Mania Grade: B+
Maniac Grade: B+
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- Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
- Rated: R
- Stars: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen, Mike Epps
- Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson
- Director: Russell Mulcahy
- Distributor: Screen Gems
RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION
This time around, the blend of horror, sci-fi and action works wonderfully... By Abbie Bernstein
September 22, 2007
Milla Jovovich as Alice in RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (2007).
© Screen Gems
Resident Evil: Extinction is the third film in a series based on a videogame. This isn’t necessarily the most promising of origins, but this time around, the filmmakers do an extraordinarily good job of making a rousing horror/sci-fi movie. There are a few game elements to honor the premise’s roots, but this absolutely works on its own terms.
In the 2002 original Resident Evil feature, written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who wrote and produced the sequel and the new film, we meet our heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich), who finds she must fight her way out of an underground office/lab populated by ravenous zombies and monsters, products of a genetic experiment gone terribly wrong. In 2004’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Alice discovers that she has been genetically tampered with herself, giving her some superpowers that are helpful in combating the menaces that have escaped the lab and now rampage through quarantined Raccoon City. In Resident Evil: Extinction, the zombie plague has spread across the planet, pretty much wiping out not only civilization, but a good portion of nature as well, transforming most of the globe into arid scrub and desert. After an opening that reminds us of how the first film started, followed by an eye-opening twist, our attention is divided between Alice on her own in the wasteland, a survivor’s convoy led by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and a well-equipped, sterile military/scientific complex far underground, where Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen, reprising his role from Apocalypse) is still up to no good.
While Extinction has the set-pieces that fans of this particular franchise will respect – zombies, mutant dogs, homicidal crows, huge sentient homicidal hunks of tortured flesh – it is reminiscent in the best way of the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. It has ferocious action, bloodshed, effective jump scares – but it also has characters we like (and some we despise in an “I can’t wait ‘til you get yours” way), whose strategies and abilities propel the storyline, rather than just serving as cannon fodder. Jovovich utterly cements her status as a cult action star, as compelling as Hugh Jackman or Jason Statham, giving Alice a sense of compassion and conviction, as well as being extremely believable in her stuntwork. Larter gives Claire the requisite gravity her protective role calls for, as well as looking very good shooting, kicking and punching the undead. Oded Fehr, reprising his role from Apocalypse, is again charming and suggests great resourcefulness, and Glen makes Dr. Isaacs as confident and assured a mad scientist as any movie could want.
Director Russell Mulcahy and writer Anderson throw their all into conceptualizing the scares, the thrills and the surprises – there are some shots that literally make your breath catch, along with wild zombie carnage, a hell-for-leather homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and a truly nightmarish opening sequence. Resident Evil: Extinction is impressive stuff, the best entry so far in its series. More, it’s very satisfying and just plain bloody good fun.
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