Movie Review: Resident Evil Extinction (2007)

The Resident Evil movies have always been sort of "bleh" to me. The idea of flesh eating zombies has been stale for a long time, but it can be fun if there you can swing a cool twist into it. The bottom line is, if you have a couple hours to kill and can get a hold of Resident Evil: Extinction at the video store, then I don't suggest NOT watching it.

The Resident Evil movies have a great premise. The world is ending, and a clandestine group of military and scientists are trapped underground seeking a cure while the survivors on the surface fight for their lives against the bloodthirsty badies. The tech in these movies is quite cool, and the various ways of finding a cure are always mysterious and intriguing. And that's what you need in order for a series like this to survive. A hook. Something to keep the audience interested enough to watch the next movie that comes out.

Does Resident Evil: Extinction succeed in this? I think so.

While most of the movie is much of the same zombies and the obligatory zombie dogs, there are a couple of twists. There is the continuing Alice Project, where now our evil scientist has made batches and batches of Alices in an effort to create an antivirus against the T-Virus. This is pretty creepy and neat especially when the real Alice comes in contact with her clones.

Alice also seems to have stumbled on some telepathic abilities-somehow tied into her clones-which she uses to fight off the creepy nasties. I don't remember if this was in the first two movies, but I think it is a cool addition.

Of course, I enjoy watching Milla Jovovich play Alice and will likely see just about any movie she's in. I'm still hooked on her from The Messenger and The 5^th Element, and she'll likely always be one of my favorite actresses.

Milla's a smart girl and knows that continuing to play Alice in the Resident Evil movies is the best way to secure some serious cash flow, but I suspect her acting ability is much more than what she shows. At least she knows what her limitations are, and she plays to her strengths which I find fascinating in an actor. She's very good at action sequences and can carry a scene even when the zombies are just kind of silly.

Resident Evil: Extinction is just an average horror flick with a couple of neat surprises. You won't be disappointed as long as your expectations aren't too high. There are a lot of bullet holes and blood, so this one isn't for the squeamish.

Go T-Virus!

I give this movie a 5.5 out of 10.