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Chris Hemsworth plays a mercenary named Tyler Rake in Extraction. The premise of the movie is that the teenage son of a drug lord is kidnapped in Bangladesh (Ovi played by Rudhraksh Jaiswal), at which point Rake is called upon for the rescue mission. Without giving much else away, it is pretty much all out action from this point forward. Read on for my full review of Extraction.
The Good
Extraction is primarily supposed to be a high-octane action movie – and it no doubt succeeds in this area. There is always a lot happening in the fight scenes, but they’ve been shot very clearly and you can always see exactly what’s happening in each scene. There is also a very impressive 12 minute chase scene in the movie that is so seamless you forget it would’ve been shot through multiple takes. Throughout the runtime of the movie, Rake barrages through multitudes of foes which are generally a delight to see – especially for old school action movie fans.
As much action that there is in the movie, the director has still at least made some effort to create some emotional investment in our leads. With Rake you get flashback scenes of his past, which give you further insight into why he’s so invested in the job at hand in terms of trying to save Ovi. With Ovi he confides in Rake about his family trauma and the struggles he faces with his father’s line of work – again working to create a sense of empathy between Ovi and viewers.
The Not So Good
Although the movie does take a stab at character development and motives, unfortunately it doesn’t do enough of it. Aside from the flashbacks we see of Rake’s past for example, there is no real further character exploration once the action begins in the movie.
The action sequences are top notch in this movie, but there is a hell of a lot of it. The enemies start to feel pretty generic, not unlike the hordes of enemies you may face during a good action video game. This can get exhausting after a while.
I can’t also help but feel that there’s been a missed opportunity here to take advantage of Hemsworth’s charisma, given how much he’s proved himself to have a lot of comedic ability in his recent Marvel outings as Thor. You rarely hear any humorous quips from Rake to lighten the mood and give the viewers momentary reprieves from the relentless action sequences.
The Verdict
The structure of Extraction is very similar to movies like John Wick – where the protagonist has a main mission and they battle their way to the end of the movie by attempting to achieve said mission. Unfortunately Extraction doesn’t take advantage of Hemsworth’s full acting chops (which we know he has a lot of) and a little more could’ve been done to make viewers care more about the characters.
Having said that, this is still a very entertaining action movie that doesn’t disappoint in terms of achieving its main objective – to be a high octane, in your face entertaining action movie from beginning to end.
Judge's Score
6.8
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