Director: Tom Paton
Year: 2019
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving at a secure military facility, a technician at a site where they send various beings from different dimensions back to their homeland finds himself thrust into battle when an intended deportee has his staff invade the site to free him and must endure a battle for humanity.
Review:
This was quite an enjoyable and somewhat intriguing effort. One of the biggest aspects to be had here is the fact that there's a rather clever and complex backstory at the heart of the film. The central basis of this location keeping a dangerous race of vicious beings from invading the world, featuring elements of black magic and protection spells that are used to ensure that setup, works rather well to bring this out to a solid start. This setup offers the kind of structure system for the rest of this one, managing to admirably fit together within the parameters of a military compound that's staged to be a manner of sending them back to an alternate dimension incapable of returning back to our society. There's plenty to like about this one based on this setup alone.
That also leads to the outbursts of action in here that are rather spotty but have some rather enjoyable elements featured here. The few brawls here between the various agents of the military facility has some nice hard-hitting action with the fine addition of some stellar swordplay as well that also manages to provide the kind of bloodshed necessary to enjoy this one with the brutal and graphic injuries. With that setting up the more generally impressive military tactics within the compound where they're forced to battle the numerous soldiers coming in to rescue the captured being. This all manages to offer up some exciting moments when it occurs.
There are a few issues here, though. The main problem is that the film, for all the good it does at setting up the mythology in this universe, there's some absolutely confusing material in here. It takes way too long to figure out that the entire point of their attack on the base is to allow him to transform in order to allow him to reunite with his beloved who has already gone through the process. Not only is that finally revealed at the very end but it's handled through a series of intense and overblown conversations that are intended to drive that out easier than what it eventually shows and that makes for an immensely confusing and convoluted effort.
As well, the film is just outright boring and bland. The idea of this one being based solely on the endless conversations and pretentious dialog that goes on between the group and the diabolical being which just turns the middle section into an endless drag and relieves a lot of the tension and suspense that had been built up by then. Simply watching this supposedly evil being just standing around spouting off threats about the downfall of humanity as if he were a megalomaniacal villain attempting world domination drains the film of action, lessens the intensity and undoes a lot of fun to be had here. These are the biggest issues overall.
Overview: **/5
While there are some generally enjoyable elements at play here, a large amount of negative issues at play here really manage to drag this one down quite heavily which is the overall riding factor with the film. Go into this one only if you’re willing to go along with its positives or looking for a solid Lovecraftian-style sci-fi horror effort, while those put off by the flaws should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment