Resident Evil: Extinction

Resident Evil: Extinction is the third movie to be based on the game series, following a quality Resident Evil and a terrible second Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I expected the trend to continue and for this movie to be an affront to Jesus and eleven of his twelve apostles. Thankfully, the movie ended up simply being very mediocre, and even has some pretty good things going for it.

In Extinction, most life on Earth has been eradicated by the T-Virus and the few remaining survivors wander the desert in search of a sanctuary. Meanwhile, the friendly neighborhood Umbrella Corporation is trying to use the blood of clones of Alice (Milla Jovovich) to domesticate the zombies. However, Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) is secretly using the clone blood to make super zombies. And, of course, Alice is still pissed at Umbrella. I should also mention that the film doesn't really follow the plot of any of the games at all, even though it uses characters from them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the majority of films using some sort of source material don't really adhere to closely to it.

One of the big problems with Extinction is that there are very few moments when the characters actually seem to be in any danger. Sure, the opening voice-over describes a world in which the convoy of survivors can't stay in one place too long lest zombies find them, but that never seems to happen. The only time danger is apparent is during actual attacks on the convoy, which only happen twice during the entire movie. This is also when the zombie design breaks down. The opening shots of zombies are pretty well done, with good variety and a believable weathered look. However, when the super zombies show up, they all look exactly the same, which is to say like Viktor Yushchenko in a jumpsuit. It makes the whole movie seem low budget. These zombies also run, which is something I'm not a fan of in zombie films (I prefer shambling), but at least this film gives a reason why the super zombies can run and the other zombies can't (the clone blood mutation). Finally, there's Alice's psychic abilities. They're used as a sort of deus ex machina and nothing more. Just when it looks like our heroes won't make it, Alice slips into psychic mode. It's pretty ridiculous, even for a zombie movie.

I don't want to make it seem all bad. The desert setting works fairly well, as does the convoy element. It's a nice departure from the usual small, claustrophobic settings of zombie films. Surprisingly, Jovovich does some pretty decent acting in this, given the somewhat ridiculous role she had to play. The crow attack was also pretty intense, though it only lasts a few minutes. And, of course, it's a zombie movie, which always nets some points in my mind.

Two and a half stars out of five.