Here’s the odd premise for this sci-fi flick: a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) from half our universe away is heading for us and threatens to totally obliterate all life on Earth. A scientist (Colm Feore) gets the opportunity to revive his cancelled project by a mysterious benefactor, picks a local schlub of a father, Joseph Steadman (Ron Eldard), as his test subject and sets plans in motion to infuse said schlub with immense power to stop that GRB.
Not exactly blockbuster material, but it is decent enough for a small scale independent sci-fi flick. Director Matthew Santoro, billed as a visionary directer in the trailer despite this being his first feature, comes from a visual effects background, one of the many artists from Hy*Drau*lx (the folks behind the Skyline movies), so the visual effects are a major element of this movie. His handling of the VFX is impressive as the movie builds towards its climax as the power within Joe keeps growing.
Colm Feore doesn’t really have much to do, sitting behind an array of monitors and his computer, remotely pushing Joe into increasingly stressful situations (from threatening his daughters, Zoe (Jordan Hinson) and Rhea (Marielle Jaffe) with death to having him deal with a bomb that could wipe out the city), all with the purpose to initiate the change within Joe to trigger his powers. This all leads to a very action heavy second half with tense action scenes, impressive visual effects and some intriguing cinematic trickery in its presentation, the kind that comes from innovating methods to hide your low budget and making do with what you can get during filming.
Santoro pulls off some neat tricks here, but for an average viewer getting through much of the first half can be a bit of a test of patience. The lower budget practically glowers in the first half, the story taking its time to set things up and moving certain characters into position, but the cast do as well as they can until the action and effects take over. The slim run-time helps.
I took a chance on this mainly because I was curious what Jordan Hinson was doing these days following her stint on the excellent Sci-Fi series, EuREKA. She gives as well as she can here, but the story and the script doesn’t really make full use of her, or much of the other characters, with Eldard and Feore taking up much of the screen time as puppet and puppet-master. It really is more to showcase the effects and Santoro’s handling of the material which he co-wrote.
In typical B-grade Sci-Fi tradition, the conclusion is both clear and enigmatic enough to satisfy, although methodology of certain actions do raise questions. Among others, where did Feore’s character get all those hired help in the time limit he supposedly has to pull it all off? Still, some of the action set-pieces are impressively staged and executed, so the movie manages to rise a little above the usual standard fare that’s being pumped out, even by major studios.
As a whole, it’s an impressive debut with Santoro showing lots of promise. I’d be curious to see what he can pull off next.
Rating: *** /5
Directed by Matthew Santoro
Written by Julia Fair & Matthew Santoro
Stars Ron Eldard, Jordan Hinson, Colm Feore, Mei Melançon, Marielle Jaffe, Omar Doom, Richard Portnow, Jade Tailor
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