by: mjames
Posted on 11.10.09 in All Horror Films
Release Date: 2007

Movies based on video games have a long and storied history of excellence. Whether it’s Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Street Fighter: The Movie” or Dennis Hopper’s “Super Mario Bros.”, Oscar season has rarely been able to overlook emerging video game adaptations as… wait, never mind. I could lie all day, but you and I and the rest of the internet all know that video game movies suck. In fact, they suck eggs. Sometimes, they can even make you suck just for watching them. Can there possibly be an exception to this law that seems as strong as rock, as true as gravity?

I submit to you that the Resident Evil series of films are some of the best video game-inspired movies made to date. Are they art? Yes. Are they high art? Hell no. Are they entertaining? Definitely. The long running video game franchise is largely credited with inventing the “survival horror” genre and features a complicated web of conspiracies and secret organizations amidst a city over run by brain-chomping ghoulies. The films lift a few characters and situations from the games, but leave the tone far behind. If you’ve played a Resident Evil game, you know it’s all about conserving ammo and health and staying away from as many zombies as possible. While it makes for an interesting twist in a game, that would be one boring ass zombie movie so the film goes the other direction into over-the-top, Devil May Cry-style ultra mega super violence.

This is the third film in the franchise and ostensibly the last, though it did make its money back so I doubt we’ve truly seen the last of this series. In the first film, the zombie-making T-Virus was unleashed in the top secret underground facility where it was created. By part two, the city above had been overrun as well. As we begin the third film, zombie apocalypse is in full effect. Humanity is reduced to a few roving bands of nomads, zombies are everywhere and the desert has re-taken most cities as the Earth slowly dies.

Our hero is an amnesiac mega-hottie with super powers called Alice (Milla Jovovich). Ah, amnesia. Video games love amnesia even more than soap operas. Anyway, she’s got her memory back now and thanks to the Umbrella (ella…ella) Corporation bonding her blood with the T-Virus, she now has all of Keanu Reeves’ best moves. On the run from her malevolent masters, she meets and reluctantly teams up with some old companions who are shepherding a group of survivors through the desert in hopes of finding some place zombie free.

Look, I never said it wasn’t silly. There’s amnesia, clones, genetically engineered super soldiers, zombies and high-octane kung fu. Shakespeare it ain’t. And during some of the battles scenes, you might feel like you’re watching somebody play their Xbox 360. However, Jovovich proves her chops as an ass-kicking heroine once again and plays it straight as an arrow. The rest of the cast, including Oded Fehr (of Mummy fame), Ali Larter and Mike Epps are all excellent here, especially Fehr’s Carlos Oliveria who returns from second film. His final scene is probably the highlight of the entire series.

If you enjoyed either of the previous two films, you’ll find more of the same to dig into here. If you hated them, very little has changed and you’re probably just as well off skipping this installment. But if you’re looking for slick CGI effects, some highly stylized zombie ultra violence with hot chicks doing high kicks in mini-skirts, explosions every 45 seconds and some interesting science fiction ideas littered among the corpses, Resident Evil: Extinction is as good as it gets. It takes itself just seriously enough to be cool, but not so much that it gets bogged down in reality.

* Acting – 3
* Blood – 4
* Violence – 5
* Partying – 2
* Language – 3
* Humor – 2
* Predictability – 3
* Girls – 3
* Gore – 4
* Sexuality – 3
* Torture – 2
* Overall – 3

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall: