Film review by: Witney Seibold
The previous film in the “Resident Evil” series was subtitled “Apocalypse.” This one is subtitled “Extinction.” Following that throughline, if there is (heaven forbid) a fourth film in this series, the inevitable title will be “Resident Evil: O.k., The Earth Just Blows Up.”
“Resident Evil: Extinction” is essentially two films crammed into one. One is a middling post-apocalyptic thriller filled with tired and dusty survivors trying to live out the rest of humanity’s days with hope and dignity. The other is a supremely stupid-ass sci-fi mishmash of zombies and clones and holographic bad guys.
To prepare myself for “Resident Evil: Extinction,” a friend of mine came over with his video copy of “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” as to allow me to brush up on the minutiae of the series, so that I would not be lost in the third. “RE: A” featured the series’ heroine, Alice (ex-model Milla Jovovich) fighting a bazooka-toting supermutant, and ended with disastrous portents, implying that the all-powerful Umbrella Corporation had implanted her brain with some kind of mind-control device. Oh, and she also was somehow genetically enhanced to be a superbeing.
Hang on, let me go back a second. In the future, Umbrella Corp. will have raised so much money, that they not only provide the world with clothing and food, but are also, for unknown reasons, working on virology. They create a virus, called the T-virus, which kills you and then brings you back as a zombie. The virus is unwittingly released in a vast underground complex, and marines are called in to foolishly go down there where they are picked off one-by-one by zombies and the occasional mutant (oh yeah, the virus can also make you a mutant). Alice also regains her missing memories.
The second film revealed that Alice was infected with the T-virus, and she has the potential to be a super-human supersoldier (Oh yeah, the virus can also give you superpowers). Oh yeah, and the Umbrella people, now led by the mad scientist Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen), also have a privatized military which is better-armed than the entire western hemisphere. And they are working on supermutant supersoldiers. I guess to sell to the army, but it’s never really clear why they’re working on bazooka supermutants. Alice escapes at the end, but with the virus in her.
In between the second and third films, the T-virus got out into the world, and turned most everyone into zombies. The T-virus also infects plants and animals, so everything is a desert, and the few humans that remain must constantly be on the move, eternally caravanning, seeking supplies and blasting zombies. Alice is now a lone rogue who runs into a convoy led by the sparky Claire (Ali Larter) and is full of stock characters. Based on a single page of an abandoned diary, the entire convoy decides that they must head to Alaska, where there are no zombies. Alice is afraid to stay around other people because her new superpowers make her levitate rocks and motorcycles in her sleep.
The gear up for Alaska, the convoy must swing through Vegas for gas and water and food and supplies. Big cities are dangerous, though. Y’know, ‘cause of all the zombies.
Here is an odd conceit in the film: Before the apocalypse, The Umbrella Corp. seems to have left large metal trailers, for no apparent reason, around large cities. They are full of zombies. Is there a point to having ready supplies of crated zombies peppering the landscape? I guess if you want to throw one open, and have a big ol’ gun-battle scene, they must be necessary.
The post-apocalypse scenes also feature romances (between Ashanti and Mike Epps, and Jovovish and Oded Fehr), a flock of carnivorous crows, a teenage girl named K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Alice throwing fire with her mind. All of the post-apocalyptic stuff is a little dumb, but mildly diverting.
But I haven’t described the other half of “RE: E” to you yet. You see the Umbrella Corp. is not dead. In fact, they still have an underground lair! A huge one, full of computers and holograms and water and electricity. In fact, the electricity and resources it must take to power a lair that size must be enough to build cities for the plague survivors, and probably rebuild the world. But never mind. They must use their powers for evil.
You see, the evil Dr. Isaacs is still around, and is trying to recreate another Alice clone, also with psychic powers like the first one. He’s also working on a cure for the zombie virus. And he’s also trying to domesticate zombies. And he’s also being ordered around by a holographic cadre of mysterious suits who are demanding he make supersoldiers. Or something.
Why does the world need supersoldiers and psychic clones at this point? Most everyone is dead, right? The film clearly states that there are no governments left. Why is Umbrella hoarding all this lame-ass and superfluous holo-technology? For the life of me, I couldn’t tell you.
But enough of this. I’ve wasted too much of my life on this series. If you’re a 15-year-old boy, and are a fan of the video games on which the films are based, then by all means, see “Resident Evil: Apocalypse.” As for me, I’ll just remember the time when the director Russell Mulcahy directed fondly-remembered films like “Highlander” and “Blue Ice” and “The Shadow.”
