Extraction movie is based on one of the most badass graphic novels written – “Ciudad” that has nothing to do with a superhero for a change. Who could do its protagonist more justice than the God of Thunder himself – Chris Hemsworth? The movie is a complete action-packed affair set in a backdrop of the Indian Bangladesh gang wars.
The director Sam Hargrave takes your everyday action, dabs it up a notch, complements it with stunning continuous shots, where you feel like you are right there, amidst the real operation. Bullets flying, collateral damage, gore, a pile of dead bodies mostly sum up this venture of turning Ande Parks‘ story into a befitting on-screen product.
It has the aesthetics of a really good action flick, but then again the whole setup takes away all the attention from the story. It is at those moments, you are forced to wonder – why put that at stake? You have to keep the audience invested, give them something to bite on too.
Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake
Who could play a better uncompromising protagonist in an action movie than Chris Hemsworth himself? Chris is the sole reason why the Extraction movie managed to grab so much attention. It had already got fixated in everyone’s brain owing to its staggering trailer alone. The director leverages him to the maximum too.
We had seen Anthony and Joe Russo take a playful dig at his bod in Avengers Endgame. The Extraction movie finds him in his previous smokin’ avatar. Chris is sheer badass as Tyler Rake the hero with a past who has taken a seat at the edge of a pit as he forever carries a “nothing-to-lose” attitude.
Some of the movie stunts make you want to shake your head, but since its Chris performing them, somehow it all seems to fit the bill. These are the type of stunts that suit him. The sheer decimation that happens when he is onscreen feels very much legit. He is one of the primal reasons why the movie rocks.
The Direction of Extraction movie
Sam Hargraves is an inspired bloke. He knows the import of doing long continuous shots. How important it is to maintain a certain continuity. The longer the shots, the better.
Taking that adage in the vanguard, Sam forever walks over the precipice of madness. He makes sure he is holed up right there where all the action is. As a result every action piece gets delivered to you firsthand.
Some of the car chase scenes are unlike you have ever witnessed. He makes sure you are forever on the edge of your seat because the action takes so many wild turns that are downright top-grade.
What bedazzles it further is the entire setup, the backdrop where all the action takes place. Yes, Sam leverages the India-Bangladesh setup, crowded streets, not to mention the bluntness of the people of how they don’t give two rats about who fights who on the road. Accidents are like a daily affair.
There are many scenes where the camera is positioned in extremely ballsy ways, that it makes you wonder on many occasions how they might have managed to shoot it. How the cameraman himself has to be a stuntman to ace a particular shot. It is a well-choreographed dance that the entire production team does behind the cast, that makes sure we get a bedazzling spectacle.
Randeep Hooda as Saju
Randeep Hooda‘s character Saju is a fitting reply to that of Chris Hemsworth’s Tyler. The man feels like a machine gun that destroys everything in its wake. He is twisted and wild, does not back down from a fight.
The merc angle that the movie seems to boomerang on makes you remember those good old The Bourne Series days. Randeep feels like a fitting brawl, a dose that you give to your action heroes so the audiences understand the gravitas of the situation and know what they are dealing with.
There is so much talent grated in this man, so much versatility that you know you could pick and drop him anywhere, and he would make himself at home. Remember Sarabjit?
Plot and Screenplay
Probably the weakest links going against the movie are its plot and screenplay. With limited substance tagged to its background, Extraction feels more like a cliched tale. How many times have we come across a mercenary saying yes to a job that takes him back into the game? Heard this story a million times.
To top that off the screenplay has just like one good line but that too feels forced. The writing of the Extraction movie reminds you what it is, just an action movie that does not care about how it is written. Creators bank on its sheer action to boggle you.
Come to think of it there are many such action movies that get carried away trying to immortalize their sole strength. Atomic Blonde was one of them where the only thing you remember the flick by is its action. Even though the creators tried to give precedence to its story over action, it ended up not playing out so well for them. Even John Wick – first part suffered from the same disease but then it was eventually saved by its sequels Chapter 2 and Parabellum, where the story sprawled out in the open.
If Extraction has plans to do that in the long run too, then you can imagine how this shortcoming can be overcome.
Other Downsides of the movie Extraction
Bringing the good old debate of adapting books, novels, or comics into the forefront again, written account leaves a lot of things to the imagination. When we actually see this take a palpable form onscreen, it does change a lot of things for us.
There are elements aplenty that mess with the originally projected camera angles that had once made every strip theatric. We have to feed ourselves the imagination of the director and the storyboard artist who end up reimagining things differently, scraping away that comic reality that had made an individual film in every fanboy’s head.
As a result you see a lot of uncanny angles and shoddy places of storytelling. You see through the act sometimes during those melodramatic bits, where you cannot help seeing how everything is, in fact, happening on a set. The contrivance often kicks in like a glass shard, making you see through their acts. A great movie doesn’t make you so conscious.
Then talking about other sections that were bothersome. The drama of the movie is non-existent. You fail to feel the emotions. The movie wanted to stress on Tyler Rakes’ soft corner for the child he was saving but fails to leverage it big time. You feel the absence of emotions when his own dead child from the past does not get directed properly into the film. As a result, you fail to relate to any of that.
The Final Verdict
But overall the movie rocks in terms of its action. Be it be hand to hand combats, or shooting dozens of people in their head, or using props to slay someone, the protagonist leaves no stone unturned to ensure you are thoroughly entertained.
He gets to encounter fitting enemies, rogue friends, even street kids, (watch out that bit where Chris slaps his way out of trouble), every possible thing that could go wrong in his mission to see an extraction through.
The movie ends at a cliffhanger – a skill the Russo’s gathered from their good old Marvel days. Now we wait.
Check out the trailer of Extraction movie:
Extraction
Pros
- Great Action
- Brilliant Editing
- Long continuous shots
- Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda
Cons
- Confined Plot
- Shoddy Screenplay
