Review of Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) by Paris S — 25 Oct 2011

Extinction is the film that nearly killed the franchise. The knowingly cheesy underpinnings of the first two films is now completely extinct. All that's left here is pure cash in, and the hapless saps who paid to see this during its release, myself included, kept this beloved monstrosity of a tie- in saga shambling into theaters.

It's an ass movie, completely devoid of inventive action or enjoyable set pieces. The lackluster characters, the poor script, the poor ideas, the poor filming, it all culminates into one shameless film that was made just because. Why? Because.

Don't get me wrong, it's terrible, but it's got a certain appeal. One element I actually found myself quite impressed with was the sound design. Charlie Clouser's score really adds a sense of momentum to the proceedings, the greatest of which being the convoy, towards the beginning of the film. The first and third films both have surprisingly good original music, and listening to them is a real treat when the bass is thumping in the theaters. Also notable are the sound effects. One particular instance I recall pretty vividly, when I wasn't half asleep watching this awful mess, was a gun fight that took place in the desert. The weapon sounds were incredible, inaccurate, but maximized and compressed to near clipping peaks, and the effect is a raucous and jarring cacophony of bullet stymied frenzy. Yes, one element of this film is actually so good I might even say it's really good. If you could somehow watch this film without the awful character dialogue, without picture, and without any narrative on Milla's part, this would actually be a treat to listen to on a good pair of headphones. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me, but so is watching this film in the first place, so why bother?

The look of the film has a bit of Mad Max charm, but it's more like the music video for California Love, without any of the enjoyable, cheesier bits. It's a snoozer just watching this film, especially during moments of introspection on Milla's part. One scene in particular, while Milla was in the desert alone, camping, I considered leaving the theater because of how disappointing the whole thing was. If I hadn't have dozed off, I may just have missed the rest of this film and never would have written this review.

All of the charm from the corridor running in the first movie is absent, aside from a few scenes, and the overly ambitious, and gloriously cheesy moments from the second film are entirely absent. This film takes itself way too seriously as a Zombie film, doesn't offer enough action to really be considered an action film, there's zero suspense, and as a post apocalyptic tale it lacks all of the desperation and futility of surviving in a wasteland.

It's just a really, really bad film, with some of the most randomly awesome sound design I've heard. Like the review, the film is just bad, but not as bad as its sequel, and that's saying something.