User reviews

This could have been a great movie, but the youngest daughter got on my last nerve throughout the entire movie. Whoever wrote her story messed up the movie. Her ways were not always warranted.

As the plot unfolds and you gradually become invested in the story and it's trajectory, the child characters do their best to distract the viewer by just being little pains... They seem to actively do everything they can to get the main characters killed off... I think this Netflix sci-fi flick should have rated much higher had it not been for those characters... Shame.

What is it with Netflix lately? They're taking over, everything I watch seems to be a Netflix original movie. And in some cases such as this one that's not entirely a bad thing.

Extinction is an oddly enjoyable little scifi tale starring Michael Pena, Lizzy Caplan and Mike "Luke Cage" Colter. I went in knowing nothing and expecting very little and walked away pleasantly surprised.

I'm not a big sci-fi guy and the cover certainly makes this look like a generic alien invasion film. I can assure you that it isn't, in fact it's a well constructed highly original clever little movie.

Arguably it's a big "Twist" style movie so I can say very little. What I will say however is that it's well worth a watch regardless of your stance with the sci-fi genre. I found myself genuinely shocked by what I was watching and that doesn't happen very often.

Netflix gets another thumbs up for one of their originals, good going.

The Good:

Some excellent ideas

Looks great

The Bad:

Mike Colter is underused

I still struggle to like Michael Pena

Yet another Netflix movie that feels like it should be a tv show

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Lizzy Caplan is immortal and refuses to age

Cut the whining annoying kids and have a slightly bigger budget and this would have been pretty good.

The movie was OK. But after watching it I started hating children

Reason I'm reviewing is mainly due to my frustration with the kids and the poor decisions. Unexpected plot though, really great concept and the annoying factors actually kept me intrigued. The more I said "I can't with this" the more I watched, found myself yelling at the tv and scripting my own versions of how I'd handle those kids! Discipline! Sigh!

Im laughing so hard because I didnt think I was going to be the only one who thought the movie could have received a lot higher rating if it wasnt for those insufferable kids! >-<

The story is quite fresh, I went in not knowing anything about the film so didn't see the twists and turns that it takes coming, which is quite a rarity with movies these days for me. The effects both cgi and practical are well done for the most part, though some of the cgi does suffer from looking like really good cgi rather than something that's actually real. Overall though it's a solid bit of science fiction fare to spend a couple of hours with.

The negatives for me mainly concerned the child characters, they were badly written and it was obvious they were just there as plot devices to make things happen. There are 4 instances in the film where children were used purely because if they didn't do whatever stupid thing they did at that time then no action would have taken place, it's lazy writing 101. Plus they cried, constantly. The youngest one cried and whinged for probably 80% of her screen time and she had a LOT of screen time, and sure that may be the way a real child would behave if put in her situation, but hey, I'm watching a science fiction movie about an alien invasion with spaceships and laser guns, reality has already left the building so it wouldn't have hurt for them to tone down her reactions a little bit to make her less irritating.

There's an exposition dump in the 3rd act that goes on forever and the ending feels a bit anti-climatic (and setting up for a sequel that I doubt will ever happen), but I still gave this movie a 6/10, I enjoyed my time with it I think it's a solid 6 and I might have even given it a 7 if it wasn't for the annoying kids.

If the dialogue went like this; Father- Come on, we gotta go Little annoying twit; -I don't wanna daddy Father- OK, fine. Then stay here by yourself. I never liked you anyway. Little annoying twit- Your leaving me? Father- Hell yea, shoulda dropped you off at the orphanage a long time ago.. Movie crowd cheers giving dad a standing ovation.

Good film really enjoyed most of it but the kids in it with their incessant whining, screaming and crying at inoportune moments giving away the families position drove me mental. Probabaly the most annoying children I have ever seen in a film

At minute 51 I gave up in the humans and their inane decisions and started to root for the aliens. Alice's makeup remains flawless, however.

The movie overall wasn't bad.... That being said the acting by the children was terrible, absolute garbage. The youngest daughters constant whining single handedly ruined it for me.

Okay I must say it was one of those films that truly develop during the watching experience. At first it starts like your usual alien invaion film, ultra boring and your standard fare. But then there is a twist and the film got a total turn around and new perspective, It actually became interesting, dramatic and thoughtprovoking. It was nice to see Michael Pena in a leading role, which is rare. He was quite well. Lizzie Caplan was also decent enough. I liked the two girls as well. Otherwise it was just rather mediocre on the acting department. The effects looked a bit cheap at times, as did the costume work. The editing was good and the score as well. I really think a lot of people actually switched it off after the first half hour or the first encounter with the strangers, but I think it deserves to be given a chance as there is an explanation for many things that seem to be a directional error or cheap effect/look.

I would rate the first half of the movie a bit lower. The idea for the movie was good, the acting was mostly good, but the pacing was too slow. I lost interest halfway through but they really brought me back once the twist was revealed. It was a good ending that brought the whole movie together and did really well blurring the lines between "good guys/bad guys".

So, yes, directing could have been better, and some supporting acting too, and towards the middle the movie seemed so incredibly predictive that I almost stopped watching (started to work out in front of the screen and had the movie for the background)... But then the big shift happens, the revelation that turns everything around and opens up so many questions and dilemmas of our contemporary lives and the future, that it blew me away.

If this movie had been made by some a-class director and production it could have been a hit like Oblivion or something alike. Yet, it is still well worth watching, as it will give you lots of material to think and talk about afterwards... You just may want to fast-forward through action scenes after the attack...