Reviews// Resident Evil: Extinction - Movie Review

When it comes to making adaptations of video games, there’s always been a stigma about the movie industry. Atrocities such as Alone in the Dark, cheese-fests like Doom and the unwavering resolve of Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark and, of course, German Fried Movie among others) is enough to give any gamer nightmares about the big screen for a lifetime.

You could say the madness began with the releases of Super Mario Bros and Mortal Kombat. The latter film kick-started the career of Paul W.S. Anderson as one of the go-to actors for game-to-celluloid translations. It would be fair to say that many of his projects have been hit and miss; in fact, that would be more than fair - I quote Event Horizon.

Resident Evil was one of the more respectable video game movies when it was released in 2002. As long as you detached yourself from the Capcom original it was a largely enjoyable, un-embarrassing zombie fest. While the second film, subtitled Apocalypse, was largely rubbish, that hasn’t deterred Anderson from giving it another go with the final film in the Resident Evil trilogy.

So, I found myself in front of Resident Evil: Extinction - da movie.

Unfortunately, while it has its upsides, it won’t exactly restore any faith in game-to-film adaptations. Taking a direct influence from Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Day of the Dead, Resident Evil: Extinction takes place in a post-apocalyptic planet Earth, which has now become a barren desert wasteland since the outbreak of the T-Virus.

The angelic Milla Jovovich returns as Project Alice, the heroine who has had her DNA fused with the deadly virus in the previous films. Here, she is trying to come to terms with her mutation while trying to help others who may have survived. In helping an armed convoy of thirty or so people to survive in the chaos, she learns of a new virus that breeds the 'Super Undead' (Super!). Think of these as your Crimson Heads mixed with Las Plagas – zombies that have been given a bit of their emotional and cerebral control back, which in turn makes them smarter, faster and more adaptable to surroundings.

Returning characters from past films such as Carlos (of Resident Evil 3 videogame fame) help Alice confront her inhibitions so that she can face Dr. Isaacs. The doctor has inadvertently created the new T-Virus when trying to stop the zombies from killing humans (isn’t it always the way?). Cue a rather (likely unintentionally) funny scene where scientists are training zombies to behave civilly.