Resident Evil: Extinction

I must admit I approached this film with extreme caution. I had heard too many times about the apparent rubbishness of 'Resident Evil: Extinction', with such comments as the fact it is unfaithful to the 'Resident Evil' game series. However, after watching the Blu-Ray version myself, I highly doubt that the director was intending to be faithful. Some games just aren't film material, so it would be common sense to alter a game franchise to benefit a licensed film, and the result in 'Resident Evil: Extinction's case is pretty damn fine.

It would appear that the 'Resident Evil' film franchise is critically doomed for all eternity, yet one can only wonder why. Besides some poor acting when it comes to the sinister Albert Wesker and over-awesomeness of the film's main protagonist, Alice (I know, it's weird), there are no wrongs I detected from the film. In fact, I'd say it was pretty bloody perfect. I thought it would be better than all the idiots abusing it who haven't seen it yet claimed it to be, but not really this good... particularly not for a licensed film.

One other negative point I noticed straight away about the film, and something which may have many Max Brooks obsessives in tears: 'Resident Evil: Extinction's T-virus zombies are not like 'The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From The Living Dead's or 'World War Z's Solanum and Voodoo zombies. However, the standard T-virus zombies are close to Max Brooks' descriptions, I'd say a combination of both species. A T-virus zombie hungers for human flesh, yet does not need it, and can last for several decades, much like the Solanum zombie. However, the rare T-virus zombie can be trained to do as a human instructs but does not need to have its brain destroyed to be killed, much like the Voodoo zombie.

While these flaws may prove disappointing to some fanatics of Mr. Brooks' undead literature, it is unlikely to be of any significance to anybody else. To anybody else, it's an excellent film with a solid storyline, epic action scenes and awesome characters. There are a good few action pieces throughout the film which the protagonists face, and many will be thankful to know that 'Resident Evil: Extinction' is not overly kind to its characters. There are very frequent and bloody deaths, a balanced share between good and evil. The characters are in as much danger as one would expect, but there are no ghosts of resurrection or fountains of youth or anything. These people are dead, and the film benefits highly from its own cruelty. Okay, there is an anti-virus, but goodness knows what happened to that.

In every scene Alice was in, I was extremely impressed. She is by far one of the coolest, epicest characters in the entire history of protagonism. Occasionally she's a little too awesome to prove believable and realistic, but she is still a mighty fine main character. She's not arrogant, but she's not weak. She's not unbeatable, but she's not stupid. She's not a lot of things, mostly negative adjectives.

'Resident Evil: Extinction' is a film worth watching. It's a film you must watch, actually. In fact, if you don't watch it, I will declare you a prejudiced Solanum-whore forever. It's that good. And don't get me started on the cliffhanger...

Five Out Of Five.