Red Faction: Origins

After 200 years of tyranny in Mars, the EDF (Earth Defense Force) is defeated by the alliance Red Faction formed by the Colonies with the Marauders led by Alec Mason (Robert Patrick). However the alliance is broken when Alec's wife Sam (Sarah Brown) and his daughter Lyra are murdered by the Marauders. However his ten-year-old son Jake claims that white soldiers have killed his mother.

In the present days, Jake Mason (Brian J. Smith) is a soldier from the Red Faction and Alec is a drunken troublemaker. Jake is assigned to retrieve the technology of the EDF Battleship Hydra will crash on a neutral zone with Tess (Danielle Nicolet). However he finds that white soldiers have arrived first and they get the Hydra. Jake attacks one of the soldiers and finds that she is his sister Lyra (Tamzin Merchant). When he returns to the Colony, nobody believes in his words.

Jake decides to find Lyra and deserts the Red Faction. He crosses the Marauder territory to reach Asimov, where he believes he may find a clue of the location of his sister. Along his journey, he teams-up with Tess and the Marauders Leo (Devon Graye) and Corvallis (Gordon Kennedy). Soon they discover that the white soldiers belong to the EDF and their leader plans a war between the Red Faction and the Marauders led by the Matriarch Omaya (Kate Vernon).

"Red Faction: Origins" is a surprisingly good Sy-Fy movie, with a solid story and great cast. The status quo of the Martian society divided in Red Faction and Marauders is presented too soon and rushed and fortunately I saw this movie on DVD and I repeated the explanation to understand how these people and EDF are entwined. I believe that some of the bad reviews in IMDb belong to viewers that have not understood the story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Facção Vermelha: Origens" ("Red Faction: Origins")

First off it is important to note that this is a fairly low budget production - a made for TV-movie (Wikipedia info: feature-length science fiction television movie pilot produced by Universal Media Studios and UFO Films debuting on SyFy, it is the first film based on the Red Faction series of video games.)

When you know this, you are aware that the CGI effects might not be avatar crisp, and they aren't! However - they are far above what i had expected, and the story is surprisingly believable. There are a few lose ends, like the reasoning behind some decisions made by various people throughout the movie, but never the less, i have seen plenty of A-list movies where the storyline are way more scrambled and nonsensical than this one.

The general level of the acting is quite good. Especially Brian J. Smith - whom you might know as Lieutenant Matthew Scott from the TV series SG Universe, and Danielle Nicolet has a very solid performance.

The best way to describe this movie, IMO, is a mix between Dune, Star Wars and the feeling you get when playing the game. (And Fallout 3 / new Vegas) Gritty feel, good vs. evil and sci-fi elements... good stuff :-D

I would tell everyone who likes the game, enjoys sci-fi, or likes a good adventure story with a classic "one man and his struggle to make everything right"-frame, to give this movie a chance.

The good: Solid acting Good story A Game-to-movie attempt above the normal standard It's a sci-fi....! :-D

The bad: Sub par CGI compared to A-list movies - but not horrible at all! A few actors who "feels like" B-actors A few plot holes, non to major though

I came into this movie thinking it was another Uwe Boll experience, but i was presently by what Michael Nankin had done with this movie and it's limited budget. It only gets a 7/10 from me, because it does have some of the "made for TV" characteristics, but for what it is, it is one of the best ever!

While not strictly faithful to the game its still close enough to be relevant(think Dune movies vs. Books) and captures the theme of the games pretty well. And its not as if the games have such a fantastic story to begin with, at least not the newer titles.

This movie has some great actors from US and UK sci-fi shows and they all do a pretty good job. Certainly you will have seen them all put on better performances but they are all capable actors. The story was pretty good although it would have been just as good a movie set during the time frame of the games and opened up a potential franchise of decent TV movies or miniseries.

Certainly worth watching for fans of the game and its a great example that just because its a game doesn't mean the movie has to suck. Yes I am talking to you Herr Boll. And as a standalone movie it is brilliant even better considering it is a TV movie. And its by far the best syfy movie I have seen in a long time if ever and if it had more budget it could certainly have had a successful theatre release.

A solid movie and an excellent watch, its pretty much a 6 but I gave it a 7 for being an example of a game adaptation done right and some favourite actors having good parts.

Not having played any of the Red Faction games, I am not really up to speed about the various factions, the history or the lore of this particular setting. However, watching the movie without this predetermined knowledge, the movie turned out to be a good enough Sci-Fi movie.

The effects in the movie were adequate. This is a SyFy Channel original movie, after all. The effects did what they were supposed to do, and that was it. Don't expect dazzling multi-million dollar CGI effects here. But still, it worked in the way it was supposed to. However, the costumes and uniforms were really a nice touch, I liked those. And the feeling there was to Mars was alright, although it could have been a bit more detailed and have more atmosphere added to make the audience believe that the movie actually did take place on the red planet.

Storywise, then "Red Faction: Origins" was alright as well, it had a good story that had a continual flow to it, and the storyline was easy to follow and had a good amount of key characters to it without becoming a messy result.

The actors and actresses in the movie were also doing good jobs with their given roles and characters.

All in all, then "Red Faction: Origins" is a good and entertaining movie if you like the Sci-Fi genre. Sure, it is not "Star Wars" or "Star Trek", but in its own right, it does make for a good addition to the Sci-Fi genre.

"Red Faction: Origins" get a 5 out of 10 rating from me. Just because a movie is based on a computer game doesn't necessarily make it a bad experience.

I have never wrote a review on a movie and I am not going to start. So this is more of a warning. A warning to warn folks of the horrible story and pure boredom you will experience in this time waster. You could find better fan created movies on youtube.

If you have ever watched one of Uwe Boll's flicks and dogged him for their creation, watching Red Faction:origins will make you think twice before calling another one of Boll's movies crap. Red Factions: Origins, makes Uwe Boll's films look like block buster hits that deserve a Oscar.

You may think that this movie is free to watch, but its not..you will never get the time you spent watching it back. Spend your time washing your dog or something else that will be more exciting.