3/10
Lockout is a product of outright laziness. There is nothing new here, nothing unique,
and nothing to recommend. Aside from a
few good jokes from our hero, Snow (Guy Pearce), the film has nothing going for
it. The plot is stock beyond belief, the
dialogue is groan-inducing, and the action editing is some of the worst in
years. What is technically a good idea
on paper, a prison break in space, is spoiled with extremely lousy and inept
filmmaking.
Snow has been set up.
He is convicted of a crime he did not commit and is on the way himself
to the maximum security space prison known as MS-1. Coincidentally, the President’s daughter,
Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), is on a fact finding mission to MS-1 when an
inattentive security guard sets in motion an impossible chain of events which
ends up with all of the prisoners woken up from stasis, released from their cells,
very quickly in control of an immense prison complex, and the captors of the
First Daughter.
If only there were one man, a loose cannon if you will, who
the government could send on what would basically be a suicide mission to save
the girl. Whoa, you mean there is such a
guy? Let me guess; is it Snow armed with
his chiseled abs and snappy one-liners? Quickly
blasted off into space, only Snow can somehow break into an impenetrable
prison, find the girl, escape with the girl, and somehow keep all of these
violent and psychotic criminals aboard their floating prison which also seems
to now be crashing towards the eastern seaboard.
There is a sub-plot where Snow is trying to clear his name
but that is just a side note in what is a one man versus many scenario. It is good to see Guy Pearce again in an
action film and leading role. Long ago
are the days of The Proposition, Memento, and The Time Machine. Unfortunately, for the leading lady they
picked Maggie Grace, best known as one of the most annoying characters from the
Lost
series. Another character actor you may
recognize from Prison Break is Peter Stormare who provides his usual menacing
one-note skill set.
The target audience here of male action fans will be
disappointed by the amateur chase and fight scenes. An early chase scene is reminiscent of Ultraviolet
(2006). Remember that horrible film and
its horrendous chase scenes which looked like they were done on a computer
pre-dating Tron? There is a very
similar choppy computer feeling here and you almost expect to see the green
screen behind the actors pop into view.
Lockout did not have to be this bad. The idea of a prison break in space, in the
right hands, could have been a quality action film with a juicy story and evil
bad guys. Here, the bad guys are cartoon
characters, the filmmaking is cheap and shoddy, and the film is just a complete
mess. Go see The Raid: Redemption
instead for your action fix.
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