hydralien

Perhaps that's not the best measure for a movie, but it's better than a previous Statham's flick, The Beekeeper. Mostly because additional characters keep it somewhat diverse and lively - most of them are, while entertaining, are too caricature in both idea and portrayal, but the protagonist's daughter really stands out. Probably the only real acting in this movie (apart from Statham, sho acts himself as usual).

The story and what happens on screen is exactly what one would expect, which is kinda the point, even if boring. It's well made, and fights are surprisingly to the point: no any "boss fights" where hero almost dies but then kills the baddie with last effort, or bad guys rising from the dead. All is quick and final.

The rest is, well... the rest. Characters reasoning is laughable, situations are cartoonish, dialogues are dull or cliche or both, the acting is cardboard, and the whole thing is very derivative. And don't get me started on Jason Flemyng playing a russian mobster - just... why? Though same goes for all others - one would hope the actors speaking few words in foreign language in most horrendous of accents would be a thing of the 80s, but no.

Overall, a fair background flick.

The parts that comprise the movie are quite good - the sci-fi tech and setup, the alien planet with decently unusual life, the general idea of expendable re-printed test subjects (however put on the back-burner way too soon), the ignorant "leader" of the expedition. Even the plot, however uneven and inconsistent it is at times.

But for various reasons, all the parts do not combine into a wholesome movie, or not entirely.

I'm not sure I can pinpoint any specific problem, as for me it was several: main character's motivation, behaviour and some sudden personality changes were not explained much (or sometimes at all); inconsistencies in the logic for the re-printing process; disjointed or too self-centered performances of some characters, and a noticeable number of dubious character decisions.

It's not a bad movie - it's well made, it has great visuals, great actors, it satirises relevant subjects and raises deep questions under a satirical facade. But unfortunately, it's put together too unevenly to call it great.

Well, that's an exaggeration, sure - but not by much. There's a decently fun idea behind it, and some fairly creative takes on the subject in the action sequence department. Sadly, most of the creative parts were exposed in the trailer(s) so it's not very exciting when repeated. Atop of that, the plot is painfully generic and transparent, and the characters are as cardboard as they could be. Maybe save for the main protagonist for the core idea representation, and main antagonist for psychotic ferocity at times. But the rest is just as if the creators were recklessly slapping some generic action movie tropes on the main idea, and did that poorly.