The film review aggregate website Rotton Tomatoes gave Resident Evil: Extinction a 22% overal review rating on its Tomatometer. This was based on 94 reviews: 21 "fresh", 73 "rotten". Among eighteen "Top Critics" this was raised to a 28%. The Guardian awarded the film with a two-star rating out of a possible five. While they admired Mulcahy's work in the film making it "easily the best looking of the RE films", they found the plot to be a garbled mess of game references with no connection to the two earlier films. Otherwise the film was said to be "fast and fun".