Skip to main content

Extracted

Sci-fi is such a great genre; it's loaded with forward-thinking folks pushing the bounds of science and morality in order to create better lives for people. It's also loaded with simple mistakes ("Whooops! Life will find a way."), catastrophic failures (just ask Jeff Goldblum), evil plots (Weyland Corp.), and unadvised stumbling into god territory (Paging Dr. Frankenstein!)

As humans, we have such mixed feelings about medicine and science that any time either comes into play in sci-fi we'll have elements of "HEY! We're doing this for the betterment of human kind!" butting up against "We're furthering our hateful subplots through the targeted, well-funded use of science."

Enter Extracted; many years too late to be unique but, not bad at being what it is.

Here's how it goes

A scientist creates the technology to "go inside" someone else's memories.
Even if this doesn't sound familiar to you, it should at least sound like a really bad idea.

He thinks he'll use this AMAZING technology as a psychotherapy aid - he's had some level of success and he KNOWS this is a winning idea that everyone will embrace... if only he could get the funding to continue his research! You will not be surprised to learn that someone is willing to fund him ("someone" = "the government and their nefarious plans to forcibly extract confessions from felons"). He doesn't REALLY like this plan BUT hey, it's money and he needs it so... why not? The mysterious government investor requires a demonstration and so they produce a murderer (who claims he's innocent) and the scientist agrees to prance around in the killer's memories.

Yay?

Right about now you're thinking, "I saw this movie. It was called The Cell and it featured J-Lo getting high in her yoga pants." And you'd be sort of right about that. The Cell benefitted from an absolutely visionary director. Extracted? Not so much.

So our scientist grudgingly enters the killer's memories and putzes around for a while, uncovers some stuff, the investors are suitably impressed, and then it's time to go home. Lo and behold, the scientist can't get out of the killer's head. Ruh-roh! He appears to be in a coma BUT, we (the audience) know that he's alive and well, trapped in the killer's mind.

Magically, after 4 years of being in there, unable to effect anything, simply watching the memories go by, the scientist is SUDDENLY able to communicate with the killer. Out of nowhere. Just, POOF! Together, they launch into this mission of self-discovery and oh yeah - get me the fuck out of here and back into my own body please so I can be with my wife (who unrealistically) hasn't moved on yet. During this adventure the scientist realizes that EVERYTHING HE THOUGHT was wrong!

Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuun.

This subplot fills the middle third or so of the movie.

Which brings us to the end of the movie where the killer is sort of redeemed and the scientist is seemingly returned to his body. The director liberally applied the soft focus, faint BUT DRAMATIC and sentimental score, and dreamlike cuts to help "confuse us" as to whether or not the scientist was ACTUALLY returned to his body.

Yes. Yes. We all love a movie that makes us question reality and the nature of life itself. Thanks. Thanks for bringing nothing new to the table. Check please! I'm done.

I'm surprised that Julianne Moore wasn't in this movie - it seems like the kind of generic, acceptably acted, tolerably written movie I keep running into her in. Perhaps she was too busy on As The World Turns to take on such a challenging role.

On the other, less hateful hand, I will say this: Extracted seems unfairly underrated and disproportionately disliked. I have seen way worse movies in my many hours of watching crap. (Satan's Little Helper comes to mind). I've certainly hated other movies more than this one.

Here's a whacky idea for ya, watch the Extracted trailer below and decide for yourself if you want to wade through this mediocre entry into the sci-fi genre:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rebuttal: 17 Disturbing Horror Movies You Will Never Watch Again

When I'm not watching movies, I'm reading about movies. I stumble across all kinds of articles, blog posts, book excerpts, etc. in my quest to absorb as much movie knowledge as possible. Now, I'm snotty and loud-mouthed and opinionated but I'd never begrudge another human their opinion. Seriously. You're absolutely welcome to have any opinion about any thing you want. However, I must warn you, if I think your opinion is stupid, I'm absolutely going to say so. I've recently stumbled on an article completely  brimming with so many idiotic opinions that I'm actually compelled to craft a response. Here's the gist of the original article: there are some horror movies out there that are so disturbing , you'll only ever want to watch them once. I've have taken her original list and refuted her claims without pulling her entire article over. You can read the original article here . Let's start at the beginning, with her opening statement

Escape From Tomorrow

I love creative people who are willing to take risks with their art. I appreciate the refusal to do things by the rules. I'm also terribly impatient with mediocrity. Enter  Escape From Tomorrow . Created by a team of rogue filmmakers, the movie was shot in the video mode of high-end still cameras. Actors shared scripts and shooting locations across their smartphones. Shot on location at Disney World, the parks were completely unaware this was all going on right under their mouse ears. I wanted to love Escape From Tomorrow. More than that, I wanted to be completely taken with its ingenuity and creativity and - oh yes - its originality. And there is really a simple brilliance to their covert plan; all families are roaming around the parks, taking videos and chatting on their phones. Just blend the fuck in, act like you belong, and you won't get caught. Too bad the movie can be summed up as: ambitious but Rubbish. As you can imagine (or possibly know), there was a ton of con

Mother!

Alright friends and readers–this one is probably doubly filled with typos and grammar errors because I wrote it while angry. Good luck and happy reading. There are unpopular opinions in every realm. As a film student, you can truly strike a nerve when you say things like, "I fucking hate the self-indulgence of independent films and the way people idolize them." Or, you know, "Low lighting and slow pacing does not a good movie make." Or whatever. You can of course, objectively, understand how this happens. When you are creating art–when you are outside the system  so to speak–you are free to explore things (subjects, techniques, etc.) that may need to be addressed and that freedom can become intoxicating and go to one's head. While it may seem only right  or only fair  to respect and accept each creative endeavor that every artist undertakes, it is unreasonable to believe that the world will remain forever patient with the self-obsession artists have. Th