greygalah

The first 7 minutes on the island sets the tone of this movie - it's unbelievable. This isn't suspend belief in the John Wick sense, but throw belief out the door, lock it an ignore the constant knocking. JW got away with it due to an engrossing story, vivid characters, charismatic actors and a level of fight sequences unmatched in choreography and stunt work. This has a lead actor with no charisma, a threadbare story, a tired western-ish plot, ok acting from a couple of the Indonesian baddies and fight scenes that was choreographed from the 70s. It commits the worst crime of action films - it's boring.l.

Obviously, there has to be comparisons with the dystopian "games" that sacrifice children for the "evil" government - Like the Hunger and Battle Royale. Before doing that, you realise this is not a new story. Then you have to realise that both BR and THG set a high standard for different reasons. This film is ok, but at times boring and unrealistic. A day and a half without sleep is the threshold for severe physical and psychological effects. Some characters show this and others DO NOT. Then you have to add they're walking at 3 min a mile pace and cannot stop. Belief is stretched very thin. It tries to develop characters, but only does it adequately with the two main protagonists. The Major is a cardboard cut-out, for example. Forgettable film whose ending is as unbelievable as the rest.

Rubbish. Like a child's fairy tale. It's dressed up with a broken chronology that gives different perspectives so that the flimsy plot is concealed in a technique used in films from the 1950s. That doesn't make it interesting because the invention comes from Japanese director Kurosawa to show how one event can be interpreted differently, whereas this is just a straight-forward plot cut into pieces and stuck together. It then employs the schlock horror film tropes that are tiresome to anyone over the age of 10.