Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) Review

https://youtu.be/eDMjVARsCOk?is=I-vEdhwWiY8foemz

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

What’s the best way to escape from hell? Face it head on and defeat it.


PLOT


2007’s Resident Evil: Extinction takes place five years after the outbreak of the T-virus that has now caused ecological destruction since spreading past Raccoon City. Former Umbrella Corporation employee turned whistleblower Alice has been in hiding due to the psionic abilities she’s had after being experimented on by Alexander Isaacs. After fending off marauders, she finds a notebook that claims Alaska is free from infected. As she continues moving forward, she reunites with Carlos Oliviera & LJ Wade who are now part of a new convoy led by Claire Redfield. After using her powers to save them from a swarm of infected crows, she tells them of Alaska, agreeing to take the convoy there. Back at Umbrella, Isaacs has been trying to domesticate zombies and perfect the cloning experiment of Project Alice. This results in the chairman Albert Weskers to have his security officer, Captain Alexander Slater (Matthew Marsden), to keep an eye on him if he continues disregarding the company’s regulations. When one of their satellites detects Alice using her powers, Isaacs takes advantage of the situation to send a zombie horde after the convoy, hoping to resume his plans. During this attack, LJ succumbs to an infection of a previous bite and passes it on to Carlos when biting him too. Isaacs would reach the convoy via helicopter and try to control Alice remotely, but when breaks free from him, he gets bit by an infected before retreating. Luckily, Alice is able to track his flight path that’ll lead to her finding his facility. With his infection slowly killing him, Carlos chooses to sacrifice himself by driving a tanker truck full of dynamite into the facility that blocks the entrance and kills the remaining horde. Alice would choose to stay behind while Claire and the remainder of her people take a helicopter to Alaska as planned. As she enters the facility’s underground level, she encounters the Red Queen’s sister AI, White Queen (Madeline Carroll), who explains her blood can cure the virus and that Isaacs became a ‘Tyrant’ after using an unauthorized amount of the anti virus. Slater tries to shoot him down as ordered, but instead gets killed by his mutant tentacles. Shortly after finding her clowns does Alice face the Tyrant. She uses the laser corridor against him, but one of her clones would deactivate it in time to save her. The film would end in a cliffhanger with Alice confronting Wesker in a virtual meeting that she and her new cloned friends will hunt him down in Tokyo.


THOUGHTS


With producer/writer Paul WS Anderson still busy with other projects to direct, duties for this threequel were passed down to Russell Mulcahy who previously helmed the first two Highlander movies. Considering there’s not exactly a high bar for this franchise or video game adaptations at this point, you cannot expect greatness but you can expect a fair amount of fun. You get enough of a shakeup here in the wasteland aesthetic, which makes the danger feel everywhere. Equally, the set pieces for Umbrella and the desert location shoots are all well done. The VFX arguably peak throughout the whole crow scene and the makeup is most impressive on the Tyrant climax. The rest of the action that occurs in between has solid editing. Knowing the straight forward fun, you know to expect the same message we’ve seen before that there are consequences to playing god and the only thing left to do when corporate greed kills the world is perseverance. As long as you’re still true to yourself, you can overcome the odds the way Alice does. Is this the only time she’s so OP she had to hide in order to avoid being captured again? Yes, but it’s worth it because she went that long avoid losing anyone she’d deem close. With Jill & Angela being written off between both movies, that does imply they didn’t last long in the apocalypse whether or not Alice was at fault. So when it came to losing LJ and Carlos, that sure stung just as much. I do respect Mike Epps pushing a bit more drama than comedy given the former’s predicament. At that point, he couldn’t tell anyone of getting hit because he just wanted to live a little longer and not be treated as a burden nor an expendable sacrifice. Deep down, I’m sure he hated having to bite a friend as he lost control. It was cool seeing Obed Fehr again as Carlos because he’s the one guy that is able to get through to Alice that everything that happens isn’t her fault since no one can anticipate what Umbrella is gonna do next. When she hears that from him, she kisses him because she feels relieved there’s someone willing to cheer her up after years of self-blame. Moving on, Ali Larter is a good addition as Claire because she’s someone who matches the compassion and brings ideal pragmatism in order to keep on fighting. With that mindset, she definitely was a good ally by the time we see her in Afterlife in different circumstances. While Jason O’Mara does establish Wesker as the main mastermind of Umbrella in his limited screentime, Iain Glen is the main threat here as Isaacs because it is his obsession that gets the best of him. Had he not over focused on the company intent of a perfect weapon, he would’ve not gotten himself killed. Having said that, this does lead to me admitting there are a bunch of things that don’t make much sense storywise. For instance, it’s kinda dumb to leave all the Alice bodies left to decompose when Isaacs could just burn them all up. I know it doesn’t matter in the apocalypse, but if he doesn’t want the space to be overflown, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. Hell, I’m even tripped out the Alice clone knew to use the computer and turn off the laser grid in time to save the protagonist in time. That’s just too much luck if you ask me. Ignore these things however, then you’ll still dig Resident Evil: Extinction as another solid sci fi adventure flick that knows what it is and doesn’t seem to overdo its presence yet. Whether you prefer the games or past movies, I hope you enjoy this as well.