It's a RESIDENT EVIL film, so you know when you buy the ticket what to expect and the film never strays away from the expected at all. There are zombies, zombie dogs, zombie birds and a giant mad doctor superbeastie at the end to deal with. It's an video game that you watch instead of play. If that's all that you want then RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION is competent enough. There are a couple of bravura action sequences (the crow attack and the Las Vegas ambush) and then it's all back down into the tunnels of the lab complex for a finale that fans will find comforting in its familiarity.

The plot, such as it is, is a hotchpotch of stolen influences cobbled together. At least writer Anderson and director Mulcahy have attempted to steal from the best. MAD MAX 2 is the most obvious steal with the post-apocalyptic setting, the caravan of petrol scavenging survivors, the lone hero and the whole look of the film. There are also nods to THE BIRDS, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (promise of a danger-free refuge), ALIEN RESURRECTION (with all the Alice clones being used in nasty experiments) and DAY OF THE DEAD with the scientists trying to domesticate the zombies.

What RESIDENT EVIL films do is action scenes and zombie killing. Milla Jovovich can do this sort of stuff with her eyes closed and doesn't even bother to try and emote at any point any more. Ali Larter is drafted in from TV's Heroes to add a little more current wattage and Oded Fehr is back from the previous film for no readily apparent reason. None of this actually matters because we aren't given enough time to get to know any of the characters, let along get to like them and if you haven't seen the other films in the series then there is information that is hinted at, but which they're not going to explain to you again.

The fight scenes are bloody and graphic and you can't help feeling a bit sorry for the zombies as they get offed in supposedly amusing ways and never really offer a credible threat to the destruction machine that is Alice. Still, heads are mashed, blown in, blown apart, shot through and the claret stuff sprays across the screen often enough and in copious enough amounts to please the fans.

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION is a film for the fans of the series. If you like this sort of thing, then it's fine. If you want sense, acting, plot or anything more than zombie crunching the look elsewhere.

Trailer