WITH a large portion of the country and world currently several weeks into quarantining (due to coronavirus/COVID-19), Netflix knows it has a pretty captive audience right now. That makes it a perfect time for director Sam Hargrave’s action heavy film, Extraction. With stuntman (for Chris Evans) and stunt coordinator experience, Extraction provides the perfect opportunity for Hargrave to put his talents on display. Add in Joseph Russo as the screenplay writer and the brotherly duo (Joe and Anthony Russo) of Marvel fame as producers, and the film seems excellently positioned with not much else on.
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Extraction is based on the graphic novel Ciudad and follows the mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) who finds himself hired to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned and infamous drug lord. Of course, the one organizing the kidnapping is the region’s other infamous drug lord and in the words of Tyler some, “mythic shit,” is about to go down. Unfortunately, Extraction never quite peaks that high.
With his impressive stunt work background, Hargrave clearly brought some inspiration to the film from the modern action standard, John Wick. He just forgot to bring the other half of the success formula. Whereas John Wick absolutely oozes style in ever frame, Extraction lacks the visual swagger. Instead, it reminds me of a generic action movie from the early 2010’s, think the fourth Jason Bourne film (The Bourne Legacy, the one without Matt Damon for some reason).
The obvious rebuttal to this critique would be to point to the film’s extended one shot chase scene. In it we follow Tyler and the recently rescued Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) work their way across the city in cars and then weave through towering apartment complexes on foot. For a sequence the Russo brothers spent so much time hyping up on social media, it features extremely awkward shots. It works much better when they are on foot, and you feel the extra exhilaration from the effect, but while they are in the car the camera’s movements and constrictions make it hard to watch.
Overall, there is just not all that much that makes Extraction unique. The plot is generic action schlock, the betrayals obvious, and the motivations trite. Of course Tyler is distant from his wife and of course his kid is dead, is there any other way to make a movie? Even with the R rating Extraction shies away from depicting its villain’s true brutality, his victims always lucking out at the last second; god forbid we actually have to watch something grotesque.
With theaters closed, people bored, and senses dulled some good explosions could do everyone some good. You will not get much else with Extraction, especially if you were hoping Chris Hemsworth was going to bring some of his trademark Marvel charm, but it’s all we’ve got and it will have to do.
