Resident Evil:Extinction

Imagine all the royalties Romero rightfully deserves when movies such as Resident Evil:Extinction come to theaters. I think movies such as this don't even try anymore to hide the fact that they are inspired by Romero's influential zombie series.

I am still amazed that Resident Evil yielded a trilogy. It was horrendously ridiculed by both critics and zombie fans. It seems the only ones who liked the first film were fans of the game.

Director Paul WS Anderson(..whose movies I admittedly like)is always the subject of ridicule..labeled a hack or filmmaker incapable of directing an original work(..despite the fact that Event Horizon has some pretty original content, exploring fascinating themes, with some really creepy nightmarish imagery)he's always singled out as a Hollywood mainstream filmmaker of crap, long on style, short on substance. Another director treated this way is Renny Harlin, with several movies that I also enjoy others berate passionately. Anderson wrote the screenplay for Extinction, allowing Highlander director Russell Mulcahy take the filmmaking reins for this outing.

There's really nothing that spectacular about Extinction, and the plot itself isn't as ambitious as the other films in the series. Basically, it's a post-apocalyptic zombie flick further addressing Umbrella Corporation's designs on finding a serum for the plague sweeping topside as the suits and scientists conduct their experiments and board meetings within their underground facilities deep below the earth's surface. We follow Alice(Milla Jovovich)as she assists a convoy traveling through the barren wastleland of Arizona, searching for other possible survivors and needed supplies to sustain their journey, led vigilantly by their boss, Claire(Ali Larter). They secure locations, set up a perimeter to rest, wake up and prepare for another long day. During a routine stop at what was once a desert motel, the convoy encounter crows who became infected while picking dead bodies clean across the area. This is where Alice, discovering that her abilities have evolved to the point where she can actually set up forcefields which shield her from danger(!), lends the convoy a helping hand by incinerating the massive flock using a torch left abandoned after the operator was snatched by flesh-eating zombies.

Alice found a book with details regarding possible safe zones and the author of it(..found in a room accompanied by a host of flies, having hung himself)mentions that Alaska is free from infection, isolated and pure. Convincing those who survive the crow attack that this is a better option that continuing down desert highways with no hope in sight, Alice will join the convoy as they make their next stop at what was once Las Vegas, now buried under sand with a few recognizable buildings still visible poking up. They, this time, are greeted by an endless array of zombies(..they were "drafted" by an evil scientist, more on him in a moment)barraging the group from a tunnel, released by Umbrella to kill off the convoy so that the scientists could retrieve Alice.

Umbrella scientist Dr Isaacs(Iain Glen)has about perfected a serum using the blood of Alice, while arranging test programs using her clones, hoping that eventually one of them will achieve the same level of excellence as their "mother". He wishes to capture Alice, staging the Las Vegas attack in order to do so. Alice has been able to successfully evade Umbrella's satellite grid, but when she joins up with the convoy, they are able to track her(..Alice's powerful abilities to move objects register on Umbrella's radar). We even see how Umbrella is able to "turn her off" by simply commanding the satellite to shut Alice down..we also see, though, how she has progressed to such a state that Alice can short circuit those programs "installed" which makes such commands. It's only a matter of time before Alice will confront Dr Isaacs who has rebeled against Umbrella authority, injecting himself with way too many doses of serum after being bitten while attempting to escape in a helicopter once she uncovered their location. Morphing into a practically unstoppable mutant monstrosity, Alice will have her hands full with the "new and improved" Isaacs who seems impervious to any kind of attack, his wounds healing in a matter of seconds.

Pretty loaded cast includes Oded Fehr(Carlos, Alice's love interest,returning after Resident Evil:Apocalypse), Larter, Ashanti(..who doesn't last very long), Mike Epps(..the one who secretly hides the fact that he was bit by a zombie), and Linden Ashby(..as a cowboy, Chase). Spencer Locke is K-Mart, a girl Alice bonds with and Christoper Egan is Claire's tech-wizard, Mikey who operates communications and security cameras. Iain Glen is appropriately smarmy and cold-blooded as Isaacs.

In actuality, Extinction only really has two major action sequences. I personally found the attack on the convoy by zombie crows rather unintentionally hilarious, but the Las Vegas sequence, on the other hand, was pretty cool. The CGI is really, really lousy, particularly the aforementioned crows once they form a swarm flying into van windows or charge towards their prey...never at all convincing. When Isaacs, as the monster at the end, kills a nagging bureaucrat, these extending tentacles are laughably awful, specifically where a face's eyeballs are poked out.

The zombies are deteriorating shells, baked and cooked by the hot sun, no human fresh meat to feast on has slowly starved them. The zombies kind of resemble undead lepers with dark soulless eyes. Milla gets to combat the zombies with wire-fu, equipped with two curving swords which inflict some serious damage. She's basically a female Rambo, getting a chance to obliterate those that threaten her, and looking really good while doing so. Not to limit her abilities to hand to hand combat or sword play, Milla gets to fire off some rounds as well(..even allowed a chance to pop a zombie's skull using a crossbow).