Resident Evil: Extinction [Blu-ray]
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen, Ashanti (II)Director: Russell Mulcahy
Studio: Sony Pictures
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release: January 1st 2008
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DVD Review
Milla Jovovich is back to kill more zombies in the third chapter of the hit Resident Evil franchise! An action/horror film filled with huge special effects and edge-of-your-teat terror! Survivors of the Raccoon City catastrophe travel across the Nevada desert hoping to make it to Alaska. Alice (Jovovich) joins the caravan and their fight against the evil Umbrella Corp.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 Mins.Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: HORROR/MONSTERS & MUTANTS Rating: R UPC: 043396190870 Manufacturer No: 19087
User Reviews
3.5 stars...I liked it more than I thought I would! - Rating: 3/5
There's a certain pointlessness to my reviewing RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION. First, this is not the kind of movie that anyone thought would win Oscar's in the first place. Second, people who REALLY want to see it will do so regardless of what anyone says and third, I had never seen the first two.
However, I do feel it's worth noting that there were fits of surprising competence in the film, which plays like THE ROAD WARRIOR meets...well...a video game. Despite the utter unoriginality of the story, it managed to be a fitfully entertaining, action packed, gore fest.
I'll admit right now that I never totally understood the powers or backstory of Milla Jovovich's lead character. Is she a human or a robot of some sort? A clone? She appears to have psychic (psionic) powers...but they were undefined for the uninitiated. I certainly wouldn't have objected to a more thorough recap of past events then we're given...but I certainly had no trouble understanding that except for a few isolated pockets, zombies have taken over the world. Evil quasi-government/industrial agencies are trying to affect a cure...but it's tough to tell what their motives are. It's hard to believe they expect to make a PROFIT by marketing a cure...since there isn't an economy in place any more...yet they sure don't seem to be doing their research to benefit anyone but themselves.
Jovovich's striking-looking lead character is reintroduced to the viewer as a loner, riding a motorcycle across an endless desert. She stops at a ruined radio station, because she's picked up an SOS broadcast. Apparently, she wants to help, but it turns out to have been a trap. She's captured by a group that we so often see in these kinds of movies...the bikers who've gone bad. They capture her and are prepared to feed her to a pack of zombie dogs...for no reason other than their own amusement. The scene plays out like a sequence in a video game...but Jovovich's escape is well staged and sufficient to get the blood pumping. The movie has gore, but doesn't dwell on it. (I'm not saying it's for little kids...but I've sure seen worse, too.)
Later, Jovovich meets ups with a rag-tag group of survivors, led by Oded Fehr and Ali Larter, looking pretty tough herself in her khakis. This group could be the same folks Mel Gibson let to "the promised land" in ROAD WARRIOR...they've got reinforced buses and heck, even a gasoline tanker! Too bad that gas has become nearly impossible to find. The realize that they will have to brave a "big city" because they've drained all the gas in the small towns. But big cities are where the zombies have congregated the most, naturally, so we anticipate a bloody showdown.
And the film delivers one. They arrive in Las Vegas and immediately unleash hundreds of the hungry creatures. Lots of shooting, lots of creative ways of killing zombies, lots of sad moments as one beloved character after another falls under a swarm of the flesh-eaters. There is no originality to the idea...but again, it is staged with a sincerity and a visceral quality that make it work. (An earlier scene, involving an attack by a flock of infected ravens shows more originality, and also works well.)
So the action is good. The "quiet" scenes of dialogue are pretty hokey...but the actor's play them about as well as anyone could. The movie doesn't "wink" at the audience at any time, nor does it have any "in-jokes." It is a straightforward videogame brought to life.
The final scenes, involving a confrontation between Jovovich and a diabolical doctor...are perfunctory and not as fun as the scenes earlier in the film. If we had more invested in this character, I think it might be different, but just because she's now starred in three films doesn't exactly make her the fleshed out person that, say, Hellboy has become.
Jovovich is well suited to the role. She looks great in her silly costume. And even though a few of her stunts clearly benefit from the aid of wires...she mostly looks like she could be doing what she does without help. Larter matches her well, and Fehr (THE MUMMY RETURNS) is always a striking figure.
The movie is far from the embarrassment I thought it would be. While I can't simply heartily recommend it...I do think if you're looking for some good, "clean" zombie killing action...you could do worse!
No Reservations - Rating: 5/5
Here you will find apocalyptic visions, living (and hungry) dead, a mad (and bad) scientist, and tons of Hollywood gore. There's also a beautiful superwoman who gives the crazy affair a bright focus. If you want to escape an even grimmer reality for 94 minutes, here you go.
It's skillfully directed with great attention to detail. It's Alice in Rotting Flesh Land.
EXCELLENT SERVICE! - Rating: 5/5
THEY WERE REALLY GREAT IN MAKING SURE THE PRODUCT WAS RIGHT FOR ME! GREAT JOB! THANKS
Much Better The Third Time Around - Rating: 4/5
Fans and critics alike notice the Resident Evil films strong departure from the game series, but much in return a new flavorful yielding story plot to work with. While being bashed for not following true 'zombie' scenarios (Living Dead series), Resident Evil still holds up as a great adventurous adrenaline pumping scare.
