The movie, which has Chris Hemsworth dodging bullets left and right for most of its 117-minute runtime, is relentless in its insistence to never bore you with, God forbid, character development. Check your brain at the door with this one. The feature directing debut of Sam Hargrave, best known as the stunt coordinator and primary stunt double on “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” is meant to give us nonstop thrills, but I eventually succumbed to numbness by the midway mark. “Extraction” is overkill with a capital O. Hemsworth plays Tyler Rake, an Aussie mercenary sent to India on a mission to rescue young Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the kidnapped son of a jailed drug lord (Golshifteh Farahani). It’s a suicide mission, but Rake is already suicidal, coping with a personal tragedy and completely reckless in his abandonment of fear. He doesn’t care to die, which means he’s the perfect man to hire for this kind of job. Is it then any surprise that he ends up forming a bond with Ovi? After finding him, they are both on the run, as they scourge through the Indian cities of Dhaka and Mumbai, the primary targets of a local drug lord (Priyanshu Painyuli) who doesn’t mind killing children if it means sending out a message. “Extraction” survives solely by its action scenes, shot on location in India by DP Newton Thomas Sigel (Three Kings, Drive, Bohemian Rhapsody), this includes a breathlessly exciting 12-minute chase through the streets of Dhaka that’s meant to look like a single take. Filled with car chases, foot chases, gun battles, knife battles, hand-to-hand combat, and plenty of grenade explosions, it’s one of the very best action sequences you will see this year and the clear high-point of this otherwise dispensable movie. Credit must go to Hargrave, who was Captain America and Thor’s stunt-double during the last phase of the MCU — behind the scenes, he strapped himself to the front of a camera car to attain the jolting effect which seeps through the screen. The result is nothing short of eye-popping. The screenplay, if you want to call it that, was written by Joe Russo, who produced “Extraction” with his brother Anthony, but the dialogue is scattershot. There isn’t any character development, which means you end up not caring for either Tyler or Ovi. It all amounts to a climactic showdown on a bridge where Tyler is attacked on all fronts, but manages to induce his own damage towards the enemies. The problem is you don’t really care that much about the outcome at that point, rather, it all amounts to the virtual feel of playing a videogame. “Extraction” aims to attain John Wick-esque balletic fervor, with its no-plot-all-action manifesto. At times it works, but you can only avoid the cliches for so long before they become distractions in of themselves. By the time Hargrave decides to focus more on plot during the film’s final third, you’re already on the outside looking in. [B-/C+] Contribute Hire me
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