Danielle Solzman
Extraction, the new Netflix thriller starring Chris Hemsworth as a black market mercenary, is no simple trip to the dentist.
When we first meet Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), it’s in the middle of shootout and you’re about to fear the worst. But before anything else can happen, the film takes us back to a few days before. Yes, it’s one of those films. Not necessarily a bad thing but it’ll be some time before we get back to where we started.
Anyway, Tyler is a black market mercenary. The kind without any sense of fear. When an international crime lord’s son, Ovi (Rudraksh Jaiswal), gets kidnapped, Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) hires Tyler to rescue him. It’s no simple rescue because we’re talking about an underground world. The type that you don’t want to find yourselves in the middle of it–hell, there’s a war between war lords in the world of Extraction. It’s not too long before things start getting messy.
For one, Tyler isn’t your typical action hero. Hemsworth also isn’t playing Thor here no matter how much we want him to. Okay, I might have just said what I was thinking out loud. Perhaps a tad bit too loud. Anyway, Tyler is at a low point when he gets the job. The film does play to Hemsworth’s strengths by making his character an Australian.
Sam Hargrave makes his directorial debut working off of a script from Joe Russo. Hargrave is no stranger to shooting an action thriller having directed the second unit for the underrated Atomic Blonde. There is also second unit work for a little known indie film called Avengers: Infinity War. It’s not necessarily a bad outing for the first-time director.
Meanwhile, cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel finds a way to bring about the best lighting in both India and Thailand. For every film set in New York or Los Angeles or shot on a studio lot, it’s nice to take a trip to other locales once in a while.
It’s quite possible that I would have enjoyed Extraction better if a saw it on the big screen. However, a first viewing on the 32-inch small screen did not do this film the proper justice. This isn’t to say anything bad about this film necessarily. I’ll also be the first to admit that my focus isn’t 100% there right now. I feel comfort in knowing that I’m not alone on that front but I’m trying every day. For some, the film will offer a necessary distraction to everything that’s happening right now. For others, it simply won’t be the right film. To each their own. I felt that there was a bit too much violence–at least for what I need in comfort viewing at the moment.
Chris Hemsworth may be appealing but the Thor star alone isn’t necessarily enough to save Extraction.
DIRECTOR: Sam Hargrave
SCREENWRITER: Joe Russo
CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Rudraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani, Priyanshu Painyuli, Pankaj Tripathi, and David Harbour
