In the near future a second ice age has destroyed civilisation . In an underground base dubbed Colony 7 a handful of survivors make radio contact with another underground colony - Colony 5 -and a three man expedition track through the icy wasteland to make contact with Colony 5
This had all the makings of a good film . A couple of well known names and a fascinating premise where mankind struggles to survive against an eco-disaster . Very quickly the film shoots itself in the foot and long before the end credits start you'll be shaking your head wondering why it turned out so mediocre . It's not dreadful but if you took out the names of Fishburne and Paxton you'd think you were watching one of this productions that are constantly churned out by the SyFy channel night after night
You can easily forgive the very clumsy clunky exposition given at the start of the film because it exists to merely fill the audience in on the scenario and it's very difficult to make exposition sound natural . What is less difficult to forgive is the dodgy science used through out the movie
From the outset it's difficult to buy in to a colony like the one shown here surviving . People live underground but even if they were able to grow tomatoes and other plants as seen here it's difficult to believe they'd be able to grow them in large enough quantities to keep the colony alive . Someone does point out that rabbits are their main source of protein but throws a major spanner in the works because rabbits are so rich in protein that they lack essential fats and minerals to sustain human life in the long term . Look up " rabbit starvation " to find out what I mean . This leads me to ask what are the colonists doing about fats and carbohydrates in order to survive ? There's also a subplot about infections and flu outbreaks which leads characters being quarantined but in reality viruses have an incubation period so a quarantine wouldn't be effective because people would the carry the virus before they display any symptoms . Mind you this is to probably to illustrate Paxton's character Mason as a potential despot so may be it's not a valid criticism
The story then quickly takes a turn of a quest to explore Colony 5 and when the expedition reaches here the movie turns in to an action adventure horror that you've seen before where the colony has degenerated in to barbaric cannibalism . I've no idea why but for some reason eating human flesh seems to interfere with the powers of speech so the cannibals run around communicating via growls and snarls . It's also at this point we learn that a weather station has pushed back the ice age in a 8 mile radius . Hmmm . That's very convenient if say the cannibals chase a lone survivor back to Colony 5 and have a battle where Colony 5 is destroyed down to the fact that the colonists don't shoot the cannibals every chance they get
THE COLONY had a lot of potential but blows it by concentrating far too much on the action and horror aspects . Like so many American films it sets up a post apocalypse scenario merely to use it as an excuse to have action sequences and a high body count . One does lament the British apocalyptic literature of Wyndham and John Christopher who would have come up with a similar scenario but would have developed the storyline so in a much more credible and thought provoking way
This had all the makings of a good film . A couple of well known names and a fascinating premise where mankind struggles to survive against an eco-disaster . Very quickly the film shoots itself in the foot and long before the end credits start you'll be shaking your head wondering why it turned out so mediocre . It's not dreadful but if you took out the names of Fishburne and Paxton you'd think you were watching one of this productions that are constantly churned out by the SyFy channel night after night
You can easily forgive the very clumsy clunky exposition given at the start of the film because it exists to merely fill the audience in on the scenario and it's very difficult to make exposition sound natural . What is less difficult to forgive is the dodgy science used through out the movie
From the outset it's difficult to buy in to a colony like the one shown here surviving . People live underground but even if they were able to grow tomatoes and other plants as seen here it's difficult to believe they'd be able to grow them in large enough quantities to keep the colony alive . Someone does point out that rabbits are their main source of protein but throws a major spanner in the works because rabbits are so rich in protein that they lack essential fats and minerals to sustain human life in the long term . Look up " rabbit starvation " to find out what I mean . This leads me to ask what are the colonists doing about fats and carbohydrates in order to survive ? There's also a subplot about infections and flu outbreaks which leads characters being quarantined but in reality viruses have an incubation period so a quarantine wouldn't be effective because people would the carry the virus before they display any symptoms . Mind you this is to probably to illustrate Paxton's character Mason as a potential despot so may be it's not a valid criticism
The story then quickly takes a turn of a quest to explore Colony 5 and when the expedition reaches here the movie turns in to an action adventure horror that you've seen before where the colony has degenerated in to barbaric cannibalism . I've no idea why but for some reason eating human flesh seems to interfere with the powers of speech so the cannibals run around communicating via growls and snarls . It's also at this point we learn that a weather station has pushed back the ice age in a 8 mile radius . Hmmm . That's very convenient if say the cannibals chase a lone survivor back to Colony 5 and have a battle where Colony 5 is destroyed down to the fact that the colonists don't shoot the cannibals every chance they get
THE COLONY had a lot of potential but blows it by concentrating far too much on the action and horror aspects . Like so many American films it sets up a post apocalypse scenario merely to use it as an excuse to have action sequences and a high body count . One does lament the British apocalyptic literature of Wyndham and John Christopher who would have come up with a similar scenario but would have developed the storyline so in a much more credible and thought provoking way