Extinction is a 2018 sci-fi thriller about a father whose nightmare turns into reality when the planet is invaded by a force bent on destruction.
Micheal Peña deserves better. He’s a hardworking actor who has made great strides to get recognized, showing up in the shadow of some of the biggest names in Hollywood, playing top-notch support in some-good-some-bad movies, pulling his weight and more since the late 90s. With Ben Young‘s latest Netflix exclusive Extinction, he takes the lead and is the best thing going in a film that is overloaded with potential but is hopelessly lifeless, never committed to its terrific setup like it should be.
In a very near future, Peter (Peña) is a family man, a good father married to city planner Alice (Lizzy Caplan), the couple raising two young daughters. He works as an engineer of sorts who is experiencing some very weird dreams and hallucinations, ones where he sees a coming alien apocalypse that destroys the city and his family. While no one believes he is seeing a coming future, it eventually becomes a reality, and then a fight for survival.
Young’s feature-length debut, the director shows some competency behind the camera, staging plenty of good-looking moments that almost give this dull story some life. The problem is that the movie is nearly devoid of suspense, the nightmares Peter suffers from draining the impact of the real invasion far too early, leaving the film to sputter about on a series of clichés that feel all too familiar.
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Clearly meant for a theatrical release, I’m guessing the studio abandoned the project and sold it off to Netflix, the film not quite as polished as it might have been, with much of the movie sort of undercooked even as it feels like it should be bigger. Thankfully, Peña and Caplan carry most of the burden and put in some high caliber efforts. This should have been more about them, but the film unfortunately undercuts their impact by putting most of its weight on the invasion. This is further stripped of any stronger significance by some mediocre visual effects and a generic, often vacant score.
It’s too bad because at its core, this has some interest, a bit like mixing Tom Cruise‘s epic War of the Worlds with Aaron EckHart‘s Battle Los Angeles. There are a few genuinely compelling moments, even if they are carbon copies of better ones, yet it’s not sustainable, even with a weak third act twist. This is a film you want desperately to like and search for reasons why it could be, but it just lets you down the more you watch, recycling over and over from others. Stay for Peña and Caplan as long as you can, but know that this will most likely be forgotten not too long after you turn it off.