New R.E. proves fatal

The original Resident Evil had two things going for it: first, it was yet another part of the long standing George Romero zombie tradition; second, it was based on a very successful video game franchise. However, these two advantages evaporated once people actually saw the movie. Apocalypse did little to remedy the situation, though it seems that the production values for the sequel were higher. Now with the release of Resident Evil: Extinction, it's not surprising that there are a lot of dry eyes as this movie goes the way of the dodo.

All the jokes and plays on words aside, Extinction is a bad movie. As I was coming up with this review in my head I tried to figure out what the feeling of satisfaction I felt after seeing this movie stemmed from. After thinking a bit I realized I was satisfied to be out of the theater.

Many people are already aware that Extinction is the third installment in the RE trilogy. However, people who have not seen the first two movies (and believe me, you aren't missing anything) will be lost worse than Sawyer on that weird island. After the events of the second movie, Alice Walker (Milla Jovovich) is on the run from the evil Umbrella Corporation. Imbued with new reflexes, hyper learning and trippy psychic abilities, Walker is doing her best to keep her distance from people. Meanwhile, Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) lead a nomadic convoy of people through the desert looking for sparse resources.

The movie runs for an hour and 45 minutes. However, looking at the simplicity of the story, the filmmakers could have eliminated most of the elements between the action scenes.

As a result, the film introduces several subplots that are not adequately resolved by its conclusion. Among them is the supposed romantic relationship between Olivera and Walker, which, given the other movies, has no context here.

Given how toned up Jovovich was for this role, I initially thought that the movie would work as a serviceable, shut-your-mind-off action flick.

However, upon closer inspection, the first main action sequence between Alice and the zombie Rottweilers is mostly a rehash of an all too similar scene from the first movie. Watching it you get the distinct impression that the filmmakers just ran out of good ideas on how to start the script. Fehr does a great job with the script he has.

After watching episodes of the Showtime series Sleeper Cell, one can't help but ask how the hell an actor this talented got roped into doing two movies that are as trite and ill-conceived as Apocalypse and Extinction.

This logic holds true for Larter as well. Any fan of the NBC TV show Heroes can tell you that Larter's character is not only well-written but well-portrayed. As a critic, it hurts when such awesome talents are wasted with such disdain.

And the zombies? Personally, I would rather have seen the zombies from Shaun of the Dead or 28 Days Later. However, the special effects and makeup on the zombies is top notch and does make for a couple moments of genuine startling excitement.

After it's all said and done this movie leaves you unsatisfied by its conclusion. In fact, it leaves the ending open for yet another half-assed sequel. For the record, I am a huge fan of the RE videogames; however, it's just sad that this franchise, which had so much potential, was placed in the hands of writers that were just not familiar with the source material or were too worried about a deadline or profits to really care. It's the same problem that has plagued every video game movie to date.

In fact, the only video game movie to really come close is Super Mario Bros., and even then the writers took some strange creative liberties with the source material.

To close, this movie could not have been any worse as far as movies in the zombie/survival horror genre are concerned (unless Uwe Boll was directing it), and is an insult to the more Romero-esque movies out there. So save your eight bucks-this one just isn't worth it.

Our take: 2/5 stars.