The Movie Diorama Need further clarification? When your source material is primarily focussed on zombies and undead creatures, you should utilise that. The inclusion of and genre shift into science fiction decreases the believability of any situation down to zero. Hear me out. Five years have passed since 'Apocalypse' and the world is undergoing desertification. Alice finds a small convoy of survivors and tags along, unknowingly getting closer to the Umbrella corporation. Alright, so my main problem now is that Alice is overwhelmingly invincible. She discovers new abilities that pretty much turns her into a female telekinetic zombie kicking crow burning badass terminator. Any situation now going forward, I know she'll be just fine...problem is, I no longer fear what happens on screen. The supporting characters are lifeless so any demises that are met are just pretty to look at (in a non-sadistic way). Watching Milla Jovovich growing as an action star still remains this series' best quality. The post-apocalyptic deserted wasteland looked authentic and suited the film's environment well. We finally have ourselves a memorable antagonist, who then turns into one of the video games' greatest bosses, Tyrant. Shame they really didn't execute it well, let's ignore that part for now. Iain Glen as a villain always works, I mean look at 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'. The action is well filmed and I especially loved the entire scene involving the infected crows. Probably the most memorable segment of the film. I just wish they stuck with just zombies instead of all this convoluted cloning rubbish which only gets more insanely stupid as the franchise progresses. So yes, technically this film is one of the more competently directed and executed chapters but, again, does suffer from narrative stumbles, expositional flashbacks and a ludicrous pointless science fiction vibe that just doesn't stick well with me. Bring back Nemesis I say!

popcorninhell The Resident Evil franchise has been limping to the bank for the past decade shelling out increasingly turgid fare to an audience sure to lap it up because...what other video game movies are there The first one (2002) was okay. It was slightly enjoyable but you could tell it was adapted from a video game in that everything that moved was to be shot at. The second Apocalypse (2004) was absolutely dreadful trying hopelessly to add a complex mythology that makes little sense when you think about it.But lets suppose a killer zombie virus concocted by a seemingly omnipresent corporation is released into the populous. Mind you this corporation has a huge personal army, unlimited funds to build massive underground laboratories with complex security grids, track people with satellites and has access to nuclear weapons. And let's suppose our hero, Alice is an ultra-hot cyborg/clone/whatever-the- hell (Milla Jovovich) who wants to take this corporation down. Finally let's suppose the virus was not only released but thrived and quickly took over the globe. Thus we get Resident Evil: Extinction.The film starts with a prologue about how because the T-Virus has infected everyone and everything, most of the terrain in North America has been replaced with arid desert. Now why do we need to know that? All of the action in this installment takes place on the outskirts of Las Vegas, an area already surrounded by desert. With that in mind, that nugget of information seems unnecessary. Speaking of unnecessary; there are a disappointing amount of meatsacks in this film. I say meatsacks because, let's face it, other than Alice, all other characters are zombie food.Now there are a lot of problems with this movie but the one that threw me for a loop the most was the inclusion of Mike Epps who provided "comic relief" in Apocalypse and now provides stupidity in Extinction. As with all zombie movies, once you're bitten you're pretty much dead and early on Mike Epps is a dead man. So instead of telling the small band of survivors "hey I'm chopped liver, pull over, I'll walk from here," he keeps his wound secret until he turns at the most dramatically convenient time. Oh and another thing, our heroine has telekinetic abilities? What...when...explain movie! Repeating the word "T-Virus" doesn't tell me anything.The movie ends with our heroine finding multiple clones of herself and telling the main villain Wesker (Shawn Roberts) she's gunning for him next, which delightfully sets up the next movie with fans of the series able to access the mythology with finger-banging glee. As for those on the outside; you best just quit while you're ahead.

Python Hyena Resident Evil: Extinction (2007): Dir: Russell Mulcahy / Cast: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Mike Epps, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen: As with most zombie films these days the norm here seems to be an ongoing parade of violence and disgust. It regards the end of mankind and a band of survivors seeking escape from these flesh eating terrors. Forget the zombies and track down a decent screenwriter. Director Russell Mulcahy can film action but can his writers actually write a decent script? I've seen more creativity written on washroom stalls. Milla Jovovich plays the cloned Alice who slaughters the zombie population like a lawn mower. She has starred in every one of these films and despite her dominant and graceful presence she is still giving a by- the-numbers performance. Ali Larter, Oded Fehr and Mike Epps kill a lot of valuable time. These are people whom Jovovich must stick her neck out for because they are all about as useless as sh*t. They either get attacked and eaten by zombies or they survive because Jovovich is the only one who can kick zombie ass, and she does so with such flare and great bolts of energy that the screenplay never applies. These films exist more or less for violence, action and gross special effects and makeup. It is a pointless and disgustingly gross film that should be torn to shreds by zombies until it meets extinction. Score: 3 / 10

James Wood I think critics were unfair on this addition, my guess is that they just assumed it's another Resident Evil that will be like the others in their opinion. In actual fact, Extinction is far better than Apocalypse and more exciting than the first film because the story is better developed, the writing is solid and the characters are richly constructed, especially Claire Redfield's convoy who are essentially one big caring family trying to survive. The action is breathtaking too, Alice' powers really come to full effect, and the Las Vegas scene sets an uneasy atmosphere and the whole construction of that set is stunning. The infected crows scene is bloodily glorious, and when Alice uses her powers to deflect the flamethrower it looks incredible and shines bright, just like the Air-Brushing the editors used on Jovovich' face. This is the strongest in the franchise for story and character, and the balance between the two and action is brilliant.