After "Apocalypse" (the 2nd film of the set), we found that Alice (Milla Jovovich) the protagonist had received incredibly powerful telekinetic abilities. Her powers grew to a much larger extent, she is more powerful,intrepid, and willing than the last film. She's more or less a super hero at this point!
Unfortunately not even our 'super hero' could predict or prepare for what has happened to the world... the entire world. The Zombie transforming T-Virus has infected the world, becoming an epidemic, and vastly reshaping the land. What were once lively friendly locations are now dry deathly terrain. To make things worse, zombies make up the population! Five years have passed and Humans are becoming extinct, save for a few survivor groups. These groups hit the road in an attempt to seek salvation or to at least be able to greet the next day.Alice has become a lone wolf, hiding from Umbrella's satellite controlling probe that manipulates her as their very own weapon. She must remain incognito to avoid hurting any survivors. Days of peace have long come and gone.
While the hip LJ and combative Carlos return leading the convoys, characters such as Jill and Angela are absent. Absent too is any information of their departure, in real life actress Sienna Guillory (Jill) was working on the film adaptation of Eragon. I wont spoil what happened to them, just look it up online if you are curious. Claire Redfield comes into play as one of the convoy leaders, she is on the more serious side in contrast to the other leaders. She was often known in the games as a bold individual, and had an older brother Chris Redfield (wonder if he'll ever make an appearance?). The convoys have their team sniper, medic, electronic/radio junky, and soldier(s) to help provide for one another. The group is slowly dwindling, common day objects are becoming a rarity as they scrummage through the desolate towns.Avoiding big cities of large population at all cost, they ran dry all the small towns... Las Vegas may be their last hope, but it may cost them their lives.
Even the largest corporate industry in the world, the creators of the T-Virus, Umbrella are feeling the tremors of this. They have been forced underground into tunnel connecting facilities till it all blows over. Or till they can concoct a remedy for the virus. Leader Albert Wesker will not stop till the cure or an alternative is made. Sending his tyrannical (no pun intended for people who've already seen the movie) somewhat psychopathic partner Dr. Sam Issacs to deduce the situation.
Resident Evil: Extinction is a great horror/action flick, the visuals are top notch, the casting is great, and music is eerie as can be. The film though does suffer from unexplained events, a rushed ending (come on it's a short movie why not dose up/lengthen the ending!?), and a rather weak final 'battle'. Extinction is said to be the final Resident Evil film of the story ark, but after watching the ending how can one call that finished! Imagine reading a book that doesn't scream for a part two, it's necessary as it says "to be continued"...you get the idea. Overall a great buy, and nifty extras make this a sure good addition to ones collection. The picture quality must be mentioned a second time, it's phenomenal. Some effects on characters faces have been note as heavily air brushed, some wont mind. At the end of the day Extinction holds all the key elements to making a successfully entertaining flick.
RESIDENT EVIL: A Successful Mix of Genres - Rating: 3/5
In RESIDENT EVIL:EXTINCTION director Russell Mulcahy continues the same kind of breakneck pacing, lots of gore, and the strong acting of Milla Jovovich in this the third entry in the post apocalyptic series. The first two present a world run amuck as a plague of mutant DNA creates a never ending supply of zombies who seek only to devour the flesh of the living. Jovovich is Alice, a bio-engineered super-human female who has added telekenetic powers to her repetoire. She is fearless, preternaturally nimble, and handy with a variety of weapons ranging from firearms to machetes. Part of the interest in this series that distinguishes it from numerous competitors lies in Alice's repressing her more human more female weaker side. In several scenes you can see that she is torn with self-doubt and misgivings that she must sublimate.
In EXTINCTION, what has gone extinct is most of the human race. The virus that has been localized in the first two entries now has spread worldwide, turning most of the planet's plowable land into a barren wasteland. In scenes that are probably taken directly from MAD MAX, the nation's highways are limited to those normal humans who careen from place to place seeking fuel and shelter. But here there is no Mel Gibson to enforce whatever crumbling laws remain. There are the ubiquitous zombies and a scraggly few humans in a truck convoy who hope to go to Alaska via Las Vegas, hoping that the former gambling capital has sufficient fuel for them to get that far north.
In most zombie movies, the flesh-eaters are a homogeneous assortment of indistinguishable scar-faced lumps. Here, director Mulcahy adds some pretty macabre humor as the film's bad guy scientist tries to train a select few zombies as docile servants. In a scene that smacks of Bub the Zombie in DAY OF THE DEAD, this wicked scientist actually succeeds in teaching a grinning zombie into using a cell phone and taking a picture--at least at first.
With RESIDENT EVIL, the star is not only Milla Jovovich--although she is in nearly every scene--there are other lesser lights that insist that in the eternal battle between good and evil, it is not always clear which is which. The zombies at least have the excuse of the mutant virus. Those who trek with Alice or seek to intercept her must wonder on which side of the very fine line between good and evil on which they lie. In its slam bang action and surprisingly competent acting, RESIDENT EVIL suggests that this line may be as evanescent on the screen as it often is in real life.
