Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles

source: Extinction: The G.M.O. Chronicles

This film isn't perfect, e.g., the shaky camera and dark lighting in some scenes; however, it doesn't deserve a below average rating. I was captivated by it from start to finish. This movie will entertain you, especially if you're a zombie flick fan.

not a terrible movie by any means, but it does have its flaws and plot holes. you really expect me to believe that a person can survive for 16 days by just eating toilet paper? highly unlikely, i doubt it has much nutritional value, if any. the movie starts out well enough, but soon devolves into nonsense with several different types of zombie, and towards the latter half of the movie, the zombies suddenly develop parkour skills and start wearing hoodies!!! there is also a lot of sexual tension between the main male and female leads that never leads anywhere, leading me to wonder why they bothered including it

Extinction, the GMO Chronicles (2012) Directed by Niki Drozdowski who also co wrote it with Ralf Betz Is a dandy zombie apocalypse styled movie. Spoiler Alert. The plot borrows in form and format from such movies as 28 Days Later (2002) and The Road (2009) A small group of survivors led by Tom played by Daniel Buder, hook up, and seek safer grounds. This is a large cast production, lots of character developments, only on occasions does it tend to get portentous. The roles are well taken, but conflict seems minimal, The clever device here is that as the movie progresses, the zombies mutate and develop new tricks. Of note on the plus side, the cinematography is often stunning and atmospheric. Part of the visual allure, was the unfamiliar Westphalia countryside. On the other side of the coin, it tended to move slow, No problem for me, but not for the Abrams thrill seekers. The conflicts did tend to get melodramatic, and the cure to any problem is to have a character killed off. and they do come and go. How does that song go, "That in the end, the only thing they knew how to do, was to keep on keeping on"or of a different author, "The road goes ever on and on.." Good production values as noted, a serviceable score, well staged with a tip of the hat sequence borrowed from Children of Men (2006) Not very high on the horror factor, and most gore was kept minimal. Interesting use of a monochromatic pallet very much re enforced the mood. Was best when it was unexpected, like with the screamers, needs more "Silent Hill" (2006)moments and less of the soaps. Seven and a Half "Foreign zombies" Stars out of Ten.

A loan man survives a zombie-like outbreak and finds the perfect hiding place, a military compound. Extinction successfully borrows and merges from the best trying to appease all walks of zombie fans, there's slow walking, fasting running, hibernating, green and red blooded infected. It's dark, gloomy with the solid cinematography, a muted colour palette and style reminiscent of 28 Days/Weeks Later and Mutants to name a few. Thanks to a minimalist script the acting for the most part is pretty naturalistic. The mix of different foreign English accents gives it a worldwide edge. The story works with the initial military base set up where Tom Keller sets up home, what follows is an exposition flashback then flash forward back to the present. There's voice over narration by actor Daniel Buder who plays Keller who also makes diary logs to a web-cam throughout. Tobias Kay is particularly notable as laid back Max Fischer and the supporting cast including Luise Bähr's Sattler and sharp shooting Lee Rychter as Luke who are all effective enough. With some good effects and a complementary score it then takes a different direction when Keller finds other survivors, brings them back to the base and they then try to get to a bunker. There's not as much tension as it could have but it blows away most modest budget zombie films. Director Niki Drozdowski offers a well made zombie drama with some good action setups and periodic fighting scenes on the doom and gloom atmospheric backdrop. It's a solid serious entry to the genre and although it breaks no new ground and can be a little sluggish its one of better zombie films doing the rounds.

This movie initially seems like it's going to be great but as it rolls on it becomes increasingly obvious that it isn't going to go anywhere and indeed it really doesn't. There's very little sense of danger except in the odd scene and as the survivors aren't scared why would the viewer be? In terms of characters every last one of them in underdeveloped even by horror movie standards. It's impossible to care about them because the loss or gain of a survivor has no impact at all on anyone regardless of their prior relationship. Talking of dud characters the second you see a Muslim woman in a EU film you know, without doubt, that she is going to be a doctor. They're all terrible, especially the whining husband who you know is only acting that way to justify his inevitable chomping he's got coming. Giving your first movie a silly title with chronicle in it implies they think this is going to turn into a profitable little series. I really don't think so though, there is no pace, virtually no story and abysmal characters. The inclusion of parkour zombies wasn't exactly a bonus either. Parkour, if you're not aware, is the hobby of being 13 and filming yourself jumping off supermarket walls. This isn't unwatchable, just very disappointing when it's over and you find there is no actual story, characters or frights.

Extinction is a stylish European movie with more in common with Resident Evil than Night of the Living Dead. If you watch this expecting a "zombie" movie, apparently you'll be disappointed, swear, & spew garbage about the actors' accents. :) This is actually a witty, stylish flick about an apocalyptic event that causes humans to mutate into zombie-like creatures. If you're a zombie addict, you'll see bits of 28 Days Later, Diary of the Dead, and the above-mentioned Resident Evil - along with the countless retreads. The acting is surprisingly good. The accent thing is a non-controversy. The people are from different areas of the world. They speak English with accents. The End. The plot evolves nicely. I was reminded of The Walking Dead at times, as the survivors try to make a home in an abandoned military base. The weakest aspect is the infected. Makeup is terrible and while the creatures are clearly not classic zombies, they seem to have gotten different direction on how to act. Some shamble, the majority run like hell, and for some (admittedly laughable) reason, the favored way to kill them seems to be to slice them on the back repeatedly. Regardless, I think zombie-philes and folks who like B-movie horror will eat this up...it's on Netflix right now. Give it a try & tell me what you think.

Despite the set-up being almost an exact copy of The Walking Dead ( whether this is an coincidence I don't know) I sort of enjoyed this little trip down Zombie Apocalypse lane. The emphasis on the characters rather than the gore was much appreciated, and you're never quite sure who's going to survive till the end... which is good. I can't quite give it the proverbial thumbs up though, as the zombies are largely laughable creations without an ounce of scare factor... particularly the ones which jump around like Mexican beans near the end. There is also one tough cadaver who appears out of nowhere and seems to be immune to bullets... Explanation, please? None was forthcoming. And those similarities with a certain brilliant TV show are too numerous to list... They call the undead 'walkers'... One of the main guys is good with a crossbow... they hide out in a secure fenced facility... and the time it takes for you to be infected after bitten is almost the same. Finally, it was nice for all these German actors to speak English from start to finish in their OWN country so we could understand them. Explanati... Nah, forget it. 5/10

Without a doubt one of the best zombie movies ever made. That a film like this is ignored during Oscar season just shows you how rigged the whole movie business is. I think the baby is amazing and so is the make up. Not enough dogs or cats playing prominent roles, however. I would have liked to see the plant zombie idea played out more but that it was even explored is pretty awesome. There wasn't enough development of the creepy priest tangent but it was still pretty awesome that it was even talked about. The zombies that could jump over fences were awesome, too. I thought that they could have used more clowns as well. Why didn't they? Are they, like, afraid of clowns or something? Are film makers afraid of using clowns in zombie movies, I mean besides Zombieland?

I have seen a lot of zombie flicks and this is definitely one of the better ones in the lot. Make no mistake, this doesn't mean it is great, but after suffering a lot of awful nonsense they film usually nowadays, -especially now the genre is a lot more popular- it actually is OK. Of course, the protagonist is quite annoying and has a bit of a superman feel with him which is wrong in such a movie. The other characters too, just do not feel very real and you end up skipping a few scenes. Also the movie is a bit slow developing especially until towards the first 30 minutes. And the worst part is: all the cast speak English but with a thick German accent (with the exception of a few guys who are in fact American). Honestly, I find it very difficult to see why they had filmed it in English instead of German which would have been better in terms of acting. However, the movie have a lot of great scenery and a promising atmosphere once you've achieved to overcome all the issues in acting and somewhat funny accent. It also has a different -but not original (anyone heard "left4dead"?) take on zombies and it helps build up some tension which is otherwise a very dull film. All in all, it surely is not a good movie but still better than a lot in the same genre and deserves five out of ten.