With this particular film, we have Luke Scott taking centre stage. Son of the famous Ridley, he certainyl has big shoes to fill.
The trailer certainly showed his Dad has helped him out despite it looking like the type of story that has seen so many times. But it was a story that I could happily watch again and again as I love my sci-fi.
Its cuts to the chase and gets out quickly which I was happy to see, as there was little development with the characters. So the film is pretty much all surface. However, there a couple of characters that we can get into which I will mention later in the review.
The first two-third moves along a solid pace with one moment of slowness which was the only moment where I felt bored. The final act had some solid action set-pieces and was certainly the strongest moment in the film including a pretty cool final scene.
There is a nice little twist that I had suspicions of just before the reveal. I felt so happy when I got it right that I just wish I could have worked it out much earlier. When the credits rolled, I thought that it has been a while since I have seen a film with a dramatic twist in the final scene that cuts to black screen straight away. That was one of the few refreshing moments. Others were the execution of the action scenes. They felt very physical and something out of a good 90's action film.
One thing I forgot about was its rating. I liked it that the rating is a certificate is a 15. Rather than trying to sell it to the biggest market possible i.e. 12A, it stuck to its guns and I think being a 15 gave the films its best possible version.
The performances were probably as good as they could have been. By far the star of the show is the brilliant Anya Taylor-Joy. After first seeing her be the best bit in The Witch, she continues to shine as the character of Morgan. I am usually not that impressed by Kate Mara. She seems to do better as a supporting role, like in The Martian. She was ok for the most part, but she had good moments especially with her physical work in the action scenes. It was to see Rose Leslie outside of Game Of Thrones. She was probably the best of the supporting roles. Pretty much all the other roles went through the motions, even Toby Jones and Michelle Yeoh. As for Paul Giamatti, he was just a living and breathing plot device that I felt was below him.
I had no idea Jennifer Jason Leigh was in this. But as soon as I saw her name in the end credits, I instantly knew which character it was.
From a technical standpoint. I liked how it was shot. There is a lot of really nice landscape locations to look at throughout. Also, the soundtrack sounds really nice and futuristic.
I think with it being a directorial debut, you should never expect something that can be a huge success. So for what it is it was alright. Sure it had some basic flaws that I would normally criticize a seasoned film-maker. But I remained entertained to an extent.
I would probably say that it is not worth your money to see it on the big screen. But I would still give it a watch when it comes out on DVD, Blu-Ry or on-demand. The plot may have been done a million times and will be done a million more times. But the general execution of it all was to a perfectly satisfying standard, it passes the time well and I can certainly see a bright future for Luke Scott. In fact, I hope he has enough success to give this film a sequel in the future, as I can see this can go places, especially after what happens in the final scene.
Rating: 7/10
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