Directed by: Jeff Renfroe
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton, Kevin Zegers
Studio: RLJ Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running time: 93 minutes
Our Score: 2 out of 5 stars
When I saw the poster for “The Colony”, I figured it looks like a low-budget rip-off of “The Thing”. I saw the pretty impressive cast including Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix”) and Bill Paxton (“Aliens”), which was enough to sell me. The film started off pretty good but ended up becoming quite a mess around half way mark. The visual effects are pretty decent creating this frozen world. I found myself yawning until the final act, which for me never paid off. Might be worth a rent but nothing memorable.
Official Premise: As an endless winter engulfs Earth, humans struggle to survive in remote underground outposts. When Colony 7 receives a distress call from a nearby settlement, Sam (Kevin Zegers) and Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) race through the snow on a dangerous rescue mission. What they find at the desolate base could mean mankind’s salvation—or its total annihilation.
Laurence Fishburne is one of my favorite. He has been a great addition to the cast of TV’s “Hannibal” recently as well. But even though he is prominent on the poster, he isn’t really the main character. Same goes for Bill Paxton since he is missing from the whole second act of the film. His character also has a really weak arc and seems like it was piece together poorly. Obviously, I should have known this well marketing trick but fell for it this time. I wish they would have spent a little more time on fleshing out the background story and fine tuning the characters and this might have actually been worth watching.