Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.
I’d love to say lots of nice things about Resident Evil: Extinction, but that’s not the world that we live in. As much as I am personally and oddly fascinated by the career of Paul W.S. Anderson and as much as I will apologize for a lot of his films, I can’t bring myself to say a lot nice about this film, which was written and produced by him. There is a sense to this film that the story isn’t really that important, and even the franchise doesn’t matter much. Instead, the entire point of the film is about spectacle for its own sake.
I promise I’m going to go into some detail on this, but I want to set a sort of general idea of what I’m talking about first. Resident Evil: Extinction is a collection of scenes that are connected to each other, and there is a semblance of plot here, but very little sense of the larger story or the reality of the world that the film wants to exist in. It’s an odd little snapshot that exists for its own sake without a sense of anything larger. Things happen because they would “look cool” on screen. Stupid decisions are made for the sake of spectacle with no sense of reality, even the reality projected by the film series.
“Plot” is a vague concept with this film, so I’m going to cover it in a more cursory manner than normal. We’re five years after Resident Evil: Annihilation, and the T-virus has essentially taken over the world. Humanity is on its last legs, limited essentially to roving bands. Meanwhile, The Umbrella Corporation is still running Project Alice and still working behind the scenes to control what is left of the world. This fact is literally the only realistic thing about this movie.
Case in point? We’re going to discover that back in The Hive, there are hundreds of Alice clones being released one at a time to essentially run an obstacle course until they are eventually killed off. This happens at the start of the film—we see Alice handle a few obstacles and then get whacked, when we hear that we need a blood sample from the body and the body is discarded into a pit holding the corpses of dozens of other Alices that are oddly not decomposed in any way. So, evidently, Alice clones are released until they are killed and we get a blood sample (we learn that this is about creating an antivirus) for what reason? They can’t just…take a blood sample? No—we need to see the action, so that’s why it’s here. It would “look cool” to have Alice deal with the laser corridor again.
Anyway the real Alice, who escaped five years earlier (or was allowed to escape) is out in the world, where she is attacked now and then in ways that don’t make sense—like The Hills Have Eyes rejects keeping zombie dogs around. For sport? Because it means that they will eventually be killed by them? No, because it would “look cool.” At the same time, we’re going to encounter a nomadic caravan lead by Claire (Ali Larter), a character from the video games but new to the movie. Included in her caravan are LJ (Mike Epps) and Carlos (Oded Fehr), who were in the previous film. What happened to Jill Valentine? Fuck you. LJ is going to be bitten in an opening scene. Why? Because you need someone who is hiding a bite. Stick a pin in this for a paragraph or two, because this is going to be the core of my eventual rant.
Anyway, Alice now has telekinetic powers (because cool!) and there are now zombie crows (because cool!). Eventually, Alice hooks up with the caravan and tells them that there is a rumor of a group in Alaska where the infection hasn’t reached, but the group is out of fuel and food, and so decided to go to Las Vegas to see what they can find. What they find is an ambush of zombies that have been trained by Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen), who wants the original Alice because he
Anyway, let’s talk about LJ getting bitten. Why is LJ bitten? Because he can’t tell the difference between a zombie and the reflection of a zombie. But in reality, he’s bitten because after five years of dealing with zombies he makes a stupid rookie mistake of sitting down in a hotel room with his back to an area he hasn’t cleared. He’s bitten in the chest, and later (we assume) he hooks up with another member of the convoy who doesn’t notice the giant, gaping wound that apparently has replaced an entire pectoral muscle. He knows the caravan is going to head to a place potentially uninfected and tells no one.
All of Resident Evil: Extinction’s problems are summed up here. We need the basic cliché of bitten person hiding the bite, but how do you get a five-year veteran bitten? Evidently in the dumbest way possible. It’s not about this making sense; it’s about hitting the required marks and cobbling together ways to get there. That sums up the entire film. Well, that and “looks cool, so do it” sensibilities. Why does Alice have telekinetic abilities? Because it would be cool if she did, and it allows her to use her power on fire to incinerate a giant flock of zombie crows. Why does Alice wear thigh high stockings? Because looks cool and sexy.
This film is dumb, and I’m dumber for having seen it, and I know there are more to come in the series.
Why to watch Resident Evil: Extinction: There are certainly some fun ideas.
Why not to watch: It’s “Wouldn’t it be cool?” filmmaking and nothing more.
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