Director: Sam Hargrave
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Randeep Hooda, Rudraksh Jaiswal, Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyuli
In a world where your enemies are not Thanos and Loki, you need something a little stronger than a fictional hammer to defeat the drug lord in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where your enemies include, the police and the army, who announce a lockdown in the city under the orders of a drug lord.
With the collaboration of stalwarts such as screenwriter Joe Russo, (director of the last two instalments of Avengers franchise) stunt-specialist-director Sam Hargrave,(director of the second unit of Avengers: Endgame) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Extraction is a separate kind of emotion for Marvel fans.
Originally, the graphic novel Cuidad was based in the Paraguayan city, but the action has been transferred to Bangladesh's Dhaka. When the Bangladesh drug lord kidnaps the son of the Indian drug lord, a war is declared, and Dhaka is kept under a different kind of lockdown, one where the Army, the police, works under the orders of the drug lord, and not of the Prime Minister.
Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is the muscular, mercenary soldier who is hired for a whopping amount of money to safely bring back Ovi Mahajan's (Pankaj Tripathi) son, Ovi junior (Rudraksh Jaiswal) from Bangladesh to India, in the middle of the lockdown called by Amir Asif (Priyanshu Painyuli). Meanwhile, Nik (Golshifteh Farahani) surveys the project from a distance and maintains contact with the Tyler, who by then had already formed an emotional, father-son bond with Ovi.
Although the frames focus more on Hemsworth, a bleeding Randeep Hooda remains more convincing. When he screams while trying to fix his broken nose, you immediately connect with the pain. By the end of the film, his face gets completely distorted, and that is where he strikes you as the real action hero.
Extraction will not serve the Marvel emotion however, there are tracks which remind you of Captain America's majestic entrance. (Or maybe it is just a Marvel hangover). In terms of pure action octane, Hargrave, who previously worked as a stuntman for Chris Evans, brings in the noise and the jerky movements in the right sense. The long takes remain attractive, but there are shot-counter-shots which do not appear disturbing to the entire sequence of the film. What slightly remained unbelievable, was Chris's ability to remain incredibly handsome even when he hides in the sewage.
Hemsworth and Hooda dedicate most of their physical energy in intense action sequences. Even without his hammer and team of Avengers, Tyler Rake remains creative while tackling with forces and children with guns. Tyler and Suja share the ability to grab a gangster and use his body as a weapon to attack the next personnel working under the orders of the drug lord. That's why when the two come face to face with each other, their energies clash and speeding autos and trucks act as a brilliant, realistic interruption to their action sequences.
Hemsworth here, remains the only white guy, fighting with and against Bangladeshi forces. That's why his Australian accent does not feel out-of-place. In a team full of stellar performers of India, it is a sheer shame that Pankaj Tripathi remained underused, considering the fact that this actor has a history in playing dark characters.
Ratings: 3.5 stars
