I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting. This latest Netflix action offering stars Chris Hemsworth as action man Tyler Rake and is directed by first timer, Sam Hargrave - a stuntman who has worked on the Avengers movies.
The plot is as basic as they come. Rake is a hard-as-nails mercenary, with an obligatory dark past, hired to ‘extract’ a kidnapped boy, Ovi, from the hands of a criminal drug gang. And that’s...it. But as many great movies have proved, you don’t need an intricate plot. With not much plot to follow, Extraction instead revels in its action set pieces and they are glorious.
Hargrave is no stranger to the world of action and gets to show off his knowledge and experience the best he can. Starting with Rake taking out the group of captors holding Ovi (yes, he actually does use a rake in this sequence), leading into an intense one-shot that goes from a car chase, to a sequence on the rooftops, to a knife fight in a busy market street (a big middle finger to 1917), Rake then gets himself into a brutal fistfight with David Harbour, before everything comes together in a bloody shootout on a bridge.
The action is beautiful, but also relentless. Hargrave rarely takes a break from it and, because of this, Rake is never developed beyond a walking action stereotype. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Hemsworth has a good look and great charisma, but it’s tough to come onboard with a guy we know nothing about.
This film is all about the action. The plot is simple, the characters are basic, but the set pieces are wonderfully brutal.
Score: 75/100