Talk about milking the action scenes; of the 128 minute runtime of this well-funded B-movie, half is many unnecessarily long, dragged out and pointless action scenes, that are also poorly choreographed.
The other half is the most convoluted and basic-as-it-gets cliched story, from a frustratingly derivative screenplay. There are more plot and technical issues than running-time minutes. If you take every popular sci-fi like Star Wars, Star Trek etc, and throw them in a blender, this is the story you would get.
It's a shame, because the although overused and mostly dated S/VFX, alongside some excellent prosthetic costumes, and for the most part some adequate acting (how the heck did Ken Jeong end up in this?), this film had tons of potential. I never saw the first one, which apparently was much worse than this one, but who if funding this sinking ship? And there's going to be a part 3?! Are the Australian tax write-off's for lost revenue that amazing?
Had writer and director Luke Sparke at least consulted a seasoned sci-fi writer, there'd be hope for a cohesive story that would have continuity - and be exciting. Maybe he'll figure that out for part 3. And please stop that annoying, unfitting and overbearing non-stop score on your next film, I wanted to stick pencils in my ears to stop the pain. It's a very generous 5/10 from me.
