It's futuristic. It's action packed. It...well...pretty much sucks. It's Lockout starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace. Yeah, I probably should have prayed for a lockout myself when opening this theater door and went to see Hunger Games again. Lockout has its moments, but it has skippable written all over it.
It's 2079. Some things have changed and others haven't. Cell phones are surprisingly pretty much what they are today. Prisons, not so much. At least one prison, MS-One is located in orbit of the Earth. It contains all kinds of baddies, from all kinds of countries. Our hero, Snow, has been sentenced to spend a few decades there. Unfortunately for Snow, he's innocent of those espionage charges, but he's headed to the moon, baby, to serve some time. Check that, it's a little south of the moon, but you get the point. However, before Snow can make his way skyward, MS-One (Maximum Security-One) apparently isn't so maximumly secure. In fact, there's a big take over in which the baddies nab a few hostages, including the President's daughter, Emily. So, the Prez strikes a deal with Snow--if you break in...get my daughter back then you're free, baby. Easier said than done, but Snow gives it the ole college try. Yadayadayada Snow gets the girl...tries to avoid the cons and get Emily home before the USA blows MS-One out of the sky.
It's pretty bad. I'll go with 1.0 Star--which, if you're unfamiliar with my star system, means: "You're kidding me, right?" This wasn't a bad concept, but Lockout is so poorly written in terms of character development, it's not a fun watch. Don't worry. The onion rings and king-size Reeses made a painful view a little better. I would just prefer that my concessions not carry my movie experience. These were not fun characters. From Snow (Pearce) to Emily (Grace), they are all so superficially charged, it makes it very difficult to connect with them. Emily is supposed to be the caring first daughter, but lacks a certain genuine nature that makes the character unbelievable. I get the whole, "I'm not resting on my daddy's laurels and I'm going to fight to prove myself...etc, etc." It just was not remotely believable.
They threw a damper on the experience early on. During the opening sequence, it was a chase seen that was so obviously CG that it looked like a bad video game. Not working folks. Sure, there are some interesting fight scenes that will draw some notice from the ten and eleven year old boys in the audience. There are some even pretty descent sci-fi effects. Overall, however, it is not nearly enough to carry this one past a lonely Star.
I wouldn't recommend this one--skip it all together.
True...OUT!
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