Plenty of action and explosions blazed their way around town in second-unit stunt director Sam Hargrave's directorial debut feature Extraction. Gunfights.
Car chases. Hand-to-hand combat. Crazy long-form one-shot sequences. Lots of people getting shot, hit, kicked, slapped, and subjected to many other creative ways to play out the violence onscreen. Extraction is a playground of adrenaline the first-time feature director went all out to unleash on audiences. And, for the most part, we jump from one thrilling action sequence to another, with the gritty Chris Hemsworth as the brooding lead.
But once the action stops and the film takes a step into something more emotional, it feels like an engine sputtering, crawling to a stop, and having to be jump-started to get running again.
In a script penned by Joe Russo of Marvel, Extraction follows ex-military mercenary Tyler Rake (Hemsworth), a broken, haunted man with a painful past, as he undertakes a dangerous mission in Dhaka. Rake is tasked with retrieving an Indian drug lord's son, Ovi (newcomer Rudhraksh Jaiswal), who is kidnapped by a rival Bangladeshi drug lord, which results in an all-out chase and carnage through the city. Along the way, Rake also develops a bond with the boy Ovi and refuses to leave him behind even when the mission is compromised. A broken man who's lost love and a teenage boy who rarely gets it from his own father. Two odd souls find themselves kindred spirits amid the shower of bullets.
It's clear where the film excels most: action. And, honestly, we don't really expect any less from Hargrave, who also plays Rake's sniper back-up on the rescue mission. The much-hyped "oner" that lasts over 10 minutes goes from car chase to close combat and gunfights that wind in and out of flats, to people jumping from roof to roof, falling off a building, getting hit by a car, and ending in a big explosion. The entire scene was all-around crazy and -- good thing it's on Netflix -- now we can rewatch it as much as we want. The next-most-satisfying thing is seeing Rake slapping the hell out of a young, obnoxious gang of boys sent after him. Then, there's also the gorgeous Golshifteh Farahani, who blasts a helicopter down. Can we have a spin-off that focuses on her character? The Iranian actress plays Nik, who's Rake's controller, and also the only woman with a substantial role in the film. Extraction is very close to an all-male movie. With Farahani in it, it's like someone eventually realised that the film could use a badass female character, too.
The other men in the story include Randeep Hooda as Saju, who works for Ovi's old man, and David Harbour, who shows up rather late in the film as Rake's friend. They bring their guns and, at some point along the way, help Rake as he tries to escape the citadel-like city to get Ovi to safety. The movie should probably be seen on a big screen -- the biggest screen one has at home, that is -- for all its action, which comes almost non-stop.
But when the action does stop, it feels like the movie is a little lost.
Beneath all the guns and blood, Extraction also pushes for those father-son moments in different places and tries to stick to that theme without developing much of its story or character, be it a relationship between Rake and Ovi, Ovi and his father, or even Saju and his son. Russo's script here seems rather empty and shallow. It takes itself pretty seriously and doesn't play around, which makes it almost a letdown that we have Hemsworth here, who's a great comedic talent but doesn't get to flaunt that. Then again, if the story were to take that direction, it would've been similar to his previous gigs in Thor: Ragnarok or even MIB: International.
Still, it's at least refreshing that the film opted out of a go-to choice, like Latino drug cartels, and headed instead for the narrative and landscape of South Asia, which gives a different aesthetic. Try to guess which scenes are filmed in Thailand. Several neighbourhoods and provinces -- after extensive set decoration and heavy-handed yellow-ish, orange tint in post-production -- stand in for the streets of Dhaka.
With Hemsworth, Hargrave and Russo all attached to the project, Extraction must sound like a match-made reunion for something straight out of the MCU. In a way, it's got the thrill to match, but not much on the substance. It's a shame there's no joy in its characters and story to really give the action something to thrive on.
Extraction. Jasin Boland
Extraction
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani and David Harbour
Directed by Sam Hargrave
Now streaming on Netflix
