Resident Evil: Extinction
Dir: Russell Mulcahy
2007
***
The leap between Apocalypse and Extinction is pretty big and I'm not sure it helped the franchise. THe last scene of Resident Evil: Apocalypse was open to interpretation somewhat and a bit of a cliff-hanger, but the beginning sequence makes no referance to it and starts off with its own mysterious statement. It's a shock start, which I loved. but surely it is a bit lazy not to address the last previous film's finale, especially as it really made a statement. It's obvious with the hiring of Russell Mulcahy as the franchise's third director that they were looking at a change of pace visually as well as story-wise, which is understandable, but a little frustrating too. Mulcahy's work is 50% B-Movie and 50% music video and Resident Evil: Extinction feels much the same. The desert yellow filter made a nice change to the dark and progressively dreary blue of the past films though and the the film moved on in the right direction, I just can't help but think they decided they would go with a 'Mad max-style' film before actually deciding what the film would be about. Like the two previous films its no masterpiece but I found myself still wanting more which is always a good sign and I don't think i'm the only one. It is somewhat of a kick-start but the next film should remember its roots a little more and should also remember to be a little less serious.