I just watched the NETFLIX Original Action flick, EXTRACTION from the pen of Marvel king Joe Russo and directed by first time director and legit stunt badass Sam Hargrave and it's pretty badass from the minute it starts.
WARNING!!! SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW
A film like Extraction is not made for people to watch for plot, it's made for people who like insane action, Call Of Duty levels of gun play and a metric fuck bucket of blood. Extraction delivers in spades. This ain't a complex movie to watch, this is a get from point A to point B movie. If a plot was a straight line, Extraction would be the poster child for this type of movie so don't go in expecting twists and turns or spies in disguise type of espionage. This is not Bond, this is John Wick and The Raid set in India and it's all kinds of badass.Chris Hemsworth lays down Thor's hammer and pick up a custom M4A1 Assault rifle to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned crime lord. Things go south and Hemsworth has to get the kid to a new extraction point but he'll have to make his way through an army of corrupt military and police under the control of a rival Gangster while also being tailed by the kid's father's right hand man. What follows is nearly two hours of brutal action and it rarely lets up.
The action is what really makes Extraction stand out, there's no real emotional connection to any of the characters including Hemsworth's Tyler Rake but I'll get into that in a moment. The action is the focus point here and we switch between cat mouse gun battles to non socially distant Knife fights, car chases and straight up hand to hand combat. Unlike John Wick, Tyler Rake isn't as indestructible, he's what would be termed a "vulnerable action hero" and this shows, I mean he does get smashed by a car at one point but it still fucks him up, this is not to knock John Wick, I fucking love the ever head shotting shit out of that franchise but Extraction does have a bit of an edge over Wick with it's portrayal of killing machine that can get hit and does get fucked up. Wick's biggest problem is that he's the best at what he does, there's no one who can match him which was one of the biggest issues I had with John Wick Chapter 2. Rake is badass but he can get his ass handed to him.
The lack of any actual character development is one of the issues I had with the film, Rake has had a rough life, he lost his son due to cancer but that's all we're given, we know nothing else about his background, we know he's a merc but thats pretty much it. Extraction does feel at times that its like the second part of a trilogy and this can throw you off as you're thrust right into the middle of India and this gangster who wants this kid. There's nothing else to go on. kid gets kidnapped, Rake gets hired, shit hits the fan, David Harbour shows up, David Harbour goes, Gun battle, gun battle, head shots, boom boom explosion. Like I said, you ain't here for the philosophical debate on international politics and the private security sector, if that's what you want, check out 13 Hours, well maybe not for the philosophical debate, it is a Michael Bay movie after all, you came here to see Thor fuck up an actual army of people, like you were watching a real life Call Of Duty movie.
While it does suffer with a lack of character development. I have stated multiple times throughout this review that Extraction is a purely action based piece of film making and for that reason alone this film is awesome. Stunt coordinators turning into directors, much like Chad Stahelski and David Leitch did with the John Wick franchise and maybe even going as far back as Vic Armstrong taking the helm of Joshua Tree / Army Of One (1993) shows that they are clearly the best people to directing action films because thats their job, they know action and currently it really seems to be working. The aforementioned John Wick guys and Sam Hargrave are showing director who are known for action like Olivier Megaton, Paul Greengrass and all the other shakeycam/15 edits a second directors how to shoot and frame action correctly. Hell even a non stunt coordinator can show them how, just look at Gareth Evans's The Raid 1 & 2 and Gangs Of London or even the godfather of action cinema, George Miller.
So in conclusion, EXTRACTION is a badass action film, great great action choreography, good performances by Hemsworth and the kid and a lot of blood makes for a good time, so on that level, Extraction gets a solid 5/5 but for plot, character and drama, the film lands on a medium 3/5. I Enjoyed the god damn hell out the film but it definitely had some flaws which is why I'm giving Extraction a cool but not too cool overall score of 4/5. Check it out
4/5
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