Resident Evil: Extinction (8/10)
posted in Movie Reviews |
Unlike the majority of the people I know, I rather liked the first two Resident Evil movies. Granted, I knew pretty much nothing of the video game franchise it was based on, beyond the fact that it existed and a very basic genre plot description of the game’s story. I’m a fan of Milla Jovovich (though even she couldn’t save Ultraviolet), and I enjoy a good genre-standard action flick. I wouldn’t call any of the Resident Evil films action masterpieces, but I find them slick and entertaining. This third entry is a bit of a departure from the first two, in that the setting is radically altered from that of the first two.
Writing: Like I said, the story in this film isn’t altogether original or particularly noteworthy, but it’s solid enough to carry the action through and establish the characters well enough to get invested in the film. It not only follows up on the ongoing story from the first two films, but it pays homage to the story and style of many apocalyptic genre films that came before it. It’s hard to miss the Mad Maxian overtones. Paul W.S. Anderson is a bit of an underrated writer/director. Not all of this efforts have been great. In fact, few of them have been. But most of them are certainly entertaining enough for a fun viewing experience. Anderson didn’t direct this or the previous sequel, but he kept on as writer and producer, overseeing the franchise. One thing is for sure, I hope they follow through on the next film for the franchise that they setup at the end of this third entry. That’ll be a cool film.
Production: Nothing to complain about here. Lots of cool action. Plenty of nifty location filming in arid wastelands. A copious amount of slick aerial filming. I’m a sucker for good aerial filming. One thing is for sure, there’s no lack of zombies and bullets. Birds, too.
Cast: Milla Jovovich comes through again with some cool action sequences and her typically game approach to this kind of material. One has to give her credit for her love of these kinds of kick-butt roles. She’s gotten quite good at them over the years. Like previous films in the franchise, she’s teamed up with another action hero female character. This time, the role is filled by the excellent Ali Larter. Her character and the sub-plot she dominates didn’t turn out quite like I had expected, which was kinda neat. Larter does a good job with the role, though it’s not quite as action-hero as the previous female co-stars (Michelle Rodriguez and Sienna Guillory). Oded Fehr returns from the second film (As does Mike Epps), and does a nice job.
Music: This third film in the franchise gets yet another composer in the mix. This time out, we have Charlie Clouser. Feeling a bit more like the score from the first film, this third film’s score is probably the weakest of the franchise, but it works well enough. I suppose the problem with the score is how sparse and unoriginal it is. It’s pretty much just feeding off previous work from the franchise. Marco Beltrami did a fantastic score for the first film (with some co-composer credit shared by Marylin Manson). Jeff Beal did a great job on the second film’s score. So, I had a little higher hopes from Clouser. But like I said, I think his score does work well enough to be a good action score. I do hope it gets an actual score CD release, as opposed to the few brief tracks on the existing song CD. That song CD is another of the “music from and inspired by” piece of absolute crap hard rock compilations I wish wouldn’t exist. Heck, only 4 songs are even credited in the film, and I think they were all in the end credits. Anyway, enough ranting…
