Ok, for a matinee

I had a few reasons for wanting to see this movie, even though it was undoubtedly going to be somewhat stupid. First, it was one of those "Well, I saw the first two, so I guess we'll do this one, too" kinds of movies. I may complain along with everyone else about Hollywood's current sequel-itis, but I buy into certain franchises just like all the other suckers. Despite my having only played one RE game (RE4 for the Wii--great game), I keep finding myself interested in these movies.

Second, judging from the trailer, it seemed to have a kind of Mad Max vibe going for it--armored convoys traveling through the desert, and what have you. Until Fallout 3 comes out next year, I'll get my post-apocalyptic-desert-wasteland fix whatever way I can.

And my third reason? Zombies!! (Though, it should be noted, this movie follows the "28 * Later" model and never uses the Z-word...not sure why.) Shallow and disturbing as it may be, I like watching undead getting shot and run over and decapitated.

So, did the movie meet expectations? As the third movie in a series...not really. They decided to take an increasingly-common risk here in not really setting anything up. As Netty pointed out, if you didn't see the first two, you really don't care about these characters. And as someone who did see the first two...I still didn't care all that much. Plus, despite what might be considered foreshadowing in the title ("Extinction" => either humans or undead become extinct), this movie doesn't resolve anything. It only advances the plot of the overall series in one significant way which, for the sake of spoiler-free-ness, I won't mention here. So, as a sequel, it more or less fails.

Luckily, the Road Warrior vibe did actually work for me, though I can see others criticizing it as derivative. Heck, it is derivative, but the idea of a bunch of dirty, tired, scared people banding together for survival, and welding together a convoy of armor-plated vehicles is always cool to me. It's too bad they didn't play it up more, but I guess the whole T-Virus plot (you know, the thing this series is supposed to be about) got in the way of that...

Maybe I should just go rent The Road Warrior.

Bottom line: a decent zombie movie that feels cooler than it actually is.

My rating: 6/10
IMDb rating: 6.5/10

(BTW, I'm hoping to catch 3:10 to Yuma either tonight or tomorrow. I expect it to be quite a bit better than this movie was.)