A Brilliant Conflict

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Resident Evil: Extinction is better than the second installment, but it's not as fun as the first one. There are some scary and intense moments, but other parts drag along slower than one of the undead. It's predictable and unrealistic, but it's entertaining enough.

Need further clarification? When your source material is primarily focussed on zombies and undead creatures, you should utilise that. The inclusion of and genre shift into science fiction decreases the believability of any situation down to zero. Hear me out. Five years have passed since 'Apocalypse' and the world is undergoing desertification. Alice finds a small convoy of survivors and tags along, unknowingly getting closer to the Umbrella corporation. Alright, so my main problem now is that Alice is overwhelmingly invincible. She discovers new abilities that pretty much turns her into a female telekinetic zombie kicking crow burning badass terminator. Any situation now going forward, I know she'll be just fine...problem is, I no longer fear what happens on screen. The supporting characters are lifeless so any demises that are met are just pretty to look at (in a non-sadistic way). Watching Milla Jovovich growing as an action star still remains this series' best quality. The post-apocalyptic deserted wasteland looked authentic and suited the film's environment well. We finally have ourselves a memorable antagonist, who then turns into one of the video games' greatest bosses, Tyrant. Shame they really didn't execute it well, let's ignore that part for now. Iain Glen as a villain always works, I mean look at 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'. The action is well filmed and I especially loved the entire scene involving the infected crows. Probably the most memorable segment of the film. I just wish they stuck with just zombies instead of all this convoluted cloning rubbish which only gets more insanely stupid as the franchise progresses. So yes, technically this film is one of the more competently directed and executed chapters but, again, does suffer from narrative stumbles, expositional flashbacks and a ludicrous pointless science fiction vibe that just doesn't stick well with me. Bring back Nemesis I say!

Resident Evil Extinction manages to dumb down the plot, action, and characters since the last film, which is an impressive "accomplishment". As hard as I try to get invested in this post- apocalyptic series, the series just keeps getting dumber.'Extinction' picks up a few years after the end of 'Apocalypse' as Alice left her group in hopes of keeping them safe from the remnants of Umbrella Corp, who are tracking Alice in order to produce more of the anti-virus. Meanwhile, Alice's life of solitude has apparently given her telekinetic abilities. Yes, it's just that ridiculous. But even with another new setting in the desert (ala Mad Max), the plot never takes any exciting twists and turns. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what any of the characters were ultimately trying to accomplish.Characters that I thought were supposed to be important are either non- existent or given anti-climatic deaths. Plus, the zombies (or whatever they are calling the undead creatures) are now able to run around and climb on top of cars and buildings? I don't know about that.Do I enjoy seeing Milla Jovovich in this role? Of course. She's been a constant bright spot through each of the first three films, but I find it hard to believe that it's enough to give a film like this a positive review. Iain Glenn is fittingly over-the-top, but why in the world does he turn into a prototypical monster in the end? At that point, the film is expectedly off the rails. Well, that's enough ranting about a film I could care less about.+Milla always impresses-What is the arc for the movie? Or any character at all?-Nothing unique4.6/10

During the first two 'Resident Evil' films I had a tough time working out exactly why I wasn't enjoying them as much as I could be. It took this third chapter 'Resident Evil: Extinction' to clarify for me exactly what the problem was. The first two did not feel like movies. They felt like a video game - only without the fun of actually playing it. Like watching a friend play while you just sit there I suppose. No fun at all. Now, in this third addition to the series, they've worked out that they're actually making a FILM series here, and the finished product is all the better for it.This one plays out more like a horror film for the most part, compared to the originals which I would classify more as actions. There is still plenty of action in this one, but the overall theme does seem to be to give the audience both a fright and an excess of blood and gore. The zombies in this one were a lot better done than in the first two films as well. Finally they were genuinely menacing and had a cool look about them too.There's a tremendous amount that this film got right. It learnt from the mistakes of the previous films and it made corrections where necessary. Who said sequels can't be better than originals? 'Resident Evil: Extinction' proves that this is certainly not the case.