PG-13, 1 hr. 50 min. Directed By:
James Mather, Stephen St. Leger. Release Date:
Apr 13, 2012.
I went in to Lockout
with only a few expectations, and those were basically: (1) lots of explosions, maybe a few decent
gunfights, (2) some light sci-fi effects, and (3) that the acting would be
horrific beyond my imagining, even from those folks in the cast that I knew to
be talented actors. In that, Lockout was a smash hit. The
opening scenes basically exceed the FDA’s suggested consumption of explosions
and gunfights, thanks in large part to a more than decent chase scene that
demonstrates an even larger disregard for the American people than we see even
from the current administration (cough cough Vote Out Everyone in 2012
cough). The space effects are nice… and
more or less seem to stick with modern science’s understanding of moving
through orbital space, and I have to say that I really dig those police
fighters. It’s pretty bad ass when a
vehicle of some sort can LOOK predatory.
And, the acting really was horrific, even from Guy Pearce, who I have
liked in a good many movies at this point in his career.
But, Lockout managed
to attract my attention beyond those three factors. For instance, I suspect the film’s single
largest issue was the dialogue. Snow
(Pearce) is supposed to be a wise-cracking, super-tough, CIA field agent, but
he comes off as kind of a snarkier version of Sterling Archer. Cool, and don’t get me wrong, I love Archer, but two hours of that was a
little tired. There were things going on
above and beyond the rescue of the president’s daughter that I thought were
mildly distracting from the central story, although that second story line DOES
set up the “first daughter” story line fairly nicely. They could have left it then, and this might
be a film that would benefit from a shorter run time. There were also the number of similarities (vague, but still similarities) between the story here and Taken. That bothered me quite a bit. But, my single largest problem with what I
saw was the sheer tonnage of coincidence heaped upon coincidence that made all
this possible. There are at least five
occasions where we watch Snow beat the odds without breaking a sweat… and I
started rolling my eyes after the second one.
However, if you’re going to Lockout for some easy action, a bit of mind candy, this was
okay. I’m hoping that this won’t be
indicative for the entire upcoming blockbuster season. And while I say hoping, I have big concerns
that it will be, because I’ve noticed that action films releasing in April have
a tendency to speak volumes for the action films that predominate the summer
new release landscape. Truly, The Avengers will set the tone… but I’m
still going to chew my nails a bit about the quality (and by “quality” I mean “fun”
of the summer blockbusters until mid-May now.
I wouldn’t rush to see this. But, if you have time, and you have some
specific reason to go out, have at it.
For the rest of you, this can totally wait until DVD.
