Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Extinction’ On Netflix, Where A Father Tries To Save His Family From An Alien Invasion

Netflix’s movies are an interesting group, aren’t they? They’ve had a bit of a rough go in the sci fi world, though, but Extinction seems promising, given that it stars Lizzy Caplan and Michael Peña. Do the two appealing leads make this movie worth watching?

EXTINCTION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Peter (Michael Peña) seemingly has a bucolic urban life. He lives with his wife Alice (Lizzy Caplan) and daughters Lucy (Erica Tremblay) and Hannah (Amelia Crouch) in a sleek apartment in a high-rise. Both have good jobs; he works in a high-tech government factory, she’s a city planner. But he’s having nightmares, to the point where it’s affecting his waking life.

The nightmares involve an alien invasion, scenes of Peter and Michael having to defend themselves from attack, lots of running and screaming and destruction. In the most devastating dream, Lucy is entreating her dead parents to wake up. He also sees his boss David (Mike Colter) holding a gun and leading a small militia who seems to be surviving.

Alice thinks he’s losing his mind; David wants him to go see a sleep doctor. But he leaves the doctor’s office when someone shares that they’re having the same dreams. Soon, Peter’s dream is coming true; scary ships invade the city and start destroying everything that moves. Now, it’s a matter of survival; can he get his family to the tunnels under his factory? And what happens when he captures one of the aliens? And, one more thing… why is this not matching his nightmares?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Any alien invasion movie from Independence Day to Cloverfield… At least for the first 2/3 of the movie, that is.

Performance Worth Watching: Lizzy Caplan is always great, and as Alice she’s snarky and strong, especially when she bashes the crap out of one of the aliens.

Memorable Dialogue: “Want to hear an even scarier nightmare? A husband refuses to deal with his issues. His wife goes insane from lack of sleep and pushes him out the window. The end.” — Alice in the first scene as Peter wakes up from his latest nightmare and says he’ll figure out what’s wrong himself. If there was ever a line that was written expressly for Lizzy Caplan’s sardonic line delivery, it’s that one.

Single Best Shot: When Peter’s family finds his best friend’s family on the roof, they have to hide when an alien ship hovers above them, looking for people to kill. It’s definitely one of the best shots in an otherwise dark-looking movie.

Sex and Skin: It’s not that kind of movie.

Our Take: When we finished watching Extinction, we thought “Wow. That would have been a pretty good pilot for a really good series.” Unfortunately, it’s a standalone movie, one that mostly looks good, and is well-acted, but is a poorly-constructed missed opportunity.

The movie is directed by Ben Young from a screenplay that looks like it went through more than one rewrite, the last of which was by Eric Heisserer (Arrival). We go from a psychological drama about a guy whose life is falling apart because of vivid nightmares almost immediately into an alien invasion/survival story. Then, once the movie takes its turn at about the 2/3 mark, it shifts to an escape movie.

There’s an intriguing story surrounding the truth that Peter finds out about himself and his family, one that would be fertile ground for a binge-worthy series, but it’s explored far too little in the film to make any kind of impact. Until that moment, the film proceeds like an intense but uneventful alien invasion film, with the only propulsion being whether Peter and his family survive; even Peter’s nightmares get only occasional mentions. Given what comes after that, that segment is far, far too long, compressing the movie’s intriguing part to the point where the viewer feels cheated at the end.

Maybe Young and the various screenwriters were creating this for the express purpose of making sequels and/or creating a series? It’s not like Peña or Caplan would turn their noses down at an intriguing sci fi series that goes multiple seasons. As it is, though, Extinction left us with a vague sense of dissatisfaction and a desire to see more of the story.

Our Call: SKIP IT, unless Netflix announces that it’ll be a series or you’re a fan of Caplan or Peña.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Extinction on Netflix