Film Review: EXTRACTION on Netflix
SYNOPSIS: "A hardened mercenary's mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he's sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son." (Watch on Netflix)
A feature film directed by Sam Hargrave (in his feature debut - and I realised he played the Sniper too!) and written by Joe Russo, based on the graphic novel "Ciudad" (more on this below), premiered on the streaming platform on April 24th, which I managed to sit down recently to watch. Since said launch, a sequel apparently "is in development." (Source).
This feature was based on the 2014 graphic novel "Ciudad" (written by Ande Parks, Joe & Anthony Russo, and artist Fernando León González), published by Oni Press (Buy on Amazon). Interestingly, the role of "Ovi Mahajan" (son of Indian crime lord, played here by Rudhraksh Jaiswal), was originally a girl, "Eva Roche", in the comicbook source. And of course the geography is different in the live-action adaptation.
Chris Hemsworth plays "Tyler Rake" (a former SASR operator turned mercenary), and as well is listed as a producer for this project. No other familiar Hollywood faces I recognise - except for David Harbour (of "Stranger Things"-fame & "Hellboy"-infamy) - with a predominantly South East Asian-cast rounding up the players - those that are not covered in balaclavas, that is.
One thing which I appreciated in this Hollywood-fare, is that there is quite a dedicated focus on these prior mentioned S.E.A. actors as well, giving them decent on-screen time, to speak (No I don't understand the language to comment on their lines, thanks) and emote, and not necessarily be the cardboard-"villains"-cut-outs we get to witness in LaLaLand, IMHO.
And as well I appreciated the balance struck in the "villains" not being wholly incompetent in this film - of course they still get killed by the flawed-hero, but...
We are treated to near 2 hours ("1h 57m" to be exact) of excess violence, borne of bloodshed via multiple bullets and blade-cuts, exceptional stunt-work, along with pretty-lit camerawork (*Shout out to camera constantly following the action - from car chases to roof-top jumps), and a consistently "yellow-filtered" view (mentioned by matadornetwork.com), that could easily have been Blackhawk Down's "Sommalia" et al.
But FFS, the stunts, people! THE STUNTS will quite literally blow everything else (story, plot, et al) out of the water, as far as I am concerned LOL
Chris Hemsworth as Tyler (I could've sworn my brain was saying "Brad" even before Ovi said it :p), moping throughout the series, unable to let go of his past, where even lobbing off Thanos' head did not ease him of the guilt of "The Snap" ... no wait, different movie? No wonder it all felt familiar...! We are still reeling from his turn as Thor Odinson in Avengers: Endgame, aren't we? But instead of a (2?) mystical hammer(s) - he has equipped himself here with automatic rifles and an assortment of hand-pistols which he wields in deftly performed gun-fu (Thanks "John Wick"), and a evolution of close-quarter-combat (thanks "Jason Bourne").
Apparently this film was shot before Avengers: Endgame premiered.
Was EXTRACTION perfect? No, far from it! A redemption-arc shoved in your face, a sentimental flashback death wish clouding the mission, dangled with sentimentality and a the very short agony of "traitorous friends" ... all things that could've been savoured in a long-form series, where perhaps it might take 2 to 3 episodes of a series to flesh out the character(s)? But then again, we too expect a single film to possess a tighter presentation of what the audience have evolved to expect in our viewing pleasures, and expectations!
The circumstance were set from the get-go, the cock-up was the expected twist, and off we go to the races to see them escape from the clusterfcuk. Didn't take too much effort to me to make sense of it all, with this being highly digestible, and I was ready for the bullets whizzing past my ear-phones, innit? Sniper-shot thru my entertainment needs, point blank! LOL
And given the past slate of action-genre films, this could've made a decent big-screen outing, with a jig and magazine-reload, perhaps? With the excellent effort put into the film - as seen in these numerous BTS-videos, and perhaps a rudimentary understanding of "film-production" - alas not necessarily "100%" of the effort came through (as "intended" perhaps?), if not due to the story/plot/characterisation/humanity's issue with "realism" which viewers might to have fully understood-of (like every other folks out there had been "military-trained mercenaries" :p), and all that is a shame, really.
"Movie of the Year"? Not exactly, mate! But for entertainment value, I'll give this a hearty 6/10 on any given weekday, thanks.
Check out this (nearly) 30-minuter behind-the-scenes featuring director Sam Hargrave discuss EVERYTHING for the making of this film!
(All stills via IMDb)
...AND, this is a bonus clip, showing a scene since dubbed!
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