Resident Evil Extinction Review

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Resident Evil may not be the greatest film series out there, but I will admit that the posters for this installment were pretty good. It was a tough call between this one and “Project Alice-Activate,” but I believe that I made the right call. Can the film possibly match up to its usage of one of the greatest titles of all time? I don’t think so!

All right folks, you’ve heard it all before. Zombies are among us and the heroes are powerless to stop them. Well, things are a little more dire than they had been because Humanity is essentially extinct. There are still humans around, but instead of a few billion, we’ve probably got around 1000. That’s a number that I constructed out of thin air since they don’t really tell us, but if the water has evaporated in many oceans…how will the humans stay alive? Most of the world is just one giant desert at this point.

There are two main plots that merge by the end. Alice is on her own and she must continue to travel while remaining undetected by the government that is trying to track her with a satellite. Meanwhile, Carlos, Claire Redfield, and LJ are still around. It’s unknown what happened to Jill, but I’m sure that she’s busy defeating zombies. The three “heroes” are trying to survive in a desert along with many expendables and one shot characters. They are attacked by a large number of zombie crows, which quickly reduce their numbers. Alice saves them with her new abilities and decides to join their ranks. Unfortunately, this brings along the Umbrella group and all of the zombies.

I won’t say which characters survive this assault, but it’s definitely not a large amount. Their only glimmer of hope is a book that someone left behind. It circles a lot of locations and the heroes immediately realize that the meaning is obvious. There is an area of land that the zombies have not found yet! The group prepares to head out, but they will have to deal with a monster!

Alice is still the main protagonist, but she doesn’t look as good as she did in the last film. Sure, she is vastly stronger than she was, but power doesn’t always equal greatness. It’s impressive that she can destroy someone with a kick, but it doesn’t change the fact that she was knocked out by mere mortals. She handles herself pretty well for the most part, although she should have won with less effort. All of that said, she’s still the best character in this film by a long shot.

Next, we’ve got LJ. He’s definitely a shadow of his former self and I can’t even say that he’s a likable character anymore. He was funny in the last film, but not in this one. He looks pretty weak as he’s overpowered in a surprise attack from one of the zombies. That’s one character who couldn’t stay cool.

We’ve also got Carlos, but he has the same problem as LJ. It’s to a lesser extent, but Carlos isn’t as cool either. He’s not the seasoned veteran that we remember from the good ole days and he doesn’t know when it’s time to take the win. He takes down a lot of zombies, but it’s not very spectacular. Still, he wasn’t a bad character and that’s what counts.

We also get some new characters, but they’re not extremely important to the plot so we can essentially skip them. Wesker appears, but it’s in a very small role so he barely needs to be mentioned. I will say that he’s pretty cool in this film and definitely the best villain. He keeps the other villains in line from his hologram for a while. Any scene with Wesker was typically epic and we also got some great tunes during that moment.

Isaacs is the main villain of this film, but he’s not very exciting to watch. He also doesn’t make for a great villain because he’s weak and generically evil. He gets a power up towards the end of the film, but it doesn’t help him become a better villain. Power doesn’t save the day, only will power and determination can truly stop the zombies.

Now it’s time to get into the multitude of negatives for the film. First off is the obligatory fanservice scene. This time it takes place in the very beginning of the film as a clone of Alice goes through the same events from the first film until she dies against the defenses. It’s one of those moments where you can’t help but sigh in disbelief. Having this scene for three films in a row is definitely a bit much.

Next up, would be the violence. The first two films were already extreme, but this installment brings it to a whole other level. It’s what I would expect from something like The Walking Dead. Also, it contradicts the fact that their blood should be frozen or more solid like in the first two films. Nope, in this one we get large spurts when they are destroyed. Additionally, Alice uses swords a lot more in this film so that gives the film an excuse for the added violence.

The crow scene is also tough to watch because it mixes the overwhelming violence with animal violence. That’s definitely a losing combo in any form of media and it definitely did not help the film. We also get more dog violence to destroy the film even further. Basically, we had every kind of violence that you would expect from a zombie film and too a high level. That’s reason enough to back away from this film.

One negative that is introduced in this film is a very boring background. The second film had the city as a backdrop which was awesome and the first one was in a cool lab. This film largely takes place in the desert and that’s one of the worst areas that you can ever be in. It means that every scene will lose some interest points and that every area looks the same.

Well, at least the soundtrack is still good. The techno theme that occurs when the villain base appears is very good and it’s a highlight. It’s really the only memorable theme from this film so it has fallen, but it’s still good. One great piece of music can save an entire soundtrack if it is performed accurately. The ending is also pretty intense. Resident Evil typically has great endings so that was to be expected. The ending definitely implies that the next film will easily be the greatest in the franchise. Is that what happens? Well, we’ll be finding out very soon!

Overall, this was the worst Resident Evil film so far. The cast of characters, soundtrack, and amount of negatives were all worse than the first two films. This one didn’t have any great fight scenes (Although the last one was a good display of super powers) and Jill disappeared for no discernible reason. It has been years since the last film, but they could have at least made a reference. I definitely would not recommend this film due to the animal violence and large amount of negatives. If you want to watch a film that promises danger and excitement, then check out the original Transformers G1 movie!

Overall 2/10

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