RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION

After the T-Virus escaped the control of the Umbrella Corporation, the infection spread beyond the walls of Raccoon City and devastated all of humanity. The planet Earth is now reduced to an arid desert where the few survivors are constantly on the move to escape the hunger of the living dead generated by the T-Virus. Meanwhile, the responsible parties at Umbrella continue their experiments in an underground outpost, and their mission is now to find a cure for the virus they themselves unleashed. Apparently, the cure is hidden in the DNA of Alice, one of the most complex creatures that escaped the control of the scientists. The film opens with a sense of déjà-vu: Alice wakes up naked in the shower of a house in the woods near Raccoon City and, after putting on a red evening dress found on the bed, goes to explore the mansion. But it's a false start. Alice dies and her corpse is piled up on a heap of other lifeless Alices, clones. The déjà-vu is a bit the focal point around which the third chapter of the cinematic saga "Resident Evil" revolves, the brand born from a famous video game saga by Capcom and then arrived in the cinema in 2002 with the now cult film signed by Paul Anderson. We mentioned the déjà-vu, an intrinsic characteristic of this "Resident Evil: Extinction", because if we start by citing precisely the first film of the saga, we continue with a sequence in which Alice is chased by a group of desert rednecks who recall the cannibals of the craven hills, then we move on to the "Hitchcockian Birds" in a beautiful scene where a multitude of crows are the protagonists, to the "Romero's Day of the Dead", with even an intelligent zombie who knows how to use technological objects. We can then glimpse echoes from "Planet of the Apes", thanks to a statue of liberty buried under the sand, and the now famous "Nightmare on the Contaminated City" in the scene of the zombie attack on Las Vegas. "Resident Evil: Extinction" thus appears to the expert viewer as a cauldron in which ingredients from much of the genre cinema of the last 30-40 years are mixed. And yet, in its simplicity, the film works, in fact, it can be considered a success. It is immediately clear that "Resident Evil: Extinction", just like its two predecessors, has really nothing to do with the video game prototype (except for the names of some characters), but here an attempt is made to solve many of the problems that were encountered in the previous "Resident Evil: Apocalypse", starting with the messy direction and editing and the too low dose of horror, sacrificed in favor of the noisy action. In this third episode, the direction is handed over to the veteran Russell Mulcahy ("Razorback-Oltre l'urlo del demonio"; "Highlander - L'ultimo immortale"; "Resurrection"), who manages to optimally manage the spaces and the rhythm, making the film very fluid and fascinating in its setting (thanks mainly to the scenographer Eugenio Caballero). The action, although constantly present, does not assume those annoying facets of a series B action movie, instead giving great space to pure horror, based on bloody fights with the living dead, with zombie dogs and with a monstrous final boss that greatly resembles the monster of the console "Resident Evil 2". The screenplay is written by Paul Anderson and, unfortunately, apart from the constant references to the genre cinematic imagination, offers very little of interest due to characters that are too ephemeral and a lack of solidity generated by yet another open ending. The cast includes, in addition to the veteran and always convincing Milla Jovovich as Alice, many of the survivors from the previous film, plus a group of new entries led by Ali Larter ("The Mystery of the Hill House"; "Final Destination") as Claire Redfield, a character dear to gamers. In short, "Resident Evil: Extinction", although it fails to match the good film directed by Anderson in 2002, is still a valid sequel (clearly superior to "Resident Evil: Apocalypse"), which has its strong point in a fascinating setting and the courage to want to experiment with a very different approach to the saga. Some sequences are excellent, but the screenplay is very weak. Suitable for an hour and a half of pure entertainment.