Resident Evil: Extinction

Dir: Russell Mulcahy (Swimming Upstream)
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Ian Glen, Ashanti Douglas France/Australia/Germany/UK/USA, 2007

Seen: Sept 22, 2007 at Scotiabank Theatre

Reason to see: Mostly, the timing was good and the first one was entertaining. This also counts as the second entry for week 39/52 in my #7 - See 1 film a week in the theatre for a year.

If you are looking for a good paced zombie action movie, it is very possible that Resident Evil: Extinction is for you. However if that is what you are looking for I would think it's likely you've already seen it! This film does have some good action sequences, a solid plot and acting. I was expecting more action sequences truth be told, but I think the ones they have fit the bill and were impressive and creative.

I was unfortunately unimpressed by some of the gender crap in this film. It almost seems contradictory to say that about a film that involves a kick butt female protagonist, and additional strong female characters, but it is true. This happens in a variety of scenes, some of which are believable and others which are not. I want to keep this spoiler free so I'll describe it as such: it was not so disturbing that I wanted to leave the theatre but it was jarring or inconsistent during those specific scenes.

There was another very odd thing I found about this film. Well, there was more than one odd thing but this was in terms of film something I'd not noticed before. A few of the smaller roles were played by actors whom had a striking resemblance to quite famous actors. For example, Iain Glen whom played Dr. Isaacs looks a lot like Hugo Weaving (check out the imdb links: Iain Glen here and Hugo Weaving here). I do wonder if it was intentional. I also found it odd how much Milla Jovovich appeared to be airbrushed - they could have been trying to go for the CGI feel as it's based on a game, but it seemed odd. She's gorgeous as is, I think they could have left it at that.

If nothing else, it did make me curious to watch the second film in this series, which was a result I was not expecting. I did not enjoy Resident Evil: Extinction as much as the original Resident Evil (for one, the original has Michelle Rodriguez!), however it is better than the likes of Ghosts of Mars.

Shannon's Overall View:
It was mostly entertaining, but would have been better without the gender crap
I'd give it another watch on TV
I recommend it fans of action/zombie films

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© Shannon Ridler, 2007