The one thing that Extraction has going for it is that it is very short. At just eighty minutes long, the movie is over before the sheer awfulness of the plot, the acting, and the filmmaking really settles in. This is only an asset in the sense that things could certainly be worse. But it is not by any means good. This movie doesn't seem to have any ambition beyond being disposable. And for good reason: this is meant to be a direct-to-video feature. It certainly has no place in our cinemas. And yet here we are.
The movie begins with some time in the past, with CIA agent Leonard Turner (Bruce Willis, in what is basically an extended cameo) in the clutches of some bad guys, his cover apparently blown. He manages to escape, but his wife is killed in their home. Years later, his son Harry (Kellan Lutz) has also joined the CIA, but is struggling to get a field assignment. And then Leonard is captured on a mission to acquire a dangerous device that can hack into any system. Harry goes rogue and teams up with an old flame (Gina Carano) in order to find his father and save the world.
A big chunk of this film's very short runtime is dedicated to setting things up. Not that there is a lot to set up, or much payoff when all is said and done. But the film has to slow things down in the opening act to establish certain facts. The worst bits of exposition try to explain what it is that the movie's McGuffin does, and what needs to be done to stop it. In those moments, the film really reveals just how stupid it is. It starts talking about things that don't really matter to the overall plot, the movie going beyond its logical boundaries for the sake of making the plot seem bigger than it actually is.
The movie also tries to create a personal dramatic dimension to this story, but it really doesn't work out. Part of the problem is that none of the acting is very good. Asking Kellan Lutz and Gina Carano to try to convey some sort of romantic history really appears to be ill advised. And Bruce Willis just isn't even trying. He doesn't even seem to be awake in a couple of these scenes. But beyond the bad acting lies a bizarre dramatic journey where growth seems to be all about gaining the gumption to shoot someone in the face. This is a really weird message, and in the end, there is nothing gained from the personal histories given to these characters.
Taken purely as an action movie, Extraction is serviceable, but ultimately unimpressive. There isn't really much action to be found, and what little there is tends to suffer from the kind of choppy editing that has rendered a lot of modern action movies incomprehensible. Hand-to-hand combat makes up the majority of the action sequences. Some of it works well enough, but this certainly isn't the film you're going to want to see if you want distinctive martial arts filmmaking.
To be completely fair to Extraction, it probably accomplishes everything it set out to do. The film just isn't aiming very high, and given the limited tools it possesses, this works out better than a lot of other films of its ilk. But there is no need to lower our standards, especially since this film is screening in our cinemas. One might be more charitable to this film if it was on TV, or part of some sort of Internet streaming package. But for the price of a ticket, this kind of thing is unacceptable. The movie knows that it isn't good enough for screens. The mystery is why it's up there in the first place.
My Rating:
