Hollywood/Chicago’s Shane Hazen, a colleague of HE columnist Adam Fendelman, has seen Resident Evil: Extinction in Austin, and is calling it “yet another cineplex excursion that’s beneath contempt.

“Directed by Russell Mulhaney, who’s best known for the serviceably charming pulp translation of The Shadow, the franchise is injected with a promising Mad Max riff by writer and producer Paul W.S. Anderson — yet does nothing with it.

“At best, I’ve always thought of Anderson (who directed the first film and wrote the second) as a poor man’s Stephen Sommers. To have the second consecutive sequel where Anderson couldn’t be bothered to direct (only write and produce) really says you’re in for B-movie hack hell.

“So Extinction is another video game-based sequel by test-marketed numbers where everything about it was cooler in the trailer.”