Although Chris Hemsworth gives it his all, and the film does include a handful of impressive fight sequences, overall Extraction is fatally wounded by a predictable and clichéd plot, two-dimensional characters, and repetitive action scenes.

Premise: When the son of an India drug lord is kidnapped by his rival in Bangladesh, his fixer Saju hires ex-special forces soldier turned mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) and his team to mount a rescue mission. But when complications arise, Rake finds that escaping the city of Dhaka with the rescued boy will be more difficult than he realised.

Review:

I may be being overly harsh, but I was very disappointed with Extraction. Chris Hemsworth is great action star and a charismatic lead actor, and is more than capable of carrying a film like this. Last year, Netflix released the excellent Triple Frontier, which also dealt with ex-special forces on a mission in hostile territory, and it was one of my hidden gems of 2019. Extraction is the directorial debut of Sam Hargrave, who previously worked as the Stunt Coordinator on Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame – but perhaps films like John Wick and Atomic Blonde have unrealistically raised my expectations of what a stunt-man-turned-director could achieve. Whatever the reason, I expected more from Extraction, and while it’s not awful, it is mediocre at best.

The plot is a hodgepodge of action movie clichés, often reminding you of different (and usually better) films. The traumatised action hero struggling to come to terms with the death of his child was done much better by Tom Cruise in Minority Report (and was even parodied by Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Action Hero). The bond between an emotionally wounded ex-soldier and an innocent child under his protection was done much better by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire. The trope of a hero having to find a way to travel a relatively short distance through hostile territory has been seen dozens of times before, from 16 Blocks to the dire Mile 22. There is very little, if anything, that feels at all fresh or new about Extraction.

“…the film generated for more sympathy for Rake’s supposed nemesis that it did for Rake himself…”

Looking for the positives, the setting of the film is fairly novel, as I can’t remember another mainstream Hollywood action film that has been set in Bangladesh or the city of Dhaka. Also, despite that fact that Chris Hemsworth’s character feels like a trope we’ve seen countless times before, his nemesis (played by Indian actor Randeep Hooda) actually feels like a more three-dimensional character; an ex-special forces soldier who has settled down and built a life with his wife and young child, who is forced to do terrible things (and become Rake’s primary antagonist) in order to protect his family. Ironically, I found that the film generated for more sympathy for Rake’s supposed nemesis that it did for Rake himself. As well as Randeep Hooda, the film generally has a good international supporting cast, with Iranian/French actress Golshifteh Farahani also making an impression as the head of Rake’s mercenary crew.

Then there’s the action scenes, and there’s no denying that there are a couple of pretty impressively staged sequences, the best one probably being Rake’s initial rescue of the boy. But very quickly, the action sequences start to feel repetitive, and sometimes the gimmicky camerawork can actually feel like a distraction. For example, in one car chase the camera whizzes in, out and around the speeding cars, giving the impression that the whole sequence was filmed as one-shot, and it works very effectively. But then the one-shot approach is carried on into a protracted series of hand-to-hand confrontations, with the camera panning backwards and forwards covering different elements of action, in a way that starts to become a little disorientating and distracting. It was probably a case of “less is more”, and the one-shot approach to the fight sequence never matched the organic flow or visceral intensity of Atomic Blonde’s spectacular 7-minute one-shot action scene where Charlize Theron has to make her way through an enemy occupied building.

“…pretty much everything it does just reminds me of another film that did it first and did it better…”

The fact that the one-shot action sequence in Extraction just reminds me of a better sequence in Atomic Blonde is indicative of the problem with the film as a whole – pretty much everything it does just reminds me of another film that did it first and did it better. Even the subplot where an “innocent” teen on the streets of Dhaka becomes involved in the local drug lord’s gang in order to survive feels derivative, and by the time David Harbour turns up as an old colleague of Rake’s, it’s not hard to see where that storyline is going. Even the framing device (opening the film in media res with a severely wounded Rake) just brings the opening of the first John Wick film to mind. But perhaps the film that Extraction reminds me of most is Man on Fire, where a burned out CIA operative played by Denzel Washington finds redemption through his friendship with the young girl he’s hired to protect, played by Dakota Fanning. Washington and Fanning bring such depth and emotion to their relationship that you totally buy their bond, and you believe it when Washington moves heaven and earth and risks everything to rescue her.

In comparison, there is no depth whatsoever to the relationship between Chris Hemsworth’s Tyler Rake and Ovi, the boy he rescues. Yes, Rake decides not to leave the kid for dead in the streets or sell him back to his captures, but that’s not saying much. Most of their relationship consists of Rake shouting commands at the boy, and when they do finally have their inevitable “heart-to-heart” scene later on, it’s really nothing more than an excuse for Rake to give his full tragic backstory. Certainly there’s never anything to explain to the audience why Rake would be willing to risk everything to save this kid (as opposed to saving any random kid).

“…the handful of decent actions sequences aren’t enough to make up for all of the film’s other shortcomings…”

All in all, there really isn’t much to recommend in Extraction. The repetitive shootouts soon become boring as Rake fights countless waves of faceless, masked soldiers (who, technically, may only be following orders as it’s only shown that their leaders are corrupt), and at times it just feels like watching someone else playing Call of Duty. The characters are two-dimensional, the plot is unoriginal and uninspired, and even the handful of decent actions sequences aren’t enough to make up for all of its other shortcomings. In short, Chris Hemsworth clearly deserves so much better, and his search for an iconic role outside of the MCU sadly continues.