Resident Evil: Extinction Review

Resident Evil: Extinction
**

The only question you may ask in regards to Resident Evil: Extinction, the fourth film in the series, is the dreaded question "Why?" Why do we need closure to a series about flesh eating zombies? Why should I see this movie if it is anything like the previous installments? Why does the main character have superpowers now? The answer, my friend, is "Why NOT?" This applies to all of the above, and then some.
There really is no reason to apply any type of rationalization to it. Yes, I know all the zombies were nuked at the end of Resident Evil Apocalypse. Yes, there really is no explanation for how the earth was essentially destroyed. The important thing is that now the protagonist of this story, Alice, can lift really heavy things and blow stuff up with her mind. I know, I know, that makes her "smokin'" in more ways than one. That, in a nutshell, is the entire experience.
I feel no need to explore the narrative further than zombies meet Milla Jovovich in the desert and they fight. Despite there being two previous installments, and countless video games, the back story is practically meaningless considering how much it swerves between mindless action and convoluted science fiction. Notice how I didn't mention horror. Here is Resident Evil's most meaningful (certainly not the most evident) downfall. Despite there being nine Resident Evil video games in circulation, the movie ignores every single one in pursuit of a below-sub-par action flick. The reason for this is that good horror requires you as a viewer to become emotionally invested in the characters, to mentally take the darkness into consideration and fear for human safety. It requires intelligence. This film was not made with, or for, that kind of viewing. In fact, I was astounded during the last ten minutes of the film to discover that Milla Jovovich actually has lines of dialogue. She performs them well, but my shock of actually hearing her voice left me incapable of determining a single syllable. I'm sure I didn't miss much.
Although we are used to the third film being the last in the series, I can fortunately say that this one is still left open ended enough to allow for future installments. So while you may be asking yourself how a flock of crows could pick through every block of Las Vegas, or how the evil Umbrella Corporation was able to outsmart every zombie with a (gasp!) chain link fence, or why everyone just doesn't chill out, the answer may be on it's way in the form of another sequel...
Or not.
But boy are those crows cool!

See it if you like zombies as much as I do.