Resident Evil: Extinction: Movie Review (2007)

In the new Russell Mulcahy movie, "Resident Evil: Extinction," one scene is effective. You were looking for more than one? Wrong movie.

The scene involves crows--tens of thousands of undead, squawking zombie crows--and when it starts to dig in for the grisly long haul, just watch the members of the audience sit up to take note.

The scene is a rip-off of Hitchcock's "The Birds," and while it has none of Hitchcock's dark humor or wit, it does have energy, not to mention some well-done special effects. Since everything leading up to this moment is strictly standard fare, the intensity the scene offers is refreshing even if the scene itself isn't exactly fresh.

The film, which Mulcahy based on Paul W.S. Anderson's script, follows the previous two movies in the series, "Resident Evil" and "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," in that it's a convoluted scattershot of hyper editing best served for fans of the franchise or for junkies of the computer game on which the movies are based. Or both.

Given the sheer number of zombies "Extinction" unleashes, most of whom are here only to be gutted, it obviously also will appeal to fans of the splatter gore genre. But for those who enjoy their horror movies with a trace of a story and maybe even a measure of dialogue to round out the chills and boost character development, well, they might seriously be left wanting.

Once again, Milla Jovovich takes the lead as Alice, who returns with her poreless skin and vicious death moves to take on the Umbrella Corp. in yet another effort to shut them down.

Some will remember that the Umbrella Corp. is responsible for creating the virus that now has taken over the world, laying waste to most of its inhabitants (save for the few stragglers Alice meets in her journey across the Nevada desert), who now roam the Earth in various stages of death and decay. What Umbrella's evil kingpin, Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen), wants from Alice is her blood and her DNA to do all sorts of bad things, none of which is worth exploring here.

What matters in "Extinction" are the zombies, their hunger for flesh, and Alice's attempts to bring them and the Umbrella Corp. down with the help of old friend Carlos (Oded Fehr), whose stubble alone could rub out the zombies, and those he has befriended since the last time he saw Alice in "Apocalypse".

Chief among them are convoy-leader Claire (Ali Larter of "Heroes"), Betty (pop singer Ashanti), L.J. (Mike Epps), Mikey (Christopher Egan) and a young lass named K-Mart (Spencer Locke), whose name redefines the way Hollywood markets corporate America (fight the real evil, Alice!)--and which is where you'll likely be seeing this movie soon enough.

Grade: C-

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