Powerful

Just what I expected

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The word "extinction" points to an end, the dying out of a species, the final full stop after a long story, usually coming after a series of disasters that drive home the finality of the situation. And what better way to do that to a movie franchise based on a video game than to totally disregard anything to do with the source material in favour of a clichéd mish mash of other well loved movies. We are in familiar post apocalyptic territory as the events of the previous RESIDENT EVIL APOCALYPSE has led to a global T-Virus outbreak which is implied to have caused lakes and rivers to dry out and the land itself to die, turning the whole continent into a barren desert. Las Vegas is covered to its buildings' rooftops in sand, zombies roam the land, cannibal gangs lie in wait for unsuspecting victims, survivors form convoys to stay alive and on the movie. Good golly, it's MAD MAX all over again and every other post apocalyptic movie ever.Some time has passed since the end of RESIDENT EVIL APOCALYPSE and the virus has spread, slowly killing the world and mutating its population. Alice, now cursed with psychic powers, wanders the desert of central USA searching for survivors. A convenient twist of fate puts her back together with former allies Carlos Olivera and L.J, along with new companion Claire Radfield and her convoy of survivors heading toward the ruins of Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the Umbrella Corporation is desperate to replicate the special powers that manifested in Alice, creating clones and putting them through conditions that replicated the events of the first RESIDENT EVIL movie. Another series of convenient twists put Alicia back on Umbrella's radar and head scientist Dr Issacs will stop at nothing to recapture his lost Super weapon. Ties to the video game are nearly non-existent here as we are throw into a rather generic post apocalyptic wasteland type of tale. The cast does their best with the material they were given but they never go beyond generic archetypes. It is hard to distinctly describe each character only because they are so bland. Newcomer Ali Carter barely resembles Claire Radfield from the video games. This is a major disappointment after how Sienna Miller perfectly portrayed the video games' Jill Valentine in live action. Which brings me to my other pet peeve: where's Jill? Where's the little girl from the previous movie? All this is never explained. Instead we are treated to a half hearted attempt at a character arc with Alice feeling more disconnected with her human feelings thanks to her growing powers. Some form of digital correction seems to have been applied to Milla Jovovich's face, giving this slightly off focus effect. Maybe it was meant to make her seem less human but it just serves to emphasise her lack of emotional range, keeping her stern stare and neutral expression looking even more artificial than usual. What makes up for all these short comings is the amazing production design and the action sequences. The costumes, vehicles and facilities are uniquely crafted and just screams "badass". And this movie sports some of the best looking action sequences courtesy of director Russel Mulcahy (of Highlander fame). His wide crane shots and sweeping cinematography make the otherwise generic fight scenes look a lot better than they should. With connection to the games all but severed, we could call this movie "Alice in Zombie Land" or "Fight of the Limping Dead" instead of "Resident evil". It is the best looking entry in the series with the best fight choreography and camera-work but Character development and motivations take a back seat to sweeping action pieces and one too many convenient twists.

The Resident Evil franchise has been limping to the bank for the past decade shelling out increasingly turgid fare to an audience sure to lap it up because...what other video game movies are there The first one (2002) was okay. It was slightly enjoyable but you could tell it was adapted from a video game in that everything that moved was to be shot at. The second Apocalypse (2004) was absolutely dreadful trying hopelessly to add a complex mythology that makes little sense when you think about it.But lets suppose a killer zombie virus concocted by a seemingly omnipresent corporation is released into the populous. Mind you this corporation has a huge personal army, unlimited funds to build massive underground laboratories with complex security grids, track people with satellites and has access to nuclear weapons. And let's suppose our hero, Alice is an ultra-hot cyborg/clone/whatever-the- hell (Milla Jovovich) who wants to take this corporation down. Finally let's suppose the virus was not only released but thrived and quickly took over the globe. Thus we get Resident Evil: Extinction.The film starts with a prologue about how because the T-Virus has infected everyone and everything, most of the terrain in North America has been replaced with arid desert. Now why do we need to know that? All of the action in this installment takes place on the outskirts of Las Vegas, an area already surrounded by desert. With that in mind, that nugget of information seems unnecessary. Speaking of unnecessary; there are a disappointing amount of meatsacks in this film. I say meatsacks because, let's face it, other than Alice, all other characters are zombie food.Now there are a lot of problems with this movie but the one that threw me for a loop the most was the inclusion of Mike Epps who provided "comic relief" in Apocalypse and now provides stupidity in Extinction. As with all zombie movies, once you're bitten you're pretty much dead and early on Mike Epps is a dead man. So instead of telling the small band of survivors "hey I'm chopped liver, pull over, I'll walk from here," he keeps his wound secret until he turns at the most dramatically convenient time. Oh and another thing, our heroine has telekinetic abilities? What...when...explain movie! Repeating the word "T-Virus" doesn't tell me anything.The movie ends with our heroine finding multiple clones of herself and telling the main villain Wesker (Shawn Roberts) she's gunning for him next, which delightfully sets up the next movie with fans of the series able to access the mythology with finger-banging glee. As for those on the outside; you best just quit while you're ahead.

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.

I think critics were unfair on this addition, my guess is that they just assumed it's another Resident Evil that will be like the others in their opinion. In actual fact, Extinction is far better than Apocalypse and more exciting than the first film because the story is better developed, the writing is solid and the characters are richly constructed, especially Claire Redfield's convoy who are essentially one big caring family trying to survive. The action is breathtaking too, Alice' powers really come to full effect, and the Las Vegas scene sets an uneasy atmosphere and the whole construction of that set is stunning. The infected crows scene is bloodily glorious, and when Alice uses her powers to deflect the flamethrower it looks incredible and shines bright, just like the Air-Brushing the editors used on Jovovich' face. This is the strongest in the franchise for story and character, and the balance between the two and action is brilliant.