RE: Extinction - Mainly for the fans.

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2007)

As a fan of the Resident Evil series and avid movie watcher I have been privy to many different films based on video games. As scragglier had put it before, movies of this sort will eventually take on a form of their own, and the results can vary depending on the watcher.
Fans of the series will find themselves catching up rather quickly as RE vets Alice (Jovovitch), Carlos (Fehr) and L.J. (Epps) return along with newcomers Claire Redfield (Larter) and company in their attempt to survive in a world gone undead. The Umbrella Corporation is still alive, taking up refuge in subterranean establishments continuing their research and development of bio-organic weapons (BOWs). Dr. Isaacs, while developing new serums is also trying to track down Alice to further his research.
Like all kinds of video game movies, there is not much to really grip: Obvious and formulaic good and bad guys provide for a quick setup into the film, pitch-forking you into the story providing only enough information so as to get you acquainted with the environment. Not much in terms of back story or character development is provided ("What happened to Jill (Sienna Guillory)? How did Carlos and L.J. meet up with Claire and her convoy?) The bottom line is that you will have to already have watched the previous two films in order to understand the characters motives and how they got to where they are. Characters are given no time to be developed or cared for by new movie watchers, and it seems that they are gone almost as fast as they come in (30 people on a convoy and about 6 of them are given names, and even less are given more than 5 minutes of screen time). Plot is simple - survive against the bad people. Visual effects are pretty nice, as they are effectively displayed at key moments to heighten suspense and give rise to the moment. Action and fight scenes are very well choreographed, bloodletting like there is no tomorrow and especially more gruesome than the previous two films. Although these make for a pretty good action flick, the movie itself is just too short to give the audience what it really needs - SUBSTANCE, along with the already present STYLE.
Like I mentioned before, this movie is made mainly with the fans in mind. Newcomers to the series will be better off watching the previous two films before they know whether or not they want to watch this one, but either way it makes for a decent Friday night.