Guy Pearce has been dabbling in some science fiction recently with that TED talk for Prometheus, and now he’s doing some more science fiction in Lockout.
Lockout tells the story of Snow, a man wrongly convicted of murder and espionage, but he is offered his freedom. Freedom of course comes with a price, and this one is quite hefty. The Presidents daughter has been taken hostage in a prison, full of the worst criminals known to man. These dudes are so bad ass, that they safest place for them is to put them into a cryo-stasis sleep….thousands of miles above the earth..in outer space. Will Snow save the Presidents daughter? Will the Presidents daughter get saved? And is there any space soap in the showers?
Lockout moves along at a fairly consistent pace, and doesn’t really rest on its laurels, because before you know it, Snow is sneaking into this galactic prison as all hell is breaking loose. And Guy Pearce himself is always incredibly likeable and watchable, and certainly oozes badassness here. Even Maggie Grace as the Presidents daughter is watchable. Unfortunately the those are probably some of the more positive points to Lockout.
This movie treats the audience like children. One far too many occasions you are reminded where you are, be it in a space prison or in Washington DC. Once would be enough surely. The prison itself is an impressive specimen, and will remind you of the Matrix of all things with its gigantic stasis chamber. Besides that though, the visual effects are average at best. You realise the movie might be in a spot of bother after 10 minutes, because Snow ends up in a bike chase which zips through a city landscape at breakneck speed. I won’t go into the intricacies of it, but visually it looks cheap and rushed, and the movie would have been far better served to cut this sequence out. And that seems to hold the tone for most of the movie as it feels more like a TV show with a big budget, than a big screen spectacular.
Lockout isn’t a complete life sentence, but dodgy visual effects and a cheesy and predictable story (never mind the futuristic inconsistencies) let the whole thing down, and while it gets a little clever in the closing minutes, it’s much too late. Treating audiences like idiots is a staple of many movies these days, but at least hide your intentions. Overall, this is watchable, solely from the Guy Pearce involvement and to be brutal about it, it’s more of a straight to dvd movie than anything else.
