Resident Evil: Extinction (2007): C

Resident Evil: Extinction, the third installment in the based-on-a-videogame franchise, is also its Back to the Future III, a Western-tinged adventure whose innovations are so scant that the only things keeping the enterprise afloat are clumsy references to its predecessors. Milla Jovovich returns again, flipping and karate-kicking T-virus-infected dogs, which – like the introductory sight of Jovovich nude in a shower, and then in her iconic slinky, skimpy red dress – helps provide some warm-and-fuzzy memories of when the franchise was so bad it was good, rather than just kinda bad. Director Russell Mulcahy’s film (written by series founder Paul W.S. Anderson) finds Jovovich’s now-superpowered – and still irresistibly sexy – badass Alice out in the Nevada desert with a band of survivors led by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter). There, she’s hunted by the Umbrella Corporation’s mad scientist Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen), who’s trying to find a way, à la Day of the Dead, to domesticate the world’s dominant zombie population. The pulpy good times of the first two Resident Evils, however, are in short supply, in part because the saga is now wholly spinning its narrative wheels, and in part because nothing very cheesy-cool happens. Alice uses telekinesis to fight hordes of zombie men and zombie bats, but all in the service of an ill-defined quest that – despite intimations that it’s the “final chapter” – feels like a narrative way station on the road to yet another, probably even less focused sequel.

Comments

[rob]

It's funny how I preferred this one considerably to the first two, although I did quite enjoy "Apocalypse" when I revisited it for my blog-a-thon. By the way, I'm going to add this review of yours to my contribution list, since it was during that calendar month anyhow and anything by Nick is automatically required reading (of course).

[Nick]

I'm not sure that Apocalypse is a more competently made film than Extinction, but it at least felt like a logical extension of what had come before. Here, things just felt really, really lazy.

That said - whatever. Taking this series too seriously is a big mistake. And I do love me some Milla...

(And thanks re: the blog-a-thon. Glad to know at least SOMETHING I wrote this month will be included)

[John]

The story was lack-luster. But I can say this for the whole Resident Evil movie series. This movie in particular was very short, and it strayed away from a horror survival type, which I'd come to expect, and turned into a super hero climactic battle. The introduction of Alice was interesting, until she started up with telekinetic abilities. Other then that, it was allright.