Colonials: Review
shows ambitious universe building that far outreaches it’s budget
Colonials comes from directors Andrew Balek (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) and Joe Bland (Ellipse).
A space explorer travelling from Mars, Silas (Greg Kriek – Black Mirror, Maze Runner: The Death Cure), embarks on a reconnaissance mission to Earth – which lies in ruin – to figure out what happened to the ‘humans of old’.
But before he can reach his destination, his squad is intercepted by the Exiles – a dangerously advanced and perilously evil Moon-based civilisation – who destroys their ship.
Separated from his squadron, Silas crash-lands alone on Earth. But, having lost his memory in the accident, he must figure out who he is and his purpose on Earth before the Exiles find and destroy him…
With electrifying visuals, this atmospheric actioner promises thrills aplenty but does it deliver?
Well I’m not sure what the budget of this film was, but I imagine the word meagre was used more than once.
It shows ambitious universe building that far outreaches it’s budget, and you can see that the cast and crew were really trying to make something groundbreaking that was multi format with a card game and computer game being released, unfortunately this grand scope may be why it falls short in a few places.
It’s very much a digital set movie, sometimes this looks great, while others it looks like a cut scene playing on a Playstation 2. The actors do well with what they have and performances are largely good. Think Command and Conquer live action sequences levels.
Some of the running scenes are incredible, and often I couldn’t tell if this was a comedy. The script implies it’s not to be taken seriously one minute and Shakespeare the next.
The plot is a fairly straight forward hero’s lost his memory, dad owns Mars, type affair.
It starts with a message being beamed out after 56 years the exiles have taken everything on Earth and the voice is asking the Colonials to respond, if there’s any out there.
Silas’ ship is destroyed by a missile from a tiny “Exile” ship and he escapes to earth, which is very much a Terminator level dystopia thanks to the Exiles. He’s picked up by some rebel renegade types and can’t remember who he is. He goes on a little adventure all the while hunted by the Exiles. The characters he meets along the way aren’t really fleshed out enough, it’d be nice to spend more time with some of the bad guys in this, they seem interesting.
Mike Barnes from The Karate Kid has a robotic arm now so when the bad guys come calling he puts it to good use, I think. It’s the most confusing thing but he catches an electro whip with his good arm? It’s a great little fight sequence though.
Will Silas make it off earth? Will the Colonials come to the rescue of the humans of Earth? Is the senate all the same man? Is Lockjaw the most intriguingly named henchman? You can find out the answer to these questions and more when you watch Colonials, on digital from 17th April 2023.
The film feels like it needs to be more focussed, some of the characters are in there, and needn’t be. The colour balance choices are all over the place, one scene is white light, the next is a standard orange teal type affair, then it’s warm and golden, then blue, then white, then green. It’s like someone forgot they were making one film.
The sound is what really lets this down for me, I’ve seen so many films recently that this is true of. The sound here is up and down, drowned out by overly loud music at times, muffled dialogue, mouths moving but no dialogue and some sound effect problems.
Colonials will appeal to most hardcore sci-fi fans, it tried to take a few well trodden areas of sci-fi and bring them together in a new way. It is punching above it’s weight in the FX department and while this isn’t always successful, when it is it’s really impressive. You will feel like you’re watching a rerun of BBC’s The Adventure Game from about 1983 at times but as green screen movies go it’s not too shabby.
So, if you watch Colonials, let me know what you thought. You can check out the trailer below.
“Colonials is a large-scale sci-fi action feature film with a contagious adventure maneuvering through grand landscapes and epic digital sets. We have the most talented cast and crew you could ask for. Greg Kriek and his co-stars bring the characters to life and make you feel a part of the Colonial experience. From creation to promoting the film on stage at Comic-Con, we can’t wait for everyone to get the chance to watch Colonials in theaters or in your own living room! Enjoy the film.” –Director Joe Bland
“If there’s any colonials out there, please respond. “
