Wanna watch Thor brutally kill a bunch of people from the safety and comfort of your own bubble? Wish granted.
And honestly that's pretty much all you need to know about Chris Hemsworth's new off the books collaboration with his Avengers mates the Russo Brothers.
The screenplay for Extraction was written by Joe Russo but it's based on a graphic novel he helped write with his brother Anthony.
The Marvel filmmaking brothers roped in their chief stunt buddy from the MCU Sam Hargrave to direct his first feature and it's fair to say this is a good match of man to material. It feels like the Russos just wanted to throw off their M-rated shackles and go to town, getting Hargraves to do their dirty work.
This he does, refusing to give Hemsworth even a moment for a cuppa and a lie down with a relentless schedule of running, chasing, shooting, stabbing, throttling, some more shooting, some more running, quite a bit of bleeding and a little bit of dialogue.
Is there a bit of John Wick about this? Sure. Hargraves joins his stunt-brethren Chad Stahelski and David Leitch as he round kicks his way from the stunt room into the director's chair, delivering two hours of relentless action.
You don't need me to tell you Extraction is all brawn and not a lot of brains but you're not coming here for scintillating storytelling and insightful cerebral stimulation; and if you are, who are you?
The film is set in Dhaka, Bangladesh and was shot there as well as in the cities of Ahmedabad and Mumbai in India. The backdrop is authentic and the pace and teeming population of course adds to the on-screen action.
Hemsworth is Tyler Rake - yep Tyler Rake - and Tyler Rake is a ruthlessly efficient, grief-stricken mercenary trying to shoot, stab and bleed his way out of that pain. He signs up for a suicidal mission to "extract" the young son of an Indian drug lord and the body count starts from there.
The man sent to stop him, or help him, or whatever, is a pretty effective killing machine himself, and Saju (Randeep Hooda) has a lot more to lose than Rake. They chase each other around while the police chase them both around, and we watch. Simple really.
There are some sweet as action sequences, including a very impressive, very kinetic single shot steadicam gun fight which I loved enough to watch over again and again (oh the upsides of streaming).
Hemsworth too has acquitted himself very favourably as he continues his mission to prove his metal beyond Thor's Mjolnir and his Marvel fandom.
So yes, dumb, but kinda fun, I liked Extraction far more than I should have and would have bloody loved to watch it on the big screen.
Three-and-a-half stars.
- Extraction is released on Netflix on Friday.
