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")

While they got the set pieces correct and the outfits as well as props where lovingly detailed, the plot line seems to completely deviate from what is already established in the Red Faction series. Anyone who's played the games and is a fan of the series will soon be What The at this movie. Characters have been seriously changed, factions have been seriously altered, and some of the canon established history has been completely rewritten in a very Uwe Boll fashion.

Bring your Suspenders of Disbelief for this one, and make sure they're titanium laced to withstand the strain. If you're a fan, don't watch it, you'll just go into nerd-rage territory.

For a movie called Red Faction: Origins, I'd expect this to be Parker's story, not Post Alex Mason. How is getting very close to the FOURTH GAME in the series an "origins" story?

Enjoyed Red Faction. Most Syfy original movies have a lot to be desired. This movie is the exception. Good acting, as well as a good plot, helped. Nothing too hard to follow, yet, I was a bit confused at first when it came to all the players involved (Red Faction, Marauders, EDF) and how they intertwined. Once I understood the relations, I was good to go! Nice plot twists, though nothing too startling. The special effects were also acceptable for a low budget flick. The director did a nice job as well. None of that "for the sake of the art" crap, just good, solid direction. The actors weren't wooden and had appeal. Danielle Nicolet is beautiful!

I hope they make a sequel.

First, I had never heard of the Red Factions game before reviewing this movie. I'm looking at it as a stand alone SciFi movie from SyFy Channel. I'm a sucker for Grade B Science Fiction movie so it looked worth trying.

For SyFy Channel, it wasn't that bad. There was no ridiculous monster eating damsels in distress. The special effects were adequate, but with CGI computer horsepower these days it doesn't take much. The sets and much of the production team were Bulgarian, but this is SyFy channel and you expect the best in Bulgarian film making. The actors were OK, but that's rarely the problem with these movies. What's usually the problem with SyFy Channel movies is the script, and that was kind of OK. Not an immortal classic but you didn't cringe.

I give it a fair six. It's worth seeing on a slow afternoon with a pizza.

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.