Review of Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) by Patrice L — 24 Oct 2012

The third outing for the Resident Evil name might lack the claustrophobic fun factor that the original had but there's still an entertaining time to be had here.

The Umbrella organisations virus has gone worldwide now and survivors stay alive by keeping on the move in convoys which evokes the feeling of Stephen King's The Stand almost immediately. The organisation itself though is still thriving via holographic projection and it's science division is hard at work on a cure using Milla Jovavich's Alice's blood. Or so it seems. To be honest, the story is the most coherent in Extinction. It's there but it seems randomly all over the place, jumping between underground lab rats and wanderers in the desert who hear of a possible safe heaven from the virus.....a plot point which isn't followed through in this film at least.

The film does open in a rather neat way with what appears to be a fill in the blanks recap from the original film as Alice wakes in the shower and finds her red dress waiting for her. It's revealed that this is all part of a simulation the Umbrella organisation are running but it's quite a cool way to work in the first films beginning for the uninitiated or forgetful.

Alice herself is motorbiking round the desert, trying her best to stay alive. She encounters a band of survivors amongst whom are Ali Larter and Spencer Locke, bringing some nice fresh faces to the franchise.

Aside from the opening there are some other really good moments in Extinction which ensures that the viewer never gets bored. A virus-plagued bird attack upon the convoy is pretty scathing and obviously influenced by Hitchcock's The Birds. Also the survivors happening upon the remains of Las Vegas is a well realised sequence which leads to a very entertaining showdown with the undead.

Milla Jovavich's Alice doesn't have the mystery she has had previously and her desert gear doesn't make her look nearly as cool as the red dress and knee high boots did but she's surrounded by enough other interesting characters that you don't notice too much. There's a lot of great ideas in Extinction and most of them work on some level, even if the end result feels a bit mixed up. One thing you can't say is that it's a boring film though.