With Hollywood's summer movie season essentially canceled, Chris Hemsworth's Netflix actioner may be the closest thing we get to a seasonal blockbuster.
On the surface, Extraction looks like another Netflix “mockbuster.” That’s the joshing phrase given to the various Asylum releases that tend to explicitly riff off upcoming/already in theaters Hollywood biggies for comparative chump change.
First, big comic book superhero movies are what essentially negated the star-driven, real-world action movie as an A-level blockbuster. Second, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is considered by many to be the best of the MCU partially because it successfully blends this kind of movie with a superhero flick.
That it stars Chris Hemsworth, who has been unable to translate his popularity as Thor into actual “butts in seats” stardom, adds an extra layer of irony. That’s not entirely his fault, as he is exactly the kind of talented, handsome and charismatic leading man who would have been a star in an era when actors were franchises/brands unto themselves more so than the characters they play.
All of this irony adds up to another grimly ironic note: Thanks to theaters being shut down and almost every big movie being delayed, Extraction may end up being the closest thing we have to a new summer blockbuster this year. Extraction, which looks fine and appropriately “big,” will debut on Netflix on April 24, or one year to the day of Avengers: Endgame’s domestic opening day.
It is a sign of the times that last April 24 we were greeting the release of what would turn out to be the biggest-grossing movie of all time ($2.8 billion global), while this April 24 we’ll be greeting a straight-to-Netflix action flick as the closest thing we may get to a summer blockbuster, one produced by the directors of the last two Avengers movies no less.
This summer, the mockbuster may become the blockbuster, unless, of course, Disney+ rides to the rescue with, uh, Artemis Fowl. -Forbes
