Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Written by Paul W.S. Anderson

Cast
Milla Jovovich as Alice
Oded Fehr as Carlos Olivera
Ali Larter as Claire
Iain Glen as Dr. Isaacs
Ashanti as Betty

Rated R for strong horror violence throughout and some nudity

First, a Lost-style flashback:  I couldn't tell you exactly how old I was, but sometime in the 70's, at a single-digit age, a since-defunct UHF station decided to mix up their Saturday Afternoon Creature Double Feature and add to the usual run of black-and-white 50's monster movies Bob Clark's Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.  Watching this gruesome zombiethon at that age (with my parents, no less!) pretty much scarred me, if not for life, at least for a couple decades.  While I've developed a healthy appreciation of most kinds of R-rated horror as an adult, I've remained a tad wary of anything that rises from its' grave in large numbers to eat the flesh of the living.  So it is that I arrive late to the Resident Evil party.  I've never played any of the video games nor seen either previous chapter in the popular movie franchise based upon them.  But as Resident Evil:  Extinction arrived on the scene sporting a cool post-apocalyptic Las Vegas trailer, I figured, what the hell:  if things went too badly, I could always run screaming for the exits and give anyone who asked an assumed name.  I was rewarded with a movie light on the zombies and heavy on the Road Warrior, plus an outstanding Milla Jovovich as the hottest woman to ever slice off two heads in the same motion.

Gotta give it to The Umbrella Corporation:  when they engineer a deadly virus, they pull out all the stops.  In fact, the virus released into Raccoon City (it's a video game, people, cut it some slack!) in Resident Evil:  Apocalypse has now spread throughout the planet and done everything from turning 99% of the world's population into zombies to drying up the oceans.  Small packs of human survivors remain, mostly on the move to prevent the zombie hordes from drawing a bead on them.  Among those survivors is the not-quite-human Alice (Milla Jovovich), who prowls the desert on her cool bike looking for hope.  She finds it in the form of a discarded diary that tells of faded radio broadcasts from Alaska.  Apparently, the virus never reached isolated parts of the 49th state.  So, Alice hooks up with a caravan carrying old friends Carlos (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps) along with leader Claire (Ali Larter) and a bunch of colorful refugees and convinces them to buy into a trip up North.  But first, they need to refuel, which will mean a pit stop in the ruins of Las Vegas.  And don't count out The Umbrella Corporation, where Mad Scientist Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) needs Alice's blood for Mad Experiments that include dozens of Alice clones and making the zombies his own personal army.

Assuming that no one would actually decide to join the franchise at this late date, Extinction screenwriter Paul W.S. Anderson (who directed the original Resident Evil and has penned all three films) doesn't waste any time bothering to bring me up to speed.  But as a veteran of about 9,000 Sci-Fi Channel movies with similar subjects and smaller budgets, I was able to keep up.  And, as the film races from one “don't open that door!” setpiece to another, it's best to watch it in the moment regardless of how much backstory you do or don't know.  It's fairly light on plot and character (although an excellently selected cast does a good job making their own fun), but veteran “cool stuff” director Russell Mulcahy (whose The Shadow is one of the most gorgeously mounted movies ever to make no sense) keeps things moving effectively.

There are two things that really make the movie work.  First, and foremost, is Jovovich, who's found her Hamlet as the genetic experiment-turned-superheroine Alice.  I don't believe any woman has ever seemed more beautiful while slicing the undead to ribbons.  But she's more than just a model with a weapon:  there's a real high-wire to be walked in playing one of these “I just want to care and share until you push me too far and then I'll kill you all” kind of roles (doubly so for a woman) and she's really got it licked.

Then there's The Umbrella Corporation, as wonderfully oversized a juggernaut of buffoonish corporate Evil as a person could ask for.  Sure, these besuited tools have unleashed the Worst. Virus. Ever. on the planet, but to them, it's no worse than a falling stock price.  Bunkered down all over the world and meeting via holographic teleconference, the Umbrella board has two goals:  to get their overpaid butts back to the surface, where no doubt land is going for pennies on the dollar, and to find a way to restore order among the now zombified population.  And what does that mean to an Evil Corporation?  Teaching zombies to use cell phones and take digital pictures, of course!  Hell, if we were all a bunch of flesh-eating ghouls, but still plopped down our hard-earned dollars on the latest consumer electronic crap, would Wall Street even notice the difference?  Jason O'Mara is a hoot as Chairman Albert Wesker, wearing sunglasses even in a boardroom with barely any light at all, while Iain Glen is the model of Mad Science as the doctor the board trusts too much not to stab them in the back... and the throat... and the brain.

And what about the zombies, you might ask?  For the most part, they're tidily sanitized to fit the movie's R rating, spilling relatively little blood and devouring flesh only out of the camera's view.  Fluids of all kinds are minimal, in keeping with the film's bone-dry setting.  A flock of zombie crows makes an impressive appearance, and a couple characters must face one of the seminal Romero Dillemas:  once bitten by a ghoul, do you let anyone know or just keep picking at that ever-growing zombie scab until you go Dark Side at the least-convenient possible moment?  Like most recent movie zombies, these fiends are sprinters rather than shufflers, making them both more dangerous and less fearsomely relentless.  There are a few good jump scares and one of the ghouls' makeup is genuinely unsettling, but for the most part, the movie's heart lies in action rather than terror.

Resident Evil:  Extinction is a breezy 95-minute run through familiar genre territory, with some good effects (there isn't much to the post-apocalyptic Las Vegas that you don't see in the trailer, but it's still pretty cool), frisky zombies, delightfully fiendish corporate stooges and an awesomely sexy/tough heroine.  There isn't much here you haven't seen before (well, there IS a zombie on a cell phone...), but what self-respecting fan of the living dead would let that stop them from buying a ticket?