The Cinema of the Four

Resident Evil: Extinction

There comes a time when a young man’s fancy turns to two things: women endowed with much more than what Nature has given them and the flesh-consuming zombie. Usually this season coincides with the release of a Milla Jovovich film, and I can depend upon the good Dr. Watson the Fourth to alert me to these occasions. He is my darkhorizons.com on such matters, as well as someone whose silence in a movie theater can be depended upon.

When one says that the Milla Jovovich character in any motion picture is “endowed with more than what Nature has given,” one refers, of course, to strength, speed, and the ability to look fashion-runway perfect during a battle to the death. As any connoisseur of the action film can tell you, a fight scene in a movie is a well choreographed dance, and Ms. Jovovich (and her stunt doubles) is a master of that under-appreciated art.

But I digress. The “Resident Evil” series is about the evil Umbrella Corporation and the zombie-creating T virus plague they unwittingly unleash upon humanity. Somehow the Umbrella Corporation survives even when all governments, and even civilization itself, have fallen. But also surviving is the superhuman Alice (Ms. Jovovich’s character), and one can’t help but suspect that things aren’t going to go well for either of them.

While was the look of the “Mad Max” series in some of “Resident Evil: Extinction,” there were many elements going back to the original “Resident Evil” . . . enough that it can’t be simply dismissed as some “Mad Max” clone. It’s “R.E” all the way, from zombie dogs to criss-cross laser defenses. Mike Epps and Oded Fehr return from the previous film, and as always, there’s a new tough gal to make Milla look all the more feminine while she’s hacking zombies with her twin machetes. This time Ali Larter from TV’s “Heroes” is filling that spot, as leader of a rag-tag caravan of survivors.

All of the ingredients are present for an excellent science fiction/horror movie inspired by a video game. Should one expect anything more? Of course not. But if this sort of case is an investigation that a movie detective would willingly undertake, “Resident Evil: Extinction” is its own remark.

What great-grandfather Sherlock might have said:
“The lady, Alice . . . was a very perfect girl both in mind and body.”

(You expected “What have we to do with walking corpses . . .”? Have you seen Milla Jovovich?)