Resident Evil: Extinction

  • Review Date: January 2, 2008
  • R
  • Genre: Horror
  • 2007
 Review

Common Sense Media says

Zombie sequel is just as grisly as the first two.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this video game-based zombie movie features extremely gross and graphic violence, with many disgusting deaths. People are in extreme peril, and most of the main characters -- even sympathetic ones -- wind up slain grotesquely. There's some swearing (though maybe not quite as much as you'd expect, considering the butchery and the R rating) and non-sexual nudity. The heroine is a courageous and capable woman, and the good guys are a nicely multicultural bunch (even if they don't last the duration). Some of the background story might be confusing if you haven't seen the two previous movies.

  • Characterizations don't go very deep. Most of the "good guys" are striving to protect a convoy of the uninfected (including children), but they sometimes treat zombie killing as a sport. Villains (besides the ravenous mutated zombies, who can't help themselves) are the remaining authority figures, such as medical scientists (so callous and power-mad they even let their own colleagues get killed) and evil-businessman types -- who are all white males, by the way. That said, the good guys are nicely multicultural, and Alice is a courageous and capable woman.
  • Frequent carnage inflicted on humans and zombies (including dogs mutated into half-rotten zombies). Impalings, squashings, slashings, burnings, and more; one zombie is pinned by a crossbow bolt, and a crow subsequently pecks out his eye. Humans are bitten by zombies, and countless zombies are shot through the skull. Monstrous tentacles squeeze out a man's eyes. A threat of rape at one point.
  • Some characters allude to hot dates, but there's no sexual action. Non-sexual female nudity (in the form of clones suspended in fluid sacs in fetal positions) is viewed mainly in profile. One grotesque female zombie has a bare breast.
  • "S--t" and "bitch" are used, though more at PG-13 levels than R. "A--hole" is a punchline over the closing credits.
  • Product names visible on computers, cell phones, and vehicles. Ruins of prominent Las Vegas casinos are identifiable. And, of course, there's the fact that the movie is inspired by a popular video game.
  • Brief marijuana smoking, social drinking.

What's the story?

As gory as the first two zombie films based on the popular video game, RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION takes place five years into a global plague of cannibal undead unleashed by the Umbrella Corporation, an evil multinational whose executives are holed up in bunkers around the world, trying to find a cure (though it really doesn't seem like these businessmen and doctors care all that much about humanity, since billions have already perished or turned into monsters). As seen in the previous movies, the heroine is a former Umbrella corporate security agent named Alice (Milla Jovovich), who was genetically transformed by an elite Umbrella researcher named Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) into a super-powered type capable of wielding psi-power force fields and performing martial-arts type acrobatics.

In Extinction, Alice wanders the U.S. desert wastelands in a way that's very reminiscent of the Mad Max series. She's avoided her former friends for years because of what her Umbrella pursuers might do to them, but now she reunites with surviving allies who've joined a highway convoy of uninfected refugees that's trying to reach safety in faraway Alaska. But Dr. Isaacs pinpoints Alice near Las Vegas, and he sets a trap with his own specially trained species of zombie.


Is it any good?

 

The graphically violent Resident Evil movies are based on a popular series of video games in which players must use their weaponry against contagious, flesh-eating ghouls and monstrous mutations -- the spawn of an evil, high-tech corporation that infected humans and animals with a genetically modified virus strain. You don't need to have played the games to comprehend Extinction; but it does help to have seen the original and its sequel. Extinction earns points as the least-predictable of the set, in basic terms of what happens next. But you can safely expect the gore quotient to be high ... and frequently sickening.

Jovovich's Alice is a watchable and physical action heroine, even if the part doesn't exactly call for great depth. It goes in the "plus" column to have a courageous, capable woman at the center of things who doesn't dress for battle mainly to show off her figure. There's also a decent racial mix to the good guys -- even if most of them don't survive the finale. The Umbrella authorities, meanwhile, are overwhelmingly white and male.


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What families can talk about

Families can talk about the appeal of zombie-gore movies. How does the action in the Resident Evil movies compare to that in films like Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later? Which is spookier? Why? You can also compare the Resident Evil movies to the video games they're based on. Which is more entertaining -- the interactive zombie-killing experience, or the passive one? For more facts about media and violence, see our guide.


This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
Kid, 11 years old
September 16, 2011
 
ADULT
it is voilent but dont you think if your watching it wit an adult that already seen it skip the parts that are wrong

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Adult
April 25, 2009
 
Good movie.....Just not for young teens.
Resident Evil Extinction, Its a good movie and its action packed. This movie will scare some and thrill others. The Violence, Pretty intense violence. Zombies shot through the head, Crossbow killings, Pretty gory scenes with the machete. Just all out gore movie. The Language, Not to bad, A couple of S*** and B**** and some other 3 letter words. Sexual Content, There's some zombie nudity (hah) but no sexual actions. This movie is also pretty scary for a lot of folks so its a horror/thriller in my opinion. I give it a 8.5/10.

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Kid, 12 years old
February 24, 2011
 
ITS NOT THAT BAD!
Im 11 and I saw this a few days ago, you guys are really kinda over reacting. Though im 11 the reason i say 14+ is that I can handle gore and violence but I would say 14+. The violence is some blood, lots of scenes where zombies get shot, one scene has several zombies getting holes shot in their faces, and just the whole end of the world theme is kinda dark, the sexuality- their ray isn't any besides the ending, in the ending you see someone naked but you can only see her breasts and pretty much nothing else, their actualy IS some bad language but its not like really bad like racial slurs and stuff its just like s words and d words and f words.

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Adult
May 11, 2009
 
the movie is great and if your really cocerned about bare breasts there is only 1 scene as for gore ya it has alot but its a horror if that offends you simply don't watch it but it is a great movie all of them are

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Teen, 18 years old
April 9, 2008
 
Great Movie

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Teen, 15 years old
August 4, 2010
 
Perfect for horrar zombie fans.
This is the perfect example of the whole zombie infestation. Only warning is gore and violence. language ranges to b**** s*** other than that thrills all the way.

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Adult
February 28, 2009
 

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Adult
January 28, 2009
 
excellent movie
the best movie i have ever seen

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Kid, 10 years old
July 24, 2011
 
could have done a little better
Extinction is great i'm a RESIDENT EVIL fan.My brother said who is that and stuff.So in this one you have to know what's going on in last 2 RESIDENT EVIL movies.Again I saw this on TNT so a lot of bad stuff like gore was edited.The TNT one is on for 12 and on for 16 and up.

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Adult
April 24, 2009
 

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This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
Studio:Screen Gems
Director:Russell Mulcahy
Cast:Ali Larter, Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr
Genre:Horror
Run time:95 minutes
Theatrical release date:September 21, 2007
DVD release date:January 1, 2008
MPAA rating:R
MPAA explanation:strong horror violence throughout and some nudity.

This review was written by Charles Cassady Jr.
 

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

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