Tom Burlinson kind of went a bit beyond the quality of this film's script and budget to turn in a fairly kick butt performance for the character of Ballard. He seemed like he came out of a much higher quality film, in fact, the character felt like he was plucked right out of the first Terminator film.
Burlinson was definitely in the moment during the first battle sequence where they attempted to secure the city's pillar. I also like that he maintained a fairly hard edge throughout.
It's funny how he completely reproached Fisher's character early on and never really backed down or entirely eased up. A character like that can't exist in today's cinema, else he be classified as "toxic".
But it's just a stark reminder that the quality of media today is so awful that I had to give this film a 5 out of 10 only because it was more entertaining than a lot of the schlock released today.
To the film's credit, some of the scenes are structured pretty cool. In the night time lighting and with the right camera angles, the enemies actually sometimes look imposing, but they never get the proper screen time to be as menacing as they should be.
A few things that could have seriously helped this film is a re-edit and some serious tightening up of the entire middle section.
Having the evil cyborgs attack the town during the middle of the film in a horror-esque sequence would have gone a long ways to make the film a lot more enjoyable.
Also, a proper, dark-synth soundtrack would have added tons to the movie's atmosphere as opposed to the cheap made-for-TV soundtrack it was saddled with. It was like the film was its own biggest enemy when so much could have been done with what they already had.
Even still, Carrie Fisher and Nikki Coghill are both extremely easy-on-the-eyes, and despite not having much material to work with, they both do what they can with the material. I'm kind of shocked that Fisher didn't entirely sleep walk through her performance, but she came awfully close.
If you want a decent 80s sci-fi action flick, this certainly isn't the best of them, but Burlinson is a legit action hero in this film, and carries it on his shoulders somewhat proudly. It's not the worst way to spend an hour and half on a weekend or so.
