Alice and the fight scenes are fantastic. The rest? Not so much

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2007)

I should make clear the fact that I have yet to see the first and second Resident Evils. The movie trilogy is based off the popular and critically-acclaimed video game series, of which I am a foreigner to also. So, this review is written by someone who has zero knowledge of any previous story lines in the series. Everything I now know about Resident Evil -it's characters, story lines, and everything else- is based off of what I learned watching Extinction.
With that being said, I thought Extinction was a very entertaining movie. The story follows Alice (Jovovich), a genetically-enhanced woman as she and a band of other remaining humans try to survive through attacks from millions of zombies. Where did all the zombies come from? In the first Resident Evil, the Umbrella Corporation let loose a deadly virus that infects all people and, once the people are infected, turns them into flesh-craving zombies. The infected aren't just humans though- animals (including crows and dogs) are susceptible to the virus and can thus be infected and changed into dangerous creatures. All this begs the question: who on the decaying Earth can stop the paranoia? Enter Alice, the woman who was genetically altered by the mad scientists of the Umbrella Corp. Alice is essentially a super-human; she can generate force fields and has ridiculous strength. After avoiding all human contact, Alice eventually runs into the group of people who are doing their best to survive but could obviously use some help. With most of their attempts failing and time running out, the group (somehow) learns that Alaska is the only safe zone left on the planet. They can only get there once they pass through Las Vegas (I don't get it either). However, they get sidetracked and end up in some pretty intense fights with the living dead.
These fights are sporadic but pick up towards the end of the movie. They are really intense, and the zombies on the receiving ends of the attacks are absolutely destroyed. Blood spurts and flies as bullets pierce heads, arms, limbs, etc. While her crew doesn't add much to the fights, you best believe Alice does her part: she is a complete bad ass slashing through zombies with that piercing stare from her ice-cold blue eyes. Classic lead females Ellen Ripley and The Bride came to mind as I watched Alice. In a recent IMDb.com poll with 21,683 votes, users were asked to vote on which female (Ripley, Alice, or Sarah Conner) they would most want to protect them. Ripley won with 39% of the vote, but second place went to Alice, with 22%. As you can see, I'm not her only fan.
You'll notice I'm not talking about the supporting cast. Well, to be honest, there isn't much to say about them: they add little to the story and have very generic roles. They come off more as enhancer talent for Alice.
I plan on renting the first two in the series now so I can more thoroughly understand the series. I liked the ideas and the action, and especially the lead heroine. Extinction was rough around the edges, but at it's core was a solid movie which was loads of fun to watch.
Good) Jovovich owns the movie as Alice, very intense action sequences Bad) story is all over the map, supporting cast offers little to nothing