Familiarity with a
twist is the formula
for most of life's simple
pleasures: a baseball
game, a fireworks display,
a zombie flick. Such
is the joy of Resident
Evil: Extinction,
the third successful
film based on an equally
successful video game.
Milla Jovovich returns
as Alice, looking more
buff than ever, to wield
large caliber handguns
and razor-sharp throwing
knives with equally
deadly effect. A "big
bad" appears in
the third act for a
major smackdown with
the ever more powerful
heroine, and a set-up
for an inevitable sequel
brings down the curtain.
But oh, if the twists
in this "Evil"
hadn't veered so consistently
into such overly familiar
territory. Call them
homages if you
like, rip-offs if you
must, but the film has
more cinematic references
than the Scary Movie
parodies.
Hitchcock's The Birds,
the Road Warrior
films and of course
every other zombie movie
ever made are cribbed
from for an hour's worth
of deja vu while Alice
hooks up in a post-apocalyptic
wasteland with a band
of wandering survivors,
led by Ali Larter of
the TV show Heroes.
Larter is given far
too little to do, though
she looks great in her
military issue shorts
and sleeveless shirts.
The movie hits its stride
and comes alive in its
final third as Alice
begins to realize her
evolving powers, and
returns to bring retribution
(like a leaner, meaner
Jason Bourne) to the
corrupt bureaucracy
that created her.
The fight scenes in
Resident Evil: Extinction
are choreographed in
workmanlike fashion
and competently filmed.
The undead are pretty
much classic, standard
issue, including Resident
Evil's trademark zombie-dogs.
The set piece of post-apocalyptic
Las Vegas turns out
to be simply adequate,
since (as fate and budget
would have it) only
one small chunk of Las
Vegas real estate peeks
above the dust of the
encroaching Nevada desert.
How cool would it have
been for a zombie massacre
to be played out in
the sprawling killing
ground of a casino amongst
the roulette wheels
and slot machines? How
ripe are the real-life
gambling addicts of
Vegas for a zombie parody,
a connection that's
even more spot-on than
the zombie mall shoppers
of Dawn of the Dead.
But alas, a descent
into the buried casinos
is not to be, instead
a descent into another
Umbrella Corporation
complex where The White
Queen awaits, and where
the battle with Alice's
newest mutant nemesis
comes to an unforseen
conclusion.
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