Is Chris Hemsworth's New Movie the Perfect Call of Duty Adaptation?
Video game adaptations have always had quite a bumpy ride, but Chris Hemsworth’s latest project is nothing short but the perfect Call of Duty movie.
Movie adaptations of most popular video games can only take one of two shapes: an unbelievably great masterpiece or a shameful pack of hot garbage.
The elusive “in-between” state has never been an option in this genre since the general public’s typically quite judgemental to it and gamers are one tough-to-please bunch.
The majority of video game adaptations failed miserably, but recently, two separate projects managed to win the hearts and minds of the global audience and resurrect the idea of a successful adaptation in this genre. We’re talking about The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, of course… But these are two unique projects.
Countless others have fallen flat — or stalled in production.
The Call of Duty adaptation has been talked about since 2015 but it never came to life. Each time this topic came up, something happened and the production froze without really starting.
The last time it happened was three years ago, but now there’s no need for that project anymore: we already have a perfect adaptation.
Granted that it’s not the “official” adaptation, but it doesn’t have to be: it’s about as amazing as the intended adaptation could’ve ever aspired to be.
Chris Hemsworth came through with the sequel to his original 2020’s movie and saved the day: his Extraction 2 is Call of Duty brought to life in the most badass way possible. Hemsworth’s Rake is the main character of a movie but he feels like a main character of a video game in every bit of action… It’s just beautiful.
Watching Rake wipe out entire armies of bag guys while constantly picking up various new weapons, storming down corridors and rooms, and performing cinematic (yes, we said it) takedowns brings back the memories of watching your elder brother play shooters when you were younger — or doing that yourself.
In Extraction 2, we see the protagonist escape from enemy strongholds, go through intense fights on top of a train with a covering helicopter, and much more stuff that feels so much like a Call of Duty mission that you need to blink twice when you realize there’s no loading screen after the sequence that just ended.
This isn’t just a coincidence, too: Extraction 2 has a clear intention of adding video game elements here and there.
Chris Hemsworth picks up comically large guns from loot crates, encounters armored “bosses” in key locations, and is largely fueled by his raging adrenaline rush rather than thought-through plans other movie characters would’ve had in his place.
It almost seems like Netflix is trying to make Extraction its final point of entry into the video game industry, and we’ll see a game where we can play as Tyler Rake ourselves pretty soon.
After all, the company’s been interested in expanding in this direction for quite some time now, and Extraction is just too perfect for this goal.
For now, though, we have the perfect Call of Duty movie, and with the recent news about Extraction 3 being in the works already, it’s definitely not the last one.