Better than the last two, but that's not saying much

Rating: 4/10 (23 September 2007)

When it comes to movie monsters, zombies never really appealed to me. They seem to exist more as moving targets in a shooting gallery than actual villains. And let's face it, just about everything you can do in a zombie movie has already been done. Resident Evil: Extinction seems to realize this, and so it doesn't really concentrate on them very much. They're always there, but they don't seem to have much to do with the movie itself. Rather than horror, the film's main source of inspiration seems to be the Road Warrior films, with everyone driving around in souped up vehicles in the desert.
Those who have not seen the original Resident Evil or its sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, will likely be lost, as the film jumps right into its story and doesn't look back. Series heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich) is still on the run from the evil scientists of the Umbrella Corporation, who experimented on her and turned her into some kind of super powered fighting machine. While wandering the deserts, searching for other survivors, she happens to find a battered old journal that talks about how there's an area in Alaska that is unaffected by the deadly T-Virus that has wiped out half the human race, and turned the other half into flesh-eating zombies. She joins up with a band of survivors, which include a couple people who accompanied her on her last adventure, and some newcomers such as a teenage girl named K-Mart (Spencer Locke from Monster House), who was given the name because the people she travels with found her outside of a K-Mart store. When I heard this, I couldn't help but think the poor girl is lucky she wasn't found outside of a Hooters restaurant. As Alice and her friends search for enough fuel and supplies for the long journey to Alaska, an evil scientist at Umbrella named Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) is secretly tracking Alice, because he believes she has something in her blood that can stop the effects of the virus, and wants to use her for his own evil ends.
Now that the film franchise is on its third installment, I think it's pretty safe to say you already know where you stand on Resident Evil: Extinction. Those who liked the last two are certain to find something to like here. The Resident Evil films have always differed from the games that inspired them, in that they are much more action-heavy in tone than genuine horror. The zombies themselves are not really the villains, it is the human scientists of the Umbrella Corporation. The head of Umbrella is a guy named Albert Wesker (Jason O'Mara), who even though he sits in a dark underground room behind a desk all day, he constantly wears sunglasses. This is the kind of movie where we know everything about the person just by looking at them. If they are beautiful, rugged, or with a perfectly toned body, they're the good guys. If they're dressed in lab coats or wear black, they're evil. And if they're dirty and unshaven, they're an extra and most likely expendable during one of the film's many action sequences. The movie is in far too much of a rush to get to where it's going. It gives us just enough exposition and plot to get the story out of the way, then dives head first into a series of action sequences that seem to come one after another.
To be fair, some of the sequences are handled quite well, and with a surprising amount of expertise. A lengthy sequence where the human survivors are attacked by hundreds of zombie crows is the closest the movie ever comes to generating suspense. But far too often, Extinction is a laundry list of missed opportunities. There is a scene where the heroes are forced to drive through the ruins of Las Vegas, which is now submerged under sand. The initial glimpse of the submerged city is intriguing, and made me excited about what the filmmakers could be planning with such a unique setting. Unfortunately, all they do is give us more of everything we've already seen. I hate it when a movie teases me with a fascinating image, then does absolutely nothing with it. Aside from a character climbing up a replica of the Eifel Tower from the remains of the Paris-themed hotel/casino, the movie does not use any of its unique setting to its advantage. The battle may as well have taken place in a factory or a parking garage for all this movie cares. The human characters are treated with the same level of indifference. No one gets to say any dialogue that doesn't advance the plot in some way, and relationships between them are hinted at but never really built on.
At its best, Resident Evil: Extinction is total in one ear and out the other entertainment. It has a couple action scenes that I sort of admired, but nothing really stood out about it. It doesn't offer any thoughts, it doesn't offend, it's just there. People who go to the movies just to get out of the house are sure to have their needs fulfilled. It manages to kill an hour and a half, and that's about it. Anyone looking for something more should probably look elsewhere. Now that I think about it, people looking for something more probably don't go to movies based on video games in the first place.