“Lockout” does not impress with its lacking script

Ari Howorth
Staff Writer

Though an action film about a high security outer space prison breakout sounds intriguing, James Mather and Stephen St. Leger’s new film “Lockout” features this premise, yet this cannot save the film from coming off as stupid.

“Lockout” suffers due to its meandering subplots, its unlikeable characters, and its boring action sequences. It does contain occasional scenes that are both fun and thrilling, but this does not provide compensation for the terrible script.

The film takes place 50 years in the future, on a space prison, known as MS-1. The president’s daughter, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), is visiting on a humanitarian mission, when all of the prisoners escape and take over the prison. The government sends in one of their wrongly accused prisoners, known as Snow (Guy Pearce) to save her.

The movie claims to be “based off of an original idea by Luc Besson,” who also co-wrote the script. Besson is known for writing films such as “Leon the Professional” and “The Fifth Element.” Since his success with 2008’s “Taken,” he has turned to smaller films with less success. He is focusing his efforts on writing a sequel to “Taken” which is to be released late this year.

Pearce, contrary to past performances, is simply unlikable in “Lockout.” It was difficult to like him, as the character of Snow is pretentious and annoying. It is difficult to tell what Snow cares about in the movie, or if he cares at all, making it hard to care about him. Pearce plays into that which is unfortunate for an actor with so much potential.

The lowest point in “Lockout” comes not from its effects, but from the fact that an action movie, tries to convey a powerful message about the struggles of various social classes. This theme is brought up many times throughout the movie, which is unnecessary and unimportant. If anything, it succeeds in slowing the movie down and making both of the two main characters come off as shallow.

“Lockout” is torn between two stories. There is Snow trying to save the president’s daughter on MS-1, as well as a story that deals with Snow on Earth. The second plot takes up a large portion of the beginning of the film, but is never quite explained. The two stories do not connect with each other and this undermines the importance of each one.

A film set in the future and in space relies on special effects to carry it and make it believable. Unfortunately, “Lockout’s” special effects are disappointing and this causes all scenes in space, and many on Earth to look outrageously unbelievable. This is exemplified in a scene with a high speed motorcycle chase that looks like a cheaply made video game from the 90’s.

“Lockout” is a poorly made, overly dramatic film that attempts to be more important than it is. It ‘s underwhelming script and effects waste its potential to be both compelling and thrilling. “Lockout” is rated PG-13 and is playing in theaters nationwide.