Friday 14 March 2014

Esident Revil Extinction

This is the movie I remember the most, probably having seen it often... it about three times? Rewatching it... it's hard to tell if it borrows more from Mad Max or Day of the Dead.

Most of the plot of this movie is irrelevant. There's a convoy, and we follow them as they go from random location to random location, not doing much. Worse are the Alice scenes, most of which could be removed without missing anything. Two scenes you might remember the most (probably because they were in the trailer I likely saw often) is the crow burning scene and the Vegas sequence... but these, like the rest of the scenes in this movie, are just random scenes stitched together because they are "cool". What is the point of the opening scene at the radio station? Just to say 'Alice is a badass'? We know this. To fulfil the zombie dog quota? We don't need that. To show off that people are bastards? We already get that. No reason at all.

The relevant (to the overarching Umbrella plot) scenes take about... five minutes? We get a repeat of the opening of the first movie, which threw audiences a bit (well, me definitely), but otherwise Isaacs looking at zombies and being "evil" (which is like evil, but hammier). And then he gets infected and we get a big fight scene end boss... that's dealt with very easily, making him feel pointless. Thanks for that. And the final shot which promises so much for the next movies... (And this is one of the reasons I'm rewatching / retalking about these movies. Do they make more sense watched back to back? Certainly I can notice returning characters easier.)

Even with the returning characters, the Road Warrior sequences are full of one dimensional people, and they are offed often. They are basic stereotypes, so I don't feel invested in them. And Iain Glen is, as I said, hamming it up, so his sequences don't resonate interestingly either. And Milla Jovovitch gets a bit to do, but most has to stand around moodily, so that's not that exciting either.

A filler of a movie.

[END]

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