Director: Steven Gomez.
Starring: Vanessa Kirby, Thure Lindhardt, David Ajala, Mike Noble, Bentley Kalu.
Steven Gomez, a visual effects specialist, directs his first feature length debut. Set in the not-too-far future where cybernetics and robotics are on the verge of being the core part of the military. Ring any bells?
I'm assuming Gomez has been strongly influenced by eighties sci-fi classics like Aliens, Predator and The Terminator, this pretty much being an origin story for Skynet. But this isn't a bad thing, it's actually quite nice treading on familiar ground here.
A tight elite military squad is sent off for training and testing to a remote island facility which appears to be overrun by an evolved artificial intelligence known as S.A.R. (Study. Analyze. Reprogram.) A robot clearly doing what it's programmed for.
Capt. Bukes (Lindhardt) heads up the team in Michael Biehn fashion with a few likeable and distinctive characters among the unit. All them chaperoning Mills, (Kirby) a more human than android with cybernetic enhancements to investigate the anomaly.
It obvious that the team are picked off strategically and in quite the gruesome, desensitised method as S.A.R. learns more about the team. Mills posing as possibly a threat or weakness to either side, her character being quite the source for paranoia adding to the thrilling element of the story, making it not totally predictable.
Other teams players are quite well developed like David Ajala's Drifter and Mike Noble's Goodwin, but I found Bentley Kalu's character of sniper Robinson my most favourable, those cybernetic enhancement enables him to shoot around corners and from behind cover using his rifle's scope.
The actually design of the robots is brilliant. Swinging more to sinister aura of Saturn 3's Hector than of The Terminator. The drones are a little less imaginative but the key robots achieve the frightful presence with its focusing, blue neon lenses and their sharp unhesitant components.
The sound effects are good too, the humming and whirling of motors turning, symbolising the robots thinking. Stephen Hilton's score sounds like a Harry Gregson-Williams remixed version of Brad Fiedel's Terminator theme but suits the film perfectly.
This is a good example of how a good film can come from a low budget. Yes, it's not blockbuster high-end and yes, it feels like a copy or better, an amalgamation of classic eighties sci-fis some of us grew up on. But that's just it, it's good, easy watching entertainment I can see a lot of hardcore Sci-fi action fans will enjoy.
Running Time: 6
The Cast: 6
Performance: 7
Direction: 6
Story: 7
Script: 6
Creativity: 8
Soundtrack: 7
Job Description: 8
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
Would I buy the Blu-ray?: Maybe.
61% 6/10
