Extraction -2020 || Except Chris Hemsworth everything disappointed me.
What do you get when you make a supercharged mercenary face against a whole platoon of corrupt armed forces and a city's biggest drug lord? A movie named Extraction. And what do you lose on? Fun.
Credits: IMDb.com
Yes. That’s right. To create a strong character, action, and violence wise, all you have to do is drop a curtain of mystery in his past and let the viewers peak through its holes in the form of flashbacks, now make him casually do something suicidal that even the bravest hearted ones might think twice before doing it (literally like the hold my beer meme) and you have got yourself a bad guy good hero protagonist.
The only funny sequence in it is a popular meme(--__--)
When a mob boss from Dhaka kidnapped the son of a rival Indian mob boss, Taylor Rake, a daredevil mercenary is hired to the rescue. After many betrayals, making friends with traitors, then again getting betrayed and then the end. That’s it. The whole movie in two sentences.
The character of Taylor rake is your textbook example of cliché action heroes. Like they have an impenetrable shield around them deflecting bullets from every angle unless the director wants it. Throwing bodies like footballs, breaking bones as if they were dry wood branches, Taylor too is wrapped with that plot armor.
Joe Russo, one of the Russo brothers worked as the starring vehicle for Thor/ Chris Hemsworth. It starts with a very strong opening. The grotesque nature of violence will make you cover your eyes at points but you will still be hooked to it, like any other Netflix movie.
But that is the most tragic thing about Netflix films. They open strong, but fail to deliver at the end. Except only some of the latest releases, most of them failed to hold its head up to the hype it created, including extraction.
But for me, the disappointment is rooted far deeper.
It's not every day that a Hollywood film is shot in Bangladesh. Like, we Bangladeshis do not have many sources of entertainment, except our political leaders. Watching them talk is like Adam sanders stand up at his worst day. So, naturally, this blew up.
The news that a movie named Extraction is being produced in Bangladesh created a Shockwave of hype among the movie freaks. Like it was even bigger than the avenger's endgame to some.
But after I finished watching extraction, I can say only one thing. It wouldn’t have mattered if they shot it in Algeria or Nigeria and called it Bangladesh. In an attempt to create an overpowerful narrative, they skimmed on putting effort into building the essence of our culture. I know, I know, being culturally appropriate doesn’t make good movies. But not even the hoodlums use the accent they showed in the film.
And the Bengali drug lord was the biggest disappointment of them all. You can swallow and digest the funky yet well-choreographed action sequences and all the other plot holes. But it's hard to see your language being molested. The all-powerful resident villain spoke like he was an alien trying to learn the language.
All bitching aside, you'll get your worth in action. But the presence of a natural depth in the characters is nonexistent. The BGM and VFX are equal to that of any other film made and produced on such a low budget. So expecting more would be faulty. And if you overlooked those negative things that I just said, you'll enjoy it nonetheless.
Screencaps
All the photos are either credited or belongs to Netflix.