Lockout

Stars: ***

Directed by James Mather, Stephen St. Leger.

Starring Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare, Vincent Regan

A man wrongly convicted of conspiracy of espionage against the US is offered his freedom if he can rescue the President's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by its inmates. Guy Pearce stars in this sci-fi thriller set in outer space armed with witty quips and biceps to rescue the President's daughter, Emilie (Maggie Grace). The film begins in a very dark place with Guy aka Agent Snow being beaten up whilst recounting how the Colonel died. That is where the logic behind this story ends. We never learn what mission Snow was on and what was in the briefcase that Snow was sent to recover/protect. In fact, throughout the film, Snow's side story is never fully explained and we never realise why finding out who was selling secrets to foreign countries was so important.

In the meantime, Emilie aka the President's daughter is on a humanitarian mission to see how the outer space prison is effecting the inmates. Prisoners are given sentences called 'stasis' where they are put to sleep for their jail time. However, when they wake up, they are disorientated and mentally unstable. A prison breakout means all the prisoners are let loose to create havoc in the prison and making Emilie a hostage.

This film did have the potential to be a great movie, hence the three stars but there is so much wrong with it that i don't know where to begin. Firstly, the ending totally does not make sense at all as none of the loose ends are tied up. Guy Pearce is at his best as a rogue agent getting trigger happy on a rescue mission and does fulfil his role pretty well. Maggie Grace enacts the President's daughter to the best of her ability but throughout the film, her emotions are always the same. This film could have been so much more as the key concepts are all there but could not help but feel that the script was written more as an afterthought rather than a priority.