Extinction (2014)

The film opens with a written statement claiming this is real hand held footage, so it is not that good. The print is small, they really didn't want anyone to read it. A group goes to Peru to look for animals. We have the classic "ground cam" running and screaming, the classical tent scene "what is that?" as well as the camera man whispering to the camera with me catching about every third word. Add a rubber head dinosaur, and a guy who acts like Steve Irwin, and you have a fairly bad film.One of the worst hand held camera films. Recommend Jill St. John in 1960 "Lost World" instead.No sex or nudity. Didn't catch much in swearing.

This is a strangely watchable movie. It is found footage and follows the genre quite faithfully. But is has an element of tongue in cheek about it that brings a slight attraction.The hero, strangely enough, is the cameraman who is brought in as a last minute substitute on a very BBC-like documentary project. Strange because he is a complete nob; inappropriate, crass and somewhat stupid, but at the same time with the innocence of an everyman. And because of that he is strangely likable - probably because we all unfortunately have a friend like him somewhere in our circle.So when faced with a completely impossible situation in the jungle, he acts like most of us probably would - trying to shout quietly, leaving the camera light on in dangerous times, having a dangerously daft curiosity and other very believable stuff.It's not going to beat out Jurassic World for quality CGI and in-your-face-believable-graphics, and the jungle looks suspiciously like friendly English woodlands, but I could empathise, and that for me was enough for a couple of hours.

Having an obnoxious cameraman on found footage is the equivalent of seated next to a loud texting person in cinema. Extinction has a couple good moments and the setting is presentable, but almost half of the movie is spent on bickering. If it's for realism of human drama, it's doubtful that actual documentary people would argue as much and the banter is not exactly appealing. For the encounter with alleged monster, it has so little impact since the effect is far from compelling, so barely anything works in Extinction.The film follows the journey of scientists and filmmakers to the depth of Amazon. They soon find out that the forest hides a very insidious secret. The use of found footage is mainly to create a sense of involvement for audience, yet the movie has a very confrontational cast. Nearly everyone would mumble in antagonizing manner almost in every scene, especially the cameraman James who is utterly annoying.He would instigate people and react poorly when interacting with others. It's probably for humor purpose, but it gets tiring very fast. There are the rudimentary comments on the existence of creature which are plodding the already uninteresting endeavor. Some scenes involving actual fauna is a bit better to establish the authenticity, though these are few between all the squabbles.As expected there would be unclear shots as the monster eventually reveals itself. It's not half bad since a couple of these instances are engaging. However, the effect for said monster is not convincing. The movie doesn't have the luxury of smooth mix of usual camcorder view and CG like Troll Hunter or Cloverfield. Not to mention the cast is unfriendly, it won't garner much sympathy.In the end, Extinction doesn't offer an amusing journey, let alone the grandeur encounter the poster falsely advertises.

Extinction is shot in the 'found footage' style. Yes the style that people seem to moan about, they moan that its a tired 'genre' and that too many films have been using this style over the recent years. BUT - What Extinction does that many of the 'found footage' films don't do, is uses it properly. It is indeed a 'found footage' and its level of detail is excellent. Right down the cassette glitches now and again, and also the fact that shots don't change at the end of every sentence. Sometimes the shot changes in the middle of a sentence. Having filmed hundreds of hours using a camcorder and then played it back. I loved the fact that glitches have been purposely placed within the film to give it that real feeling. Director Adam Spinks has shot this film brilliantly with the 'found footage' style in mind all the way through production. So don't dismiss this film when you read its a 'found footage' movie. Watch Extinction to see how the style should be used.I remember watching Eli Roths Hostel for the first time and loved the fact the film had a slow build up, that it just didn't get the beginning credits out of the way and then leap into a 90 minute third act. Extinction is similar. It doesn't feel the need (and works far better for it) to drop us into the middle of chaos and let the chips fly. It allows us to get to know the great mix of characters and actually head into the Amazon rainforest with them. We get to know cameraman James (Daniel Caren) who is fantastic in his comedic role, saying whatever comes into his mind and generally annoying his fellow characters. James had me giggling on many an occasion throughout the film. We also get to meet Michelle (Sarah Mac) who from the offset isn't a huge fan of James and is far more professional than the ultra-personality James. There are more characters in this film of course but rather than list them all, please do discover them yourself. What I will say is that they are all a very realistic mix of people. Not all brave adventurers, not all super scientists, but all realistic people with strange quirks and different roles and personalities for this expedition. Some of them get on well together, some of them don't. Welcome to real life. Where people have different personalities and don't sound like their words all come out of a single scriptwriter. I haven't looked into the writing process of this film, but each character has their own flaws, their own way of speaking and I love that about this script (and of course the performances)There are lengthy scenes of character building here which are a huge benefit to the film, it would have been so easy for the filmmakers to drop a few personality lacking characters into a pit of hell and then watch them battle for survival, thankfully that option isn't taken and we instead get to know people before (and its not a spoiler as Im sure you know someone is bound to get hurt in Extinction) something happens to hurt them. When someone is hurt we feel their pain and we miss them when they are off screen.Of course there will be detractors from the film, moaning about it being slow paced, moaning about the found footage style and generally moaning about anything they decide to moan about. But they have their own websites for that. This one is for my own thoughts and I really enjoyed taking the trip into the world of Extinction.