Extraction

Netflix has a couple of types of original movie types that they seemed to have some success in over the past few years. One of those "types" is the fast paced military action films like Triple Frontier and Underground 6. Extraction seems to be apart of that new "type" push and I'm kind of all for it.

How I assume the idea of Extraction came about was the Russo brothers were sitting on set of The Avengers with Chris Hemsworth and their stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave. Hargrave was looking to get into directing, the Russo brothers had a gritty war movie they had written but were never actually going to make along with a deal with Netflix to produce a number of movies, and Chris Hemsworth had a free couple months to star. It's kind of obvious that that's how it ended up. I could be wrong, but it sounds right.

Extraction follows the story of Tyler Rake (played by Chris Hemsworth), a former Special Forces soldier turned mercenary. The group that he works for (which is basically black water without them actually saying that) is hired to rescue the son of an Indian gangster (played by Rudhraksh Jaiswai) after he was kidnapped by a rival gangster.

While Rake is able to rescue the boy pretty quickly in the film, the mission does not go according to plan and Rake and the boy are stranded in the middle of an expansive city in India with gangsters, child soldiers, and the Indian military gunning for them.

The first and foremost highlight of this film is the action.

When you've got all the high profile names attached to this film, I get the feeling that half the budget was put into making this one of the most intense and high paced action films on Netflix today and it really shows off. I think anybody who sees this movie is going to be talking about the chase scene in the first half of the film and how graphic and intense the action is.

I really have to foot stomp that chase sequence because they try to pull it off like its one shot. It definitely isn't and when you know that's what they're going for you can start to see where the scene cuts, but it doesn't make the cinematography pretty great when they're wiping the camera around in between cars and to different perspectives almost flawlessly. Again, it's not one shot, but they do a pretty good job at making you think it is for a little bit.

The action does bring up the point of setting expectations for this film. It is one of those films where the main character is a super human who spends around two hours just getting the crap kicked out of him and it takes about a billion bullets to take him down, if he ever goes down.

If you're looking for something really serious or Oscar worthy, you're not really gonna find it here.

The acting is fine and Hemsworth and Jaiswai play off each other pretty well, as well as the other characters. But it's an entertaining movie over being a really deep one.

My favorite headline about this film was "Thanks to Extraction, We Now Know How Many Children Chris Hemsworth Can Beat Up". That should give you every inkling of what kind of movie you're getting yourself into.

Couple other notes: I like the setting of Dhaka, India. Not sure if it was filmed on set, but the setting felt alive and it was fun seeing these action sequences going on while people are walking around the streets like its an expansive game of street fighter.

The movie overall feels like a video game I can't play where Chris Hemsworth is just mowing down hoards of bad guys like he's playing Call of Duty.

You may not really love this film just because you've probably seen some of these tropes before. Hemsworth is your stereotypical tortured sympathetic killer who does what he needs to do while still having a heart of gold.

The one thing I liked about the film was that there were a lot of characters that in a normal movie, they'd just be stereotypical bad guys. And that's not to say there aren't those kinds of characters, but there are a couple of characters who have their own motivations and therefore they aren't down right evil.

David Harbour has a small cameo in this film and even though he's probably on screen for a max of 5 minutes, I still really liked him because they laid out what his motivations were and why he's in the movie.

There's already talks about a sequel for this film and some people are comparing it, especially due to its action to the John Wick movies. High paced action following a likable stoic bad ass with his own unique world.

The bottom line is, I enjoyed Extraction. It's by no means brilliant, but I definitely enjoyed the film and would watch a sequel.

The movie has tropes that it follows to create a bad ass military action movie but at the same time it has the right people who know how to put in just the right amount of effort into the film to make it something that I enjoyed.

If you're looking for a high paced, well choreographed and shot film, with just enough action, character, and a decent story to get your through, I think you'll enjoy Extraction. It's not gonna be your favorite film of the year, but it's still a fun one.

But those are my thoughts on Extraction. To say it's a little ridiculous is an understatement because this movie is batshit insane and I kind of love it. Comment and Discuss below on what you thought of it. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!