Lockout [MA]

Falsely convicted ex-government agent, Snow, finds himself with one chance for obtaining his freedom: rescue the President’s daughter from an outer space maximum security prison that has recently been taken over by rioting and very unstable convicts. Initially Snow is not keen on the idea, but when he learns that his friend and operative is also on the inside he agrees to embark up on the mission, although it could cost him his life. 

I saw the trailer for this on another movie and got so excited. It’s Guy Pearce, sexy home-grown darling and fabulous actor that he is, Luc Besson who brought us The Lady, and the story just seemed really good! At the end of 95 minutes, I was left disappointed. It’s an original story from Luc Besson, but what I thought brought this movie down at the end of the day was that there was no character chemistry or indeed character flow. There was just action, science fiction, and a stable plot, but nothing that brought it above that. 

Falsely convicted ex-government agent, Snow, finds himself with one chance for obtaining his freedom: rescue the President’s daughter from an outer space maximum security prison that has recently been taken over by rioting and very unstable convicts. Initially Snow is not keen on the idea, but when he learns that his friend and operative is also on the inside he agrees to embark up on the mission, although it could cost him his life. 

To give it its dues, Lockout is not a bad movie. But then again, it’s nothing to rave about either. As I mentioned before, what I think was the real downfall of this film was that there was no chemistry between its characters, indeed most of them could not even be classed as “characters”. You’ve got Guy Pearce who is absolutely gorgeous and a sturdy action star to boot, but even his smartarse comments and sexily arrogant attitude loses its charms after a while. It’s obvious that there is an intended romance between the hero and the damsel in distress, but even that amounts to nothing and is very flaky. At the end of the day, you could not root for any of these characters because none of them were strong enough to be worthy of admiration. 

The film’s characters, performances, and general story was outshone wholeheartedly by the special effects teams who packed out the movie with space shuttle battles and complex technology. At the end of the day, it felt as though everyone was just going through the motions of making an action movie, you could not feel any of the passion, or joy, or drama or intensity that most great action movies possess. I

t wasn’t performance, it wasn’t technology, it wasn’t writing, but there was definitely something missing that could have made this movie better. And it pains me to say this because it’s Guy Pearce and he’s beautiful! 

Starring Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, Peter Stormare, and Jacky Ido, Lockout was a good and solid story and had some good performances in it, but ultimately was not that great of a film. Filled with action, pretty cool special effects, sinister psycho criminals, bloodshed, and suspense, I don’t regret watching it, but I really was expecting much more.