Extraction Movie Review (Netflix): Though It’s All About Chris Hemsworth, But Watch It For Randeep Hooda!

Share2

2 Shares

Review By KOIMOI.COM

Star Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Randeep Hooda, Priyanshu Painyuli, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Golshifteh Farahani, David Harbour, Pankaj Tripathi

Director: Sam Hargrave

What’s Good: Mahabir meets Thor! There’s one long single-take action sequence in which Randeep and Chris fight each other – remember to breathe during it!

What’s Bad: It sticks to its genre so much that there are times when you’ll find what’s more to it than executing a Point A to Point B mission

Loo Break: Neah! Has enough thrilling sequences to hold you back plus you wouldn’t want to miss Randeep Hooda even for a moment

Watch or Not?: Only if you can keep your expectations in-line after reading this review!

In the fight between biggest drug-lord in India Ovi Mahajan Sr. (Pankaj Tripathi) and Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli), mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) gets a risky mission to execute. Tyler gets appointed by Saju (Randeep Hooda) who works for Ovi Mahajan to rescue his kid Ovi Jr. (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) from the hands of Bangladesh’s drug lord Amir Asif.

Tyler is someone who can do anything for money but rescuing Ovi becomes a personal mission for him which is executed with a half-baked subplot. With few twists and turns, the mission gets compromised and Tyler gets the instruction to leave behind the kid to get out alive. But, what he does next is what the remaining story is about.

Extraction Movie Review: Script Analysis

Joe Russo pens the screenplay inspired from his own graphic novel Ciudad which had a similar story set in Brazil and Paraguay. ‘Desi’fying the story results in bringing India and Bangladesh to the picture. Philip Ivey (Art Director of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring) makes brilliant use of the props such as narrow lanes of the buildings, abandoned properties, rustic accessories to create a certain atmosphere.

Newton Thomas Sigel with his camera jumps along with the stunt-man in a scene just from one building to another just to capture the authenticity. The major flaw of the film lies in Joe Russo’s story as it never justifies the glorious happenings on-screen. There is no proper sync between what the story wants to tell us and what the director shows us. Also, a very convenient climax spoils the entire build-up to it. Though a couple of zoom-out shots revealing things (helicopter at Chris’ home in the start, sewer when he gets stuck in it with the kid) are fascinating.

Extraction Movie Review: Star Performance

It’s always good to see a Marvel superhero out of its skin behaving humanely. Chris Hemsworth extracts his superhero in him just during the action sequences and nails every single one of them. He perfects the emotional arc of his character too but unfortunately, it doesn’t leave the desired impact due to haphazardly synced character sketch with the story.

Randeep Hooda surprises and how? Thankfully he’s not considered as just another Bollywood hero trying his hand in Hollywood. He gets a proper meaty role which he proves ‘worthy of’ with every scene (YES! I had to put a Thor reference but not for Chris Hemsworth). With an extremely flexible body language, Randeep stands out in a brilliantly choreographed action sequence.

Priyanshu Painyuli literally ‘shines’ as Bangladeshi Pablo Escobar. Draped in blingy clothes and ornaments, Priyanshu masters the accent and style of his character. Though it could’ve been written in a deadlier way, as it had a lot of scope, he still manages to keep us hooked with his presence.

Rudhraksh Jaiswal is subtle as Ovi and never goes caricature with his sudden expressional jumps. Golshifteh Farahani manages to leave a mark with her special appearance. David Harbour still reminds you of Jim Hopper. Pankaj Tripathi is there just for one scene and it makes no sense why him?

Extraction Movie Review: Direction, Music

Sam Hargrave has been a stunt-man himself and is known for his work in Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame and also Civil War. His directorial debut has all things brilliant from the time when he did the stunts. He manages to design few of the best action sequences but that’s about it. He knows where to place the camera and achieve some brilliant looking shots but there are sections (such as writing, screenplay, story) in which he needs to involve himself more.

Henry Jackman and Alex Belcher’s soundtrack is pretty average and fails to resonate with the explosions happening on-screen. It might be a conscious decision to go subtle with the BGM but it needed a theme song to pump up the adrenaline rush.

Extraction Movie Review: The Last Word

All said and done, Extraction delivers what it promises i.e. mind-blowing action, but if you’re looking for something more you might’ve to keep the expectations in check. Though it has Chris Hemsworth shattering things all over, I’ll still recommend watching this for Randeep Hooda.

Three stars!