Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5035822482135 Format: PAL Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2008-02-18 Running Time: 90 Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Movies based on computer games generally aren't well respected, but just because they aren't high art doesn't mean they can't be highly enjoyable. The only catch is that you need to be a fan of computer games to appreciate them. Resident Evil: Extinction is the third movie in the massively popular Resident Evil franchise, and it's probably the best one yet.
Between Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Extinction, the zombie-creating T-virus has spread far beyond the doomed Raccoon City; now the human race is almost extinct (hence the title). When a convoy of survivors meets up with the genetically-altered Alice, the shadowy Umbrella Corporation does everything in its power to take them down and reclaim her; but Alice isn't giving up without a fight...
Resident Evil: Extinction is part zombie movie, and part post-apocalyptic survival yarn. The big set pieces use CGI that doesn't look anything like reality, but does look very much like a computer game, which is possibly intentional--since this is a sequel to an adaptation, Resident Evil: Extinction does tend to assume a built-in audience which is already familiar with the various quirks of the franchise. If you're a fan of the games, you'll enjoy the various references to game characters and events; if not, you might feel a bit left out. It's not the best entry point to the franchise if you're a complete newcomer, but if you've seen the other films, it's a hell of a lot of fun. -- Sarah Dobbs
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: A Great Return to Form! Comment: After the disappointing second movie outing for this console game, I was expecting the third instalment to be a disaster of epic proportions and signal the franchise's demise. Wow, was I surprised! This is a really great action movie. The set pieces are all cool. The way they further develop the character of the lead is interesting. The special effects and story both bring something new to the franchise.
There were a few minor niggles: the Vegas location could have been exploited for more; the super zombies were a little easy to kill with a knife to the throat(?); the climax battle was a little short. But all in all, I'll enjoy watching this again - always the sign of a good movie experience.
Customer Rating: Summary: THE WORST OF THE 3 Comment: I never was a fan of the RESIDENT EVIL films (never played the games), although there are worse zombie films out there, there's also a lot better ones. This one marks the bottom of the series (and hopefully the end). I expected a LOT more after the promising promotion this title went through, and it fully disappointed. Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter are great - as usual - but it takes more than that to make an excellent zombie flick. If you're looking for excellent zombie films stick to George Romero's or Lucio Fulci's films. If you don't want them that violent this might do (but then again why watch a zombie film in the first place?) Customer Rating: Summary: Lame entry to a series that needs to die Comment: Recently I've been handing out so many positive reviews that one would almost think I'd been paid by these companies to endorse their products (nervous laugh). Anyway, doing too much good starts to make me feel uncomfortable, so recently I've been looking for an unequivocally bad product that I can really vent my spleen on. So thank you Paul S Anderson for creating Resident Evil: Extinction and allowing me to take a massive dump all over it.
Now, despite everything I'm about to say in this review, I'd like it to go on record that I actually don't mind the Resident Evil film series. Yes, the acting is usually substandard, some of the set pieces would make a James Bond villain cringe, and they often stray so far from their source material that it leaves me wondering whether the writers have even heard of the Resident Evil games. Still, through some miracle of luck and witchcraft, they work on their own curious merits.
At least, they did until Resident Evil: Extinction.
Set several years after the events of the last movie, the T-virus has escaped beyond Racoon City and infected the whole world, turning virtually the entire population into mindless zombies. As the clumsy opening narration informs us, the virus also seems to have caused the rivers and lakes to dry up, reducing much of the earth's surface to a barren desert wasteland. Quite how a genetically engineered virus could cause this to happen is never explained, probably because it makes no sense whatsoever. Still, I guess logic has never been a strong element in Resident Evil, so we won't go too deep into that one.
So anyway, the only uninfected humans left are the sinister Umbrella Corporation holed up in underground labs, and a few scattered groups of survivors eeking out a living on the surface by scavenging from the decaying remains of civilisation. For both sides however, supplies and options are running low.
It's difficult to know where to start when it comes to criticism for this film. If I was to pick the most glaring fault, I'd have to say that Extinction takes itself entirely too seriously for what it is, leaching away most of the fun factor. Resident Evil: Apocalypse wasn't a great film by any measure, but I grudgingly concede that it was probably the high point of the series due to its breakneck pace and slightly tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. There's none of that here - events proceed with the kind of grim determination normally reserved for those climbing Everest without oxygen.
The second problem is the plot. If Extinction feels overly familiar, that's probably because you've seen it all before in other, better films. Convoys of battered vehicles fighting their way through a desert wilderness? Mad Max 2, check. Slow motion wire-fu fight scenes? Matrix, check. Scientists in underground labs trying to domesticate zombies? Day of the Dead, check. The point is, Extinction doesn't feel like an original film in its own right - it's more like a Frankenstein's Monster cobbled together from different elements that don't really mesh.
The third major bugbear for me is the bizarre mixture of game and film characters, usually in situations that make no sense. Game stalwarts Claire Redfield and Albert Wesker are plonked into this film for no other reason than an attempt to please fans of the game series. Jill Valentine from the previous film is absent without any explanation, or perhaps because the actress who played her was wise enough to bail out of this one. But this is perhaps what annoys me most about Extinction - its two predecessors at least pretended to fit in with the game series, incorporating situations and plot elements that were at least broadly familiar to game fans. Extinction doesn't.
The last thing I just have to rag about is the casting. I've never really rated Milla Jovovich as an actress, and this film has done absolutely nothing to change my opinion. Fortunately the script doesn't really require her to do much more than pout angrily every once in a while and show that apparently women all stop wearing bras once society collapses. Oded Fehr, probably best known for playing `that Egyptian guy' from The Mummy series, gets through Extinction wearing the kind of tired smile that suggests he'd much rather be somewhere else. Ali Larter, fresh from the success of Heroes, seems lost here, alternating between a caring motherly type and a kickass Sarah Connor wannabe. Lastly, Iain Glen might have been a good choice for a baddie if he'd been allowed to do more than hang around in labs looking shifty.
All in all then, Extinction boils down to a string of uninspired action sequences strung together by a plot mostly borrowed from other films, hampered by indifferent acting and confusing character choices. This all adds up to a big pile of bullshit in my book, and you'd be well advised to steer clear of it.
Customer Rating: Summary: RE 3 Comment: Not too bad, Watched it at the cinema first with a group of friends and I was the only one that enjoyed it, yet i was the only die hard zombie + Resident evil fan there. So This ones for fans only. Customer Rating: Summary: The Best one so far... Comment: This film deserves so much more credit. 3 Stars ? What the hell is going on , this film is wicked. Its full of action and horror. Best of the resident evils , oh but wait i guess people would rather watch something stupid like 'SHROOMS' or 'WAZ'. If they make a number 4 that would be just wicked !!!
![Resident Evil 3: Extinction [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xvq0pjymL._SL160_.jpg)
