And then the last five minutes hit you over the head, and you think; why is this not the start of the movie?! I'd watch the crap out of that movie.
That was my experience of the futuristic 2016 Australian film The Osiris Child, which follows the efforts of military man Kane (Daniel MacPherson) to rescue his daughter during a break-out of genetically engineered monsters.
Now, to be scrupulously fair, there was a lot that this movie did right. It had Temuera Morrison as a depraved prison warden, Isabel Lucas and Luke Ford playing an insane pair of hillbilly siblings, and the practical-effect monsters were a breath of fresh air in Hollywood's sea of CGI creatures. And while I didn't particularly care for Kellan Lutz's character at first, he grew on me and eventually delivered the signature performance of the film.
It was these short bursts of brilliance that kept me watching, even when the confusing time-jumps had me scratching my head. Particularly when so many of these issues could have been fixed with smoother transition between scenes; for example, having Kane be told about the company's real plans while walking to the hanger deck would have made a neat segway into that mid-air ship-to-ship fight, rather than jumping randomly into the middle of it and leaving the audience to play catch up.
I'm also undecided about the movie's choice to play coy on who the true protagonist was until the very end. On the one hand it was a relief to see a deconstruction of the standard "father on a mission to save his estranged daughter" plot. On the other, a single viewpoint would have streamlined the movie, padding it out where it was needed and trimming the fat where it wasn't. Some scenes, like the opening of Kane teaching Indi to shoot, felt entirely superfluous, as they introduced nothing that couldn't be easily inserted elsewhere.
On reflection, I'm curious to know if this was originally shot as a web-series. It's divided into six chapters or volumes that could be accepted as self-contained stories, and would make some of the transitions easier to accept. However, I can't find anything that confirms this.
 |
| All practical effects. |
It had the practical effects and twisted thinking that I love about Australian science fiction. Gyp and Bill could have jumped out of Farscape's cast of loony characters and while not perfect, the monsters felt real. Like the titular creatures of Alien or Predator, they were physically present for the actors to interact with. Despite losing some scare factor at the end (you'll see why) my biggest complaint is that we didn't see more of their murderous rampage across planet.
That and why the hell does everyone apart from Temuera Morrison have American accents?!
Final Verdict: Okay. Has some moments of brilliants and a great ending, but confusing transitions and loses points for trying to cater to the overseas market. Australian and Kiwi accents are awesome, people. Own it.
