Director: Russell Mulcahy
Writer: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ashanti, Christopher Egan, Spencer Locke, Mike Epps
Runtime: 94 mins.
2007
I want to begin this post by once again pointing out the most absurd trend in the Resident Evil film series: this is the third Resident Evil film in which Milla Jovovich's Alice is introduced by waking up naked somewhere. Against all odds, Resident Evil: Extinction ups the ante on this pattern by having the film end with about twenty Alices waking up naked. Of course, there's no reason to pretend that these films are anything but pure entertainment exploitation. I just can't tell if it's comic or tragic that the series protagonist's most prominent character trait is waking up naked and confused.
I can't lay the blame for that at Extinction's feet, exactly, as the opening sequence of the film is a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening sequence of Resident Evil. One could call it homage, or perhaps deconstruction if one were feeling generous. I'll opt for the latter because it is the best sequence of the movie, capped by a legitimately unnerving shot of a trench filled with corpses of Alice, all wearing the same red dress. You see, the Umbrella Corporation is experimenting on and disposing of Alice clones in what feels like a commentary on the perceived disposability of leading actresses in Hollywood. It's a tremendous upending of previously existing iconography. Of course the rest of the movie has very little to do with it.
It does serve to showcase the ways in which Extinction is undoubtedly the best of the series thusfar. For one, this is the first Resident Evil to not look like a bat crapped it out. The recreation of the Resident Evil scenario is actually eerie in a way that it failed to be the first time around. Then the film transitions to the massive wasteland that is post-apocalyptic Earth. Of course, by the end of the movie we're so damned tired of all the sand, but at first it feels revivifying after two films of dark dankness.
A great deal of what makes the film visually acceptable is the surprisingly excellent production design by Eugenio Caballero. The screenplay does him no favors by just tossing out the fact that the whole world is dried up now, without any meaningful extrapolation, but he makes it work. The slick, still functional bunker of the Umbrella Corporation stands in campy contrast with the endless desert. What structures remain standing are decrepit, filled with the cast-off detritus of a world passed. It's textbook apocalyptic ephemera, but Caballero manages to bring a whiff of melancholy to the first half hour of the film.
Then it all goes to hell when the birds attack. This ill-conceived and ill-executed action scene involves an enormous murder of CGI zombie crows descending upon a motorcade of survivors including new character Claire (Ali Larter), as well as the previous film's Carlos (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps). Presumably for shock factor, Extinction makes a point of half-assedly introducing a bunch of new characters so that they may be killed off in short order. This happens during the crow attack, though the cross-cutting is so rushed that it barely registers.
Alice shows up to save the day by burning all the crows with her mind; this moment marks both the point at which the plot begins, and the point at which the plot begins spinning its wheels. You see, the caravan drives around for a while because they want to go to Alaska, but they need to get gas first, and also Alice is being hunted by Umbrella, who have found her location because (no joke) she forgot to hide from a satellite as part of her daily routine.
It's sweet hot steaming nonsense buffeted by a cavalcade of side characters who range from dull to forgettable at best. Ali Larter was the resident badass of the Final Destination series, but here she's simply outshadowed by the superior Jovovich. Carlos is inoffensively bland as ever. L.J. is less abrasive than in the previous film, albeit stuck in a pointless dead-end subplot.
The cast member who shines brightest in the entire proceedings is Iain Glen as Dr. Isaacs. After his cameo in Apocalypse, he has graduated to full-fledged maniacal villain. Glen plays the unscrupulous Dr. Isaacs with campy desperation. He just really wants to do science. He's also the first final boss in this series to feel earned in any way, and his turn as a betentacled mass murderer is kind of perfect for a movie like this.
Watching this bonkers franchise escalate has a certain joy to it, and I maintain a perverse curiosity about where the remaining three films could possibly take this "story," but I feel I am quickly burning out. Yet here we are, only halfway deep in Paul W.S. Anderson's grand narrative.
1.5 / 5 BLOBS
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