Extinction (2018)

January 23, 2019 9:11 AM

A chief mechanic at a factory is haunted by apocalyptic nightmares. His wife and boss insist that he get psychiatric help, but his visions of an apocalypse may be more than bad dreams.
posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total)

Interesting premise, undone by its twists. You could do worse for something to have on while you fold laundry, but I can't say it adds up to much.

By the time they revealed the backstory with the synthetics and laid their thematic underpinnings bare with the "You will not replace us!" protests, I was drifting in and out of attention so badly I couldn't necessarily even piece together exactly what the point they were trying to make about immigration even was. Parallels, sure. But their overall framework? Not sure. Not sure they know, either.

Just really odd, uneven pacing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:16 AM on January 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

I watched this about ten days ago and had to got back into Netflix to see if I ever finished watching it.

I did. Huh. That was how much of an impact it made on me.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:26 AM on January 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Michael Peña was the weak link for me. Is he usually a better actor? I didn't find him at all plausible in the role--for a movie this convoluted you really need to sell it.
posted by orrnyereg at 10:28 AM on January 23, 2019

I thought both the leads we're pretty bad, but I generally find them good in other roles. I'm chalking it up to a poor decision to foreshadow them being synthetics by having them play their roles as mildly disengaged. Maybe the director's dumb idea? They just came across as inert.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:45 AM on January 23, 2019

I recall this being fairly engrossing while I was actually watching it, but it didn't really stick - I have to keep double-checking whether or not I've seen it when it pops up in my suggestions.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:03 PM on January 23, 2019

I really wanted to like this one because Michael Peña is just so much fun in the MCU, but I turned it off partway through.

IIRC, it had a big 'taking your meds cuts you off from the TRUTH' thing going on, and that was what killed it for me. Plus, it really seemed to take its time to get to the actual apocalypse, (like, I never actually got there?)

Hoping I don't have this one confused with some other low rent Netflix thing. Heh.
posted by mordax at 8:55 PM on January 23, 2019