Extinction

I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. Pretty much everyone is tired of the zombie genre by now but no one seems to be doing much to try and change up the formula.

Enter "Extinction", where the main story focus is on the relationship between the two main male leads. After a brief intro scene setting the zombie apocalypse stage, we are sent years into the future and the two men, though living next door to one another in their survivalist enclave, have nothing to do with each other. What has happened in the intervening time to drive them apart? Well, we learn that during the course of the movie, naturally, but it was nice to see that, although there are zombies in the movie, they aren't the focus of the story, merely the backdrop.

This type of movie works really well. The mystery surrounding the two men's falling out and the relationship with the little girl keep you guessing for a while. Of course, the "twist" isn't so wild or subtle that you don't guess it really early on, but it is nice, nonetheless.

The zombies, of course, though absent from much of the film, reappear at length, and we are treated to some nice moments of film making that put me in mind of older films. There is suspense and some nice moments of tension until they are finally revealed but there are a few too many jump scares.

Ultimately, the human drama enhances what would otherwise be a boring zombie movie and makes it into a very decent film indeed. The two main actors involved, Matthew Fox and Jeffrey Donovan, handle their roles very well and give very good performances.

That said, if you prefer your zombies slow and shambling, or your zombie flicks to be fast paced and violent, then this one may not be for you. On the other hand, if you want to try something a little bit different in the zombie apocalypse, then give it a go.

SUMMARY: More human drama than zombie-fest, though there are plenty of them towards the end. Well worthwhile if you want something more than "Pew-pew-pew! Die Zombie Die!" to watch.

As far as the film goes, a tragedy takes place at the beginning of the movie which puts the two men against each other. Now when I first saw the trailer to this flick I knew it wouldn't be a high budget film. So going into the first 1 hr of the film had me a bit worried that it would be full of cheesy special effects. But instead the script writer maintains focus on the two protagonists and the kid, which is a smart way to do a low budget film less gore, less explosions, less cost. I found it to be quite scary at certain points especially when you see a camera turn away from one of the actors you know something is going to pop out behind. Matthew fox does a pretty good job maintaining a strange character with some sort of secret but if you're like me you can piece it together no problem. I really enjoyed the make up designs for the evolved zombies, but it didn't pan out to be as great as I expected. If you dig movies such as the descent or even 30 days of night I'm sure you will find a shed of enjoyment with the film. Don't over sell yourself thinking it is a complete sleeper it will have its moments, but unfortunately a short hand of them.

I feel like lot's of different movies were used as inspiration for this one. It seems to have taken ideas from lots of places. It's worth a watch but only middle of the road. In the world of zombie type movies it's certainly not the worst one you'll ever see.

In recent years I have really struggled to come across a zombie horror movie which really interested me. This movie is not the most original I have ever seen and it is relatively predictable however I did still find myself entertained through 90% of the film. The characters were, for the most part, likable and it had some tense moments. The 'zombie' design was not very original but creepy nonetheless. The acting was decent and the setting was interesting. As the movie went on I felt it comparable to the likes of 'I am Legend', 'The Descent' and 'Signs'. All of which I consider pretty good movies so I wasn't too bothered about the obvious similarities. All in all I felt it was an hour and a half well spent and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of this genre.

At first I thought "Oh no, not another zombie movie!", but from the very first minutes I got hooked. The beginning scene of the film is great and reveals the overall theme of the movie: it is not about why or the how, it's all about the who.

Extinction is rather badly chosen a title, because the scope of the film is not global, but very localized, very human and personal. It feels more like a play, with a total of four roles that are worth mentioning. It is not about a problem that someone solves, but goes back to the core of the zombie genre, the pure survival of the group of individuals in a hostile world. The creatures themselves are very secondary with the focus on the people, with complex and well written characters.

Bottom line: this film deserves a lot more recognition than the IMDb rating seems to indicate. It is not a masterpiece, but certainly a work of art, not another recycled "run, shoot, run" clone. It lasts for two hours and it is a slow paced character driven story. So glad to see well written stories from time to time.