Extraction Review: As Generic as its Generic Hunk

Having reached Hollywood’s expiry date but with no intent on veering away from his action persona, Bruce Willis has now been reduced to a marketing ploy.

Extraction is primarily a star vehicle for Kellan Lutz, one of the many generic hunks of Hollywood. After failing to launch his career as an action star with the box office flop and critically panned The Legend of Hercules, he tries it once again now with the help of Bruce Willis.

However, even Willis recognizes the potboiler material that he’s been given as the movie star is clearly phoning it in. Kellan Lutz doesn’t need to make much of an effort here, but he’s a dull slab of muscle. Gina Carano tries but has nothing to do but be the token femme fatale. The rest of the C-list cast is forgettable as the rest of the movie.

Extraction is indistinguishable from the many predictable action B-movies that have come out since the ’80s with its hackneyed plot and cliched thrills. The trailer has already clued you in that this is your run-in-the-mill story about a hotshot who defies orders to save his Dad and stop a terrorist plot involving a weapon of mass destruction.

If you still want to watch it, you’ll only get a plot held together by generic action set pieces – the bar brawl, the night club seduction, the restroom one-on-one fight, the warehouse showdown, and a low budget car chase. And yes, there are bad guys with thick foreign accents and a love interest with a former fling.

The makers of this movie seem to know the quality of what they’re peddling. Extraction breezes through a running time of 83 minutes, keeping exposition to one-liners. It borrows some elements from Jason Bourne in an attempt to elevate its material – wide screenshots of sprawling cities and a boss shouting at computer screens – but everything is too cheap and lacks any detail.

Extraction is aware of what it is and does what it’s supposed to do, but the movie’s tired offerings are not worth any time and effort.