Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) Review

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) Review

 

The title of this one made me think it might be the last one in the series when it first came out, but oh no, far from it. We begin with the usual opening as the Screen Gems logo spirals in, and I was surprised to hear the theme music from the first movie! The music for the rest of the movie kind of sounds like video game music, which is fitting and not as obnoxious as it sounds (definitely less obnoxious than the first movie’s soundtrack). It begins with a flashback to the first movie of Alice waking up in the shower...or, is it a flash back? She puts on the same red dress, but then wanders into the laser hallway, which she manages to escape. Then, she finds herself in a hallway that looks like a hospital, with a giant blade that shoots up out of floor like something Wile E. Coyote would buy from Acme to kill the Road Runner.

In a tiny bit of a twist, a turret comes up from the floor and fatally shoots Alice. The doctor from the end of Apocalypse, Dr. Isaacs (played by Iain Glen, best known as Ser Jorah on Game of Thrones), comes in and says to sample her blood then get rid of her. They dump her body outside their facility in the sand with a bunch of other dead Alice clones. Beyond the fence are thousands of zombies trying to get at them, and we see they’re in the middle of a wasteland. It’s the best opening for one of these movies so far. After this, we get the obligatory Alice voiceover from the original Alice, recapping the last two movies. She sounds more enthusiastic this time, and explains that not only did the T-virus turn everyone in the world into zombies, it made lakes and rivers dry up (for some reason?) and the few uninfected left need to stay on the move.

Alice has a new post-apocalyptic outfit, and I dig it. Her new weapons are two massive knives: it is badass and fits with her new look. This sequel is clearly very inspired by Mad Max in terms of the environments, costumes, and types of minor characters. I’m all for it. Despite her super powers established in the last movie, Alice is easily captured by a group of psychos and put in a pit with zombie dogs. Her escape is a ridiculous but fun bit of action. After that we’re introduced to a convoy of survivors, including L.J. and Carlos from the last movie, plus some new characters including their leader Claire Redfield, who is another character from the Resident Evil games. Meanwhile, underground, a board room of Umbrella Corporation survivors including Dr. Isaacs are discussing the sad state of the world and Project Alice. One of Isaacs’ missions is to domesticate the zombies. I’m sure that won’t go wrong…

Resident Evil: Extinction looks and feels more like a real movie than the last one. It’s still visually bleak, but it works for the desert setting. It accomplishes what the last one failed to do: present a big collection of characters I don’t actually hate who are slowly picked off. Now that is more like it (more like the first movie at least, although I actually like more of these characters because they are survivors, not just boring soldiers), and this one is focused on the zombie aspect more than any other sequel. It’s nothing particularly special, but there’s some good zombie-shootin’-bitin’-rippin’-action, and it outshines anything from the previous two movies. When the scientists experiment on one of the zombies its eyes go black, and it remembers how to do human things. It seems like a purposeful reference to George Romero’s Day of the Dead, which is cool. The zombies look more desiccated, and the makeup effects overall are better.  

We get more than zombie dogs and zombie humans this time, there are zombie crows! It’s actually kind of new, original, and creepy, like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds meets Dawn of the Dead. Alice stumbles across a journal indicating there's an infection free refuge in Alaska called Arcadia. This becomes her mission, and she comes across Claire's convoy as they are being attacked by the zombie crows. Alice joins them after igniting the sky to burn them up in a giant fireball. Dr. Isaacs gets a fix on Alice and goes after her since the clones can’t perform as well as the original. Alice and the others roll up to Vegas and find it barren of zombies. There’s nothing but sand, because as Alice says, “the desert reclaimed it.” Isaacs has a surprise for them, though: super-fast vicious zombies in a shipping container! Many members of the convoy are killed, and Isaacs gets infected, so he later experiments on himself. Guess how that goes?

The action in this one is a lot less ridiculous compared to Apocalypse, but not lacking, either. It isn’t without some of those moments, and it isn’t super well directed or creative, but it's quite competent, decently choreographed, and they actually give the characters some time to leave an impact, even if only in small ways. The last level is Alice versus Isaacs as the final boss in the underground facility. Isaacs has a different A.I. represented by a little British girl—apparently every one of these movies has to have one of them (funny line from Alice: “I knew your sister. She was a homicidal bitch.”), but this one isn’t evil, and helps Alice instead. Isaacs’ monster form is done with practical effects, which automatically is better than bad cgi. He has comically-long fingers on one hand which turn into tentacles, and his face is all melty. It’s the kind of schlock I love in this series, and the way he dies is a cheesy but fun throwback to a death in the first movie.  

The ending is a great setup for the sequel. Alice tells the Umbrella Corporation board members who are still hiding out underground that she’s coming for them, and she’s bringing her army of clones with her! I take back something I said before. Out of the entire series Resident Evil: Extinction feels the most like a real movie, even over the first one. I'll admit it, I genuinely enjoy this third one. No, it's not that good, it’s majorly derivative of much better movies, but for what it is, it's not that bad, and in the context of the franchise it's a part of, I think it’s easily the most enjoyable to watch.