Resident Evil: Extinction is a 2007 action horror film directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ashanti, and Mike Epps.  It is the third installment in the Resident Evil film series based on the video game series Resident Evil and follows the heroine Alice (Jovovich), along with a group of survivors from Raccoon City, as they attempt to travel across the Mojave desert wilderness to Alaska and escape a zombie apocalypse.

Positives:

• Good performances by the main and supporting cast
• Interesting characters
• Good soundtrack
• Good action sequences
• Good use of practical and make-up effects

Negatives:

• Unoriginal story
• Convenience ridden story
• Useless, flat characters

Plot:  Alice (Jovovich), along with a group of survivors from Raccoon City, as they attempt to travel across the Mojave desert wilderness to Alaska and escape a zombie apocalypse. An interesting story, though not really original.  It goes at a decent pace and does have its share of action, suspense, with pretty sweet twists. (3 out of 5)

Characters: The film does feature good characters.  Alice (Jovovich) is completely badass, she has a lot of great moments and even though she is strong, she is still vulnerable.  Claire (Larter) is definitely another strong female character that can serve as an alternative to Alice.  She is likable, she’s resourceful.  Isaacs (Glen) is a great antagonist although flat.  He does have a great personality as well as holding presence (even though the Isaacs-tyrant definitely wasn’t his finest moment).  Carlos Oliveira (Fehr) and L. J. Wade (Epps) return and their both badass, and have this really authentic camaraderie.  A lot of seemingly great characters who don’t get enough screentime include Betty (Ashanti), Chase (Ashby),  Mikey (Egan), K-Mart (Locke), Otto (Hursley), and Slater (Marsden). (4 out of 5)

Cast: Good performances by the cast.  Milla Jovovich is great.  Ali Larter is great. Iain Glen does a great job as Isaacs but doesn’t really deviate from his usual bad guy performance.  Other characters include: Mike Epps (who’s actually enjoyable to watch), Spencer Locke (who doesn’t get enough screentime), Oded Fehr (who was totally screwed), Christopher Egan (who never stood a chance), Ashanti (who looks good in the apocalypse), Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage himself), and Matthew Marsden (was literally given nothing to do, but get stabbed in the face). All in all, a pretty good cast.  (3 out of 5)

Visuals:  The zombie and infected creature designs look good.  The Isaacs-tyrant creature is the biggest issue of creature design.  The creature itself does look too bulky, and too clumsy to be taken seriously.  Even the CGI tentacles are too noticeable when they’re not hanging limply at it’s side like a stalk of string beans. (2 out of 5)

Score:  Good soundtrack though not really memorable.  Charlie Clouser does a great job. (3 out of 5)

Writing:  There are some problems with the script. The super zombies for instance.  What was the purpose of them?  They really didn’t seem all that necessary except as a means of both killing off the characters as well as infecting Isaac’s. Isaacs’ transformation could’ve been triggered by something else. Another point with the Isaacs’ tyrant that doesn’t add up is when he transforms he automatically killed everyone in the facility.  Everyone.  There were no survivors.  Even most of the character deaths feel unnecessary. Another problem is that they never addressed what ever happened to Angela from the previous film.  Could’ve been a great plot point to capitalize on for character development.  Does a great job of focusing on the characters.  The raven scene was probably the best scene out of the film.  It was original, well shot, and intense. The pacing was actually pretty good.  Russell Mulcahy does a decent job.  (3 out of 5)

The Verdict:  In the end, Resident Evil: Extinction is a good film but far from great.  The film does suffer from lack of originality, script with plenty of holes in it, poor visuals when it comes to the tyrant, and a bunch of great characters who are basically useless.  Despite this, it does garner praise from the good performances, great action, good visual effects, and good score.  Resident Evil: Extinction gets 3 out of 5.