New Release Review - Extraction

Finally, I get to talk about a new release! I haven’t actually done that in all the time I’ve written this blog. Anyway, onto the review of the latest action thriller from Netflix and Chris Hemsworth, Extraction.

So Extraction is about a mercenary, played by Chris Hemsworth, who is suffering from depression over his past actions and is being offered a job in Bangladesh to rescue the kidnapped child of a crime lord, played by Rudhraksh Jaiswal. What follows is 90 minutes of non-stop action, violence and bullets as Hemsworth fights his way out of some city in Bangladesh. Oh, yeah.

Think Doom with Chris Hemsworth and a couple of emotional bits thrown in.

What surprised me about this movie was how well it was shot and edited. This is a Netflix Original, from a first-time director, and has pretty much one of the most generic action movie plots you can imagine. But my god, it is a sight to behold. The action is brutal, visceral and leaps of the screen, often using long takes and choreography in place of rapid editing, and everyone is clearly doing their best work (with the exception of a few hilarious CGI moments). Sam Hargrave is a director who knows his shit with action, having previously been a stunt co-ordinator on many MCU movies, and he and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel (Bohemian Rhapsody, Drive, The Usual Suspects) are a match made in heaven.

Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda in the middle of a frickin' awesome fistfight.

Another thing that really surprised me was Chris Hemsworth. I did not expect him to give a performance of such dramatic depth, considering many of his past roles have been more quippy and charming than serious emotional pain. But damn, does he deliver.

While Extraction really is a great action movie with excellent set pieces (including an awesome, eleven minutes-long, 1917-esque unbroken take), I have some issues with the movie, especially with its writing. The script is from Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo, who clearly had great ideas for the set-pieces, but really didn’t have a lot of grasp on consistency of pacing. While the movie is quite furiously paced, it boils down to a crawl at some points, especially when David Harbour’s character gets introduced, and I felt a bit impatient while waiting for the scenes to end and for Hemsworth to go back to Doom-style glory kills.

I mean, some parts of this movie have the pace of walking through this sewer.

Easily the worst parts of this movie are its characters and its ending. Aside from Hemsworth, Jaiswal and Randeep Hooda’s former Special Forces guy, none of the characters really get enough screen time for us to care. Priyanshu Panyuli, who plays the villain of the movie, never sees any of the main characters in person, and never really rises above “charismatic Slumdog Millionaire gangster”, which makes it unsatisfying when he’s defeated. David Harbour gets a predictable arc and unceremonious end, and Golshifteh Farahani gets a few good action scenes, but not really enough character development for me to really care.

And the final 5 minutes were abrupt and unsatisfying, given the weak character for the villain and the sudden slowing of pace compared to the rest of the film.

Regardless of all that, Extraction is a solid, John Wick-style action thriller with great cinematography and Chris Hemsworth giving his all, with numerous script issues offsetting some of that work. I’m giving this movie a 7/10.

Perfectly sums up watching this movie on Netflix.

So what did you think of Extraction? Leave your answers and suggestions for other reviews in the comments.