As writer and director, this is Matthew Reilly's first ever dabble into filmmaking. I have to admit, his directing was spot on, and the premise of his story pretty original - with some nice twists, but of course there were cliches, and some plot and technical issues. But he's allowed rookie mistakes as a newb.
The pacing was decent for the comfortable 99 min runtime. The cinematography was great, and the sets and location very unique and interesting. Even the score, for a B film, surprisingly wasn't overbearing and unfitting.
Considering Reilly has no experience in directing his cast, they all performed pretty decent, although I have to say, casting Elsa Pataky was a huge mistake. She did not fit the role whatsoever, and her accent (compared even to her dads non-existent accent) became very annoying and made her tough-soldier act unconvincing. How would she even be so high up in the ranks barely speaking proper English? I mean any other actress would've been more believable, as long as their broken English wasn't as bad as hers. It was so bad, I though the twist would be that she's one of the undercover RU's. That aside, even her tough-gal act was unbelievably cheesy, especially taking on guys three times her weight. Poorest casting choice I've seen in a while. It was awesome though seeing Chris Hemsworth as the TV salesman.
Considering this is Reilly's first ever filmmaking credit, I'd say he did better than some film I've seen lately from seasoned filmmakers. So to the wanna be critics who only know the number one out of ten, learn how to review properly. The production value alone makes this easily at least a 5/10, but it's a well deserving 7/10 from me, and could've easily been more with a better lead and some tweaks in the screenplay. Nevertheless, I applaud Mr. Reilly for his first film.
The pacing was decent for the comfortable 99 min runtime. The cinematography was great, and the sets and location very unique and interesting. Even the score, for a B film, surprisingly wasn't overbearing and unfitting.
Considering Reilly has no experience in directing his cast, they all performed pretty decent, although I have to say, casting Elsa Pataky was a huge mistake. She did not fit the role whatsoever, and her accent (compared even to her dads non-existent accent) became very annoying and made her tough-soldier act unconvincing. How would she even be so high up in the ranks barely speaking proper English? I mean any other actress would've been more believable, as long as their broken English wasn't as bad as hers. It was so bad, I though the twist would be that she's one of the undercover RU's. That aside, even her tough-gal act was unbelievably cheesy, especially taking on guys three times her weight. Poorest casting choice I've seen in a while. It was awesome though seeing Chris Hemsworth as the TV salesman.
Considering this is Reilly's first ever filmmaking credit, I'd say he did better than some film I've seen lately from seasoned filmmakers. So to the wanna be critics who only know the number one out of ten, learn how to review properly. The production value alone makes this easily at least a 5/10, but it's a well deserving 7/10 from me, and could've easily been more with a better lead and some tweaks in the screenplay. Nevertheless, I applaud Mr. Reilly for his first film.