Why the Extraction movies rip when so many Chris Hemsworth franchises flop

polygon.com:

Other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no other film franchise has found an effective way to use Chris Hemsworth. Granted, he could be a headlining act for worse franchises than the $30 billion juggernaut that has defined the past 15 years of popular culture. But from the bland, insipid grays of the Huntsman movies to the needlessly vitriolic spite the 2016 Ghostbusters roused, Hemsworth has been unable to catch a break for any major film series where he doesn’t play the God of Thunder. Even when he reunited with his MCU co-star Tessa Thompson for 2019’s Men in Black: International, the results were profoundly underwhelming and forgettable. That movie isn’t particularly awful, it’s just deflating. And it doesn’t even feature a Will Smith rap to perk it up. (Wild Wild West: 1, Men in Black: International: 0.)

Then Netflix released Extraction in 2020, with Hemsworth in the lead and director Sam Hargrave at the helm. Netflix says the film was an immediate success, reaching almost 100 million households in its first four weeks — at the time, the widest reach for any Netflix original movie. Certain elements of the film’s violence, visuals, and apparent white savior complex were rightfully criticized, but ultimately, it made a mark with audiences because it was such a break from the previous decade’s overly referential, frustratingly insincere blockbuster output. And it spawned an immediate sequel, Extraction 2, now on Netflix and likely to quickly beat the first film’s viewing record.

The latter half of the 2010s emphasized increasingly self-aware, lighthearted blockbuster films inundated with half-joke quips. The Captain America meme “I understood that reference!” is perhaps the best tonal summation for this period, with