Best of both previous films...

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2007)

Resident Evil: Extinction is all that I hoped and feared it would be. Like "At World's End" and Terminator 3 it is an improvement over its immediate predecessor but doesn't challenge the original in it's design. One thing I was happy to see is that the film seems to combine the best elements of its two predecessors.
The film has a real feel of expansion. It feels like a natural continuation of the plot and it also manages to stand out in ways that its predecessor quite didn't. The amount of memorable scenes is admirable, the surprising opening, the zombie crows, the truck-explosion and the showdown between Isaacs and Alice. I'm also happy to see more characters from the games making the jump to the silver-screen, though admittedly Claire comes off as being more of a short-hand replacement for Jill from the last film. Lots of tragic stuff happens and emotionally the movie remains satisfyingly between dark and a slight shade of hope.
The way the film seems to land itself between the last two is in a few noticeable elements. Like Apocalypse, the film has a strong and a varied cast of characters and plenty of exciting action-sequences. Like the first movie, it's pleasing to the eyes and the soundtrack has also changed to the electro-rock similar to the first film. These all make the movie at least an enjoyable audio-visual experience.
One major point of criticism I can think of is the redneck scene which seemed to simply be an excuse to reintroduce the dogs and didn't really move the plot along. However, what bothers me most about this movie is the ending. I had been hoping for some closure for the franchise, but not only does the plot branch out further, it does so by splitting in two halves, Alice and Claire's. This on one hand makes me want to hope that they fill in the gaps so that we will see what becomes of Claire and yet at the same time I'm worried the Alice-story is gonna be taken too far.
Also, I like trilogies much better than tetralogies.