, a short-lived Ashanti and, most weakly, the Charisma-Free Zone that is Matthew Marsden. The sub-comic book dialogue suits the brazen hamming of central villain Iain Glen, on a quest to snag Alice (Milla Jovovich), who represents a potential cure for the T-virus that has virtually wiped out humanity. Glen wants to use her blood to regress the virus and thus tame/control the roaming undead for unspecified, probably nefarious reasons.
Alice now has remarkable psychic abilities that are employed by the script whenever it needs to get our heroes out of a tight corner and conveniently forgotten at other points. Jovovich, with her eerily flawless skin and almost complete lack of genuine human emotion, looks increasingly like a CG effect herself, and the script gives her no good lines, just a handful of cool action-star poses and the now-traditional almost-nude scene.
Mulcachy gives this a decent MAD MAX-with-zombies look and turns in a wholly forgettable but fast paced and lively no-brainer. The zombie attack scenes are fun and there are some enjoyable asides, including an extended, cartoonish homage to THE BIRDS in which hordes of CG zombie crows descend on characters holed up in a battered school bus. EXTINCTION is the bloodiest of a too-tame trilogy, with some routinely gory zombie deaths, including the oft-seen splatter gag in which an open wound allows us to see daylight through a hapless zombie’s head. The price of admission also buys you the amusing climactic spectacle of Glen turning into a tentacled monster and turning Marsden’s head into a kind of human bowling ball with a couple of flicks of his new appendages.
-Steven West
DVD Features:
-11 Deleted Scenes
-Audio Commentary with Producer/Writer Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt
-Beyond Raccoon City: Unearthing Resident Evil: Extinction Featurette
-Resident Evil: Degeneration Sneak Peek
-Devil May Cry 4 Video Game
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
