Review of Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) by William C — 29 Sep 2015

I have never thought Resident Evil would get better after the first two disappointments, never have I felt that Paul W.S Anderson would write anything actually good and also never have I ever felt that this franchise is worth the money ploughed into it. My point is I still believe in all those things now after seeing the third instalment in the zombie themed horror series that is based on the video game series of the same name (take note this movie feels like a video game through and through). Our story this time takes us to the deserts of Nevada and the roaming zombies have really got quite far across the US of A and they are in their droves, hungry for some of that good old human flesh. Alice of course is back and is still kicking the hell out of everything and Milla Jovovich who plays her is not all that bad, just lost in a wilderness of crap.

The plot whisks you down under the ground and then back into barren wasteland, it's the kind of movie that can really annoy you sometimes because it just goes way too fast. One of the interesting things of this movie is the underground facility also in the desert run by Iain Glen's character Dr Sam Isaacs who actually can feel like a good guy at times until nope, he is definitely the villain. The cast is then buffered up with the likes of Ali Larter who seems to have done roles like this before but cannot escape the generic character she is handling and also the drab lines. Oded Fehr is back to reprise his role as Carlos and he again is in the same sticky situation Larter is in, a character completely and utterly generic.

Now the style of Resident Evil is easy to see when watching, fast, lot's of zombies (I mean like loads) and also a load of disposable characters to throw away. We now get to see that style not changed by Russell Mulcahy the guy who made "Highlander" and he is known for his fast edits, oh what a perfect choice! The thing is though it isn't Mulcahy who I have a problem with, I mean he is not good but it is Anderson who ruins this. Paul Anderson has kept on making these and they have been consistently poor, he directed the first one and with the second I thought "Oh good that guys gone now" but I was wrong, because the man writes the movies. The script is so run of the mill it is just silly, I mean you just know what will happen next and it feels like he just didn't want to have any new perspective on an already well trodden zombie movie path.

Listen there will be people who can fully enjoy this for what it is, I mean I admit for some I can see them having great fun, look past some more technical points and you could have a blast. For me personally though I am rather more sad than angry because this is a movie series that has had it's chances and could quite easily make a barely OK movie (which in my eyes is totally fine), but they keep on producing the same old and I fear for the future of this series because if it doesn't step up, then it's destined for the bottom of a movie bin in your local store.