It seems that not only is Alice trying to keep a low profile and stay under the Umbrella Corporation's radar, but her unusual abilities from being fused with the T-Virus have grown. Before joining Claire's convoy, Alice discovers possible evidence that there is a colony of survivors in Alaska and the virus hasn't reached there yet. The convoy decides to risk everything and make their way to the North, but first, they need supplies and while they have been avoiding major cities, the only thing left to do is go into Las Vegas (the closest big city) and refuel and resupply.
Meanwhile, back at Umbrella, Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen) is trying to reproduce the success that Alice was. Unaware that she is still alive, he has been engineering clones of her and running them through a series of tests that hark back to the previous movies (the laser hall in The Hive, one-on-one encounters with zombies, etc.), but none seem to be quite right. Isaac's other tasks include attempting to domesticate the zombies and, as a secret side project, develop super zombies that are bigger, meaner and faster than before.
When an Alice lets her guard down, Isaacs becomes aware that she is still alive and sics a pack of super-zombies after her and the convoy in the desert-reclaimed Las Vegas. Let's just say, the encounter doesn't go quite the way Isaacs hoped and he gets a dose of his own medicine.
The feel of Resident Evil: Extinction is very different from the past ones. While the first film felt very confined and closed in and the second one had a "city-wide" feel to it, the third one is much bigger and the large desert landscapes really open it up. In fact, I couldn't help feeling like the movie was Road Warrior meets Resident Evil, a feeling that the creators confirmed they were going for in one of the featurettes.
There are a couple of details that I feel I have to mention. First, I think it was interesting how Milla's skin always seemed spotless and almost airbrushed, even in the harshest of environments. This little detail really made her stand out in any scene and almost made it feel like the desert and the horror that is happening can't affect her. The other aspect that bears noting is how unbalanced the movie's audio seemed to be. Dialogue is always really low and the action sequences had really loud sound effects (explosions, gunfire, etc.). Consequently, I had to watch the movie with the remote in my hand and constantly adjust the volume.
Resident Evil: Extinction also comes with a good number of special features. While there is the standard fare of commentaries and deleted scenes, there are also four featurettes that talk about how the visual effects and makeup crews tried to use as little CG as possible in order to give a real-world feel to the movie. There is a featurette on the miniature Las Vegas that is constructed, as well as the makeup used for both the zombies and the Tyrant creature that Dr. Isaac becomes.
There is also a teaser trailer on the disc for Resident Evil: Degeneration, a CG movie being developed that appears to not coincide with the events of the live-action films. This could very well be the film that fans of the games have been waiting for since many complain that the movies diverge too far from the original plots.
The Blu-ray version of this film also has an added bonus of something called Blu Wizard. This feature allows you to select only the special features you want to see. When you go to the Blu Wizard screen, you see every feature on the disc and you check off the ones you want to view. Then you save your play list and whenever you want, you can just start it up and skip over the features you don't want to see. This means you can skip over individual featurettes or specific deleted scenes if you want. It's an interesting idea, but while there are a lot of features on this disc, I don't think it's quite enough to warrant this feature on this particular movie - maybe some other larger release, but then again, this could easily become a standard option on Blu-ray movies in the future.
While Resident Evil: Extinction takes another giant step away from the game's story, people who have stuck through the past two movies and want to see what happens to Alice next would definitely want to watch this one. Is it worth buying? Maybe for hardcore Milla or RE fans, but it won't keep everyone's interest, that's for sure.
