(Reviewed by John Glennie)
In 2031 the first Mars colony is settled and in 2042 the Alliance is formed and Quantum Propulsion technology enabled humans to colonise the cosmos. In 2281 the Mars colony fails and the Alliance rules over three colonies: Earth, Zafdie and Ellora. In 2519 Zafdie attempts to secede from the Alliance. The “Blood General” James Ford drops a Q-Bomb on the rebel colony.
That’s the background info provided at the start of the movie. It I now 2524 and the sole two inhabitants of a planet “claimed” by Vander Mining Corporation suddenly find out they may not be the only inhabitants! After the equivalent of a Mayday call back to Earth of a “FC Incident” (First Contact) we come back to Earth.
General Ryle (Frank Grillo) is informed of the incident and immediately calls for James Ford (Bruce Willis) to be brought in. Ford had been discharged after dropping the Q-Bomb which killed 70 million people, despite “just following orders”.
When the two occupants from the mining planet are returned it soon turns out that whoever invaded their planet also invaded and took control of their bodies! A small group headed by Ryle and Ford use their Quanrum propulsion suits to zap up to Planet Ellora some 13,368 light years from Earth! Here they encounter the invaders as well as some huma survivors from the Q-Bomb experience.
The rest is all action as the battle for survival reigns supreme. It is full-on sci-fi and action presented in an all-too-familiar story line. I found it a bit hard to follow some of the time to work out who’s who but certainly wasn’t bored. I think the movie will appeal to a select few sci-fi freaks but it wasn’t really for me. I may be being a bit generous in my rating as the rating on IMDB is significantly lower.
Trivia: Young Australian actress Adelaide Kane from WA plays the role of engineer Fiona Ardene – a big contrast to her first acting career as Lolly Allen in Neighbours in 1985!
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