Extinct |
USA • 2017 • 52m •
   • Directed by: Ryan Little. • Starring: Chad Michael Collins, Victoria Atkin, Yorke Fryer, Jaclyn Hales, Matthew Bellows, Jack DePew, Kirby Heyborne, Anna Vocino, Jake Stormoen, Levi Judson Harris, Eliza de Azevedo Brown, Shayla McCaffrey, Nic Luken. • Music by: Sam Cardon.  In a world set 400 years into the future, humans are now the creatures who are extinct. An unknown alien race have worked tirelessly in reviving a group of human beings; a race that they themselves had extinguished centuries before. As only some of the aliens want this experiment to succeed, the group of humans are given very little information about what the aliens actually want or what happened in the past. They now must work together as a unit, armed with only their honesty and ingenuity for their very survival. In the event that the experiment fails, mankind will again find itself "Extinct".
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Review:
The show has been criticized by others for a number of reasons including religious themes, quality of the storyline and acting, and originality. Yes, you'll probably notice a few religious allusions. Given that it's produced by Brigham Young University, the flagship university of the LDS church, this shouldn't be a surprise. Other than one somewhat awkwardly placed scene showing a family praying in the first episode, the references aren't the focus of the show.
The storyline and acting, like every movie or show, have flaws. It's up to you whether or not you think those flaws outweigh the strong points of the series. Were there weak parts of the plot that made me cringe? Yes. Were there strong plot elements and acting moments that deeply impressed me? Also yes. I've personally found the show to be very enjoyable overall. It has a more subdued tone than many other productions which means you should manage expectations accordingly.
Finally, others have commented that this series has elements similar to those in other movies, shows, and books. It does, but here's a question to consider: were the creators of those other movies and shows the first to come up with those ideas? Or simply the first to make them well-known and widespread? In addition, creating variations on a theme is a centuries old technique in art, including visual art and music. Sergei Rachmaninoff's well-known "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" not only "borrowed" Paganini's theme, but wasn't even the first work to make variations on it (Brahms and Liszt had both done variations on this theme decades before). In writing this series, Orson Scott Card seems to be following this tradition of variations on the theme.
To summarize, I have thoroughly enjoyed this show so far and am looking forward to the last two episodes, which come out later this month. It's worth taking a look at if you haven't already.
Review by J. B. from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database