Two men stand in front of a glass wall. On the other side, a plague-ridden undead carcass tries to fit a square peg through a triangular opening in a box.
Man 1: “He…he understands. Does this mean we can cure them?”
Man 2: “No! They will never be cured. But they can be domesticated, trained to become a docile workforce.”
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! COOLEST ZOMBIE PLOT EVER!!! BUT NOT REALLY!!
True, this scene is now one of my all-time zombie movie favorites. Unfortunately, it’s an anomaly in a somewhat cool but thoroughly flawed zombie flick. Could it just be the fact that “Resident Evil: Extinction,” the third installment of a franchise built on a franchise of half a dozen videogames, inevitably leads to something without substance? But that’s just it: zombie movies don’t need substance. I guess that’s why these movies work to the degree that they do. As a self-referential genre, the point is to riff on itself and play an awesomely bloody “what if zombies do this?” game. As it turns out, the makers of “Extinction” are pretty good at it.
Admittedly, the film does its best to be innovative in this often overdone genre. For example, waves of undead gather around the fenced-off entrances of humankind’s last underground strongholds. Set two years after zombies have taken over the world, the movie follows a handful of survivors as they travel by caravan from town to town, pilfering gas and food. Lucky for the poor 14-year-old-boy refugees, the group is led by “Varsity Blues” cutie Ali Larter. And if they get hurt, it’s fine because the caravan’s nurse is singer-turned-not-so-movie-star Ashanti. As these things go, the group soon meets up with super-hot-super-strong-quasi-zombie Milla Jovovich, who is being chased by the evil Umbrella Corporation (creators of the original zombie plague). Though intensely original at times, the story never expands on any of its really interesting moments, opting instead to show different neat-o ways of killing zombies.
Written by Paul W.S. Anderson, of 90’s classics “Mortal Combat” and “Event Horizon,” the movie is not shy about showing a little stupid action or horrible predictions of the future. But it’s really Russell Mulcahy—director of real gems like “Highlander I/II,” a whole bunch of Duran Duran and Billy Joel music videos and the new “The Rock” movie—who ensures that the film is constantly visually compelling. From Jovovich discovering hundreds of her dead clones to a cloud of zombie crows, Mulcahy never lets the viewer rest. Though the constant spectacles are a double-edged sword (insert “Highlander” joke here), Mulcahy executes them well and with good intention.
In the end, the film is worth watching, if you’re a fan of the ol’ zombie flick. But if you don’t like the genre, you probably won’t like “Resident Evil: Extinction,” despite the fact that it offers some unique and fucking brutal moments.
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