Seven rogue soldiers launch a pre-emptive strike against a newly discovered alien civilization in the hopes of ending an interstellar war before it starts.
Wow. Just wow. Sometimes when you look at a movie poster you can just tell that the film is going to be incredibly low-budget. That certainly seems to be the case with Cosmic Sin, and yet they have somehow managed to get Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis involved in this perplexing visual experience. You look at Bruce Willis in this astronaut-ish suit and are reminded of the classic film that he also starred in, 1998's Armageddon. The comparison is ill-fated (as is the hilariously accurate title), as neither Frank Grillo (who recently surprised me in Boss Level) nor Bruce Willis could make Cosmic Sin worth sitting through.
One of the biggest things that ruin a film is the amateur move of "telling not showing". When you have a visual medium, "showing" is obviously going to be the most engaging. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Cosmic Sin's 24 frames per second across a 90-minute runtime could be an engaging narrative, and yet everything that we learn is through excessive exposition. The opening scene itself is interrupted by five black screens with text. The audience must read to learn what the technological advances are and must continue reading to learn about why Willis' character is hated. It is lazy writing from both Director/Writer Edward Drake and his co-writer, Corey William Large.
The screenplay is so poorly written that there are only four things that occur on-screen; an inciting incident, the continuation of that incident, a retreat, and a final conflict resolution. All four situations are action scenes that are set up by the overused expositive dialogue that immediately precedes it. the action scenes faring no better, are as exciting and eventful as watching two sets of Star Wars stormtroopers shