Resident Evil: Extinction

Written by John Scalzo  on September 24, 2007

Movie Review: We got a great big convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight!

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Milla Jovovich has practically cornered the market on movies featuring a superpowered female lead. And after The Fifth Element, Ultraviolet and the first two Resident Evil movies, she's still not done as the final chapter in the Resident Evil movie series, Resident Evil: Extinction, was released in theaters last Friday.



Resident Evil: Extinction features three separate plotlines that slowly merge into one. Alice (Milla Jovovich) has struck out on her own in the intervening years after Resident Evil: Apocalypse to hide from Umbrella's tracking efforts. Meanwhile, Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) is holed up, Day of the Dead-style, in an underground bunker attempting to domesticate the zombies. Finally, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) leads a convoy of survivors, including Apocalypse's Carlos (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps). This is Claire's first appearance in the movie series and she is joined by new survivors Nurse Betty (Ashanti), teenager K-Mart (Spencer Locke), computer expert Mikey (Chris Egan), cowboy Chase (Linden Ashby, best known as Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage) and a busload of children. The three groups eventually come together for a final battle that includes a Tyrant and an appearance by Wesker (his first in the movie's continuity).



Fans of the movies and games should know what to expect by this third outing. Zombies attack. People scream. Jump scares. Blood. Gore. Headshots. More blood. More gore. Milla Jovovich then kicks everyone's ass. And the circle of unlife continues. Although, when it comes to zombie outbreaks, the Resident Evil game series "cheats" by making every animal (and a few plants) susceptible to the virus. The movie series cheats further by making Alice some sort of hybrid amalgamation of Carrie, Neo and Wolverine all rolled into one. And when you put these two concepts together, it creates a zombie movie that even strains the credibility of most zombie movies. But the action is fast enough and the horror is brutal enough that this doesn't really matter. Whatever it's faults may be, Resident Evil: Extinction is light years better than the previous movie in the series.

While Apocalypse took the more straightforward route of zombies overrunning a city, Extinction takes the zombie genre to a place it's never really been: a Road Warrior-style convoy that even takes a detour through the ruins of Las Vegas (the scene of some great zombie carnage near the middle of the movie). This post-apocalyptic wasteland plotline also marks a major departure from the game continuity. But I think it's for the best as the movie is able to keep up a decent pace through it's 95 minute running time and never feels bogged down by boring set pieces, unlike say Resident Evil: Apocalypse. There are plenty of fantastic gore shots to go around and there's even a return of the "laser room" from the first Resident Evil movie.

As the movie's major star (next to Milla Jovovich of course), Ali Larter is given the largest role of the cast as Claire Redfield. While her Claire doesn't have many similarities to the game's Claire, she pulls off the hero stuff pretty well. Must be all her time around the heroes of Heroes. Milla Jovovich can practically play Alice in her sleep at this point, but she still proves she is the queen of ass-kicking action stars. Most of the rest of the cast isn't given much to do, becoming either cannon fodder for the zombies or background noise during the fight scenes. But somebody has to die horribly to satisfy the zombie fan's bloodlust right?

At this point in the series, reviewing a Resident Evil movie is probably the easiest thing in the world. The people that are even mildly interested in this movie have a pretty good idea whether or not they're going to enjoy it. I've mentioned my dislike of Apocalypse a few times already, but I enjoyed Resident Evil: Extinction quite a bit. It's a little light on the story, but Resident Evil fans looking for a glimpse of Wesker or a chance to see the Tyrant in action will find plenty to like in Extinction. The movie even provides a fitting and satisfying end to the series (as the producers say it currently is), but leaves the door open for several more sequels (which the producers have hinted are possible).

On a scale of one-to-five Resident Evil eye closeups, Resident Evil: Extinction rates a...

4/5