Not Quite Taken

April 25, 2012

Tongue-in-cheek, mindless, futuristic action thriller.

The Plot: A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president’s daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.

Take no Prisoners.

This is LockOut – the latest offering from French cinéaste Luc Besson (Taken) and is essentially Die Hard in space, with Aussie actor Guy Pearce taking the John McClane mantle.

The story is nothing new, but the dialogue is rich with strong laughs and raw sarcasm. These quick, witty lines make the movie which, beneath it all, is just another brainless, CGI-laden, action flick. This is best demonstrated in the movie’s finale which takes an inordinate amount of time explaining the twists to the audience – the flash-backs, nudges and reminders in the denouement make the explanations at the end of an episode of CSI seem brief. And the worst of all? The script-writers are clearly deluded: wrongly believing that their plot is much, much cleverer than it is in reality.

The film also felt rushed, with the Directors (James Mather & Stephen St. Leger) cutting short some of the film’s biggest and most explosive action sequences with choppy editing. The film has suffered for its 90 minute running time – an unnecessary loss.

However, it isn’t all bad. As mentioned before, the film is very funny and also has some very strong characters, both on the side of the U.S Government and the Maximum Security Prison. Guy Pearce deserves a special mention for his stellar performance, his comic-timing is perfection and he wears the hardened action hero character very well – as a viewer you impatiently wait for him to return to the screen.

If you watch it – forgetting about the quality achieved by films like Die Hard and Taken – and just expect a lazy easy-to-deduce plot-line but hilarious, action-packed CGI-filled romp then it will be very hard to be disappointed. After all, this isn’t Schindler’s List it was never going to change your perception of life itself. It isn’t even the best in it’s genre. But it’s Hollywood escapist-blockbuster entertainment at a high-level.

And definitely worth renting.

Rating: B