Again, I am doing two reviews in one day. Reason? Like I said in my review from this morning, it has been a very hectic week and I could not keep up with it. However, I have some free time today. So, here I am, reviewing Resident Evil 3: Extinction.
Like RE-2, there is not much to say about this movie (or the fourth one for that matter). Can I still review it though? Of course, I can. I would much rather do reviews with video in the style of the Cinema Snob and Obscurous Lupa but sadly I only have an integrated webcam and no editing/splicing software. If I could do reviews like that, I would have such a ball! I could easily make the reviews last at least 10 minutes. If you notice, I do emulate Snob and Lupa somewhat in my reviews. And now for something completely different:
Resident Evil Extinction, at the time was considered the worst out of the movies; however, it now has to compete with Resident Evil 4: Afterlife. I myself am not sure which is worse. I would like to say 4 but that is only because I am not into the 3D camera style filming or the massive amounts of obvious CGI. I will determine, however, which is worse by the end of the Afterlife review.
Why is Extinction so bad? Well it does not live up to the action and plot of the last two movies. I suppose it is more related to people’s expectations being let down. It had been awhile since a Resident Evil movie so fans were excited more than hesitant, myself included. So it really is not the movie’s fault, it was just never given a chance.
The director of the RE films, Paul W. S. Anderson, is also not to blame. As directors go, he is fairly decent and uses a lot of creative ideas in his films. For example, with RE Extinction, as a kid he was a huge fan of the Mad Max films. Since Extinction is a post-apocalyptic movie, he wanted introduce those films to the next generation and hope that they would go back and watch the Mad Max films. This can be seen in Extinction with the armored convoy traversing thru the desert wasteland that was once America. It is clearly a love letter to the Mad Max series.
The film also has various parallels with Romero’s Day of the Dead. Like Day of the Dead, RE Extinction takes place after the world has been taken over by the dead. There is a scene in RE Extinction that is a mirror of a scene from Day involving Dr. Logan showing Bub objects for him to remember how to use. Both scenes include a phone. If you would like to see how they compare see the links below (the day of the dead video is a little longer than it needs to be, you can skip to 2 minutes in if you want) Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So3wvWZ8EvM Extinction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72TSR1n9xG8
The movie also brings back the Hive, well, the Hive II. It even has an upgraded Red Queen i.e., the White Queen. This is one thing fans did like; the movie brought back some elements from the first as well as second film creating a good deal of solid continuity and fun. For example, the lab technology in the Hive is a combination of the technology seen in the Hive from RE and the technology in the Detroit Umbrella Lab at the end of RE: Apocalypse but at the same time making it look new and different. The Hive II is also a reference to Day of the Dead as the whole film is in an underground research bunker.
RE Extinction also brings in some new characters, one of which is another from the games, Claire Redfield. The movie’s outfit for her is not as accurate as Jill’s was but the fans were still happy that another character from the games was included. The movie also finally introducing Albert Wesker although the actor does not do a good job of portraying him properly. Fear not though, the actor who plays him in the fourth installment, Resident Evil: Afterlife does a much better job.
The movie has some fun scenes with lots of zombie killing action and Alice gets to show off her badass powers. Now I am usually against fast moving zombies, and this movie features a few of those but they do not bother me. For one thing, there is an explanation for them being so fast and strong: they have been given more T-Virus that has been altered and thus has mutated them. Remember that the T-Virus’ sole purpose is to reanimate dead cells and if a corpse is pumped with enough of it, there should be less fear of ankles and tendons snapping since the T-Virus is preventing rot.
A few likable characters die and one of them has a very nice martyr death scene. Alice then has to part from the group who are heading for Alaska where there is apparently no infection, to continue her personal, but warranted, vendetta against the Umbrella Corporation. The Whit Queen helps her to take down the Mutant villain which is the Tyrant type from the game who is (SPOILER ALERT!) also previously in the movie, the Umbrella villain, Dr. Isaacs, like the Nazi before, he seems to have Nazi ideas like having no morals and doing horrible torturous experiments in the name of science just like Mussolini. Since this is obvious and really isn’t a spoiler, Alice is of course triumphant (with some help) and so she is free to keep her deal with the White Queen to use her blood to make an antidote for the T-Virus which would kill all the zombies if sprayed like crop dusting and would not only fight infection like the Anti-T-Virus does but also inoculate and prevent infection in the first place.
I guess Resident Evil 3: Extinction is not that bad and in the end, mostly because of the nods to Romero, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
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