If there’s a notable silver lining to be found for cineastes
in the third installment of the Resident
Evil franchise, it’s that a bravura, mid-film zombie crow sequence may have
squelched the need for Michael Bay’s long-rumored remake of The Birds.
Milla Jovovich returns as dispassionate butt-kicker
the former head of security for the shadowy, powerful Umbrella Corporation. In
a land where an experimental virus has spread from
population into a mass of shambling flesh-eaters, Alice herself is marked by
biogenic experimentation that has left her genetically altered. While a shady
Umbrella scientist (Iain Glen) still works to capture and/or kill Alice for his
own purposes, she hooks up with a roaming band of survivors (including
returnees Mike Epps and Oded Fehr, above center, and newcomer Ali Larter, above left). A planned escape to
is scotched by a pit stop gone awry in
where O.J. Simpson shows up and angrily demands the return of his sports
collectibles.
OK, not that last part, but something so deliciously
arbitrary might have helped, given the overly familiar track the rest of this
movie runs on. Intermittent action
catharsis and reliably deafening sound design punctuate Extinction, but with little to no reset explanation of the
particulars of Alice’s powers (sometimes she can summon a massive force field,
sometimes not) each set piece becomes more emotionally inconsequential than the
one prior, leading to a denouement that nicely echoes a slice ’em, dice ’em bit
from the quite fun and engaging original film in the series, but still leaves
one feeling a bit empty. Resident Evil
might have finally run out of gas, after all, at least as currently configured.
Its DVD presentation, though, suffers no such problems. Loaded with special features, the film comes presented in a
regular plastic Amray case in turn stored in a cardboard slipcase. The video
transfer for the movie’s 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation is superb,
with strong blacks and consistent flesh tones, and only very mild edge
enhancement in a couple scenes. English, French and Spanish Dolby digital 5.1
surround sound tracks dictate a compelling aural experience, and subtitles are
additionally available in each language.
Sitting for a feature-length audio commentary track, director
Russell Mulcahy, producer Jeremy Bolt and producer-writer Paul Anderson talk
about the movie’s
location shoot. It’s an anecdote-laden chat, but of course filled with all
sorts of spoilers and arcing stories, so if you haven’t seen all three films,
you might be advised to skip this track and come back to it later. Eleven
deleted scenes, running about eight-and-a-half minutes in aggregate, add a bit
of welcome character detail and reset from prior films, even if some of the
dialogue is occasionally awkwardly worded and arranged. Four making-of
featurettes run, in total, just over half an hour. In the pre-production
segment, writer and originating director Anderson talks about his inspirations
for the series (Lucio Fulci and George Romero, naturally), and how he wanted to
tackle something with post-apocalyptic scale for this installment. The bit concentrating
on the actual physical production is the longest segment, logically, and offers
up some good tidbits from cast and crew about dealing with the winds and sand
of the desert location. The two most interesting and informative sections,
however, might be the last two featurettes, which look at the actors portraying the film’s
zombies, and the movie’s make-up, miniature models and CGI effects work. For a genre flick with so many working, interfacing parts, it’s nice to get a glimpse at all the components. C- (Movie) B+ (Disc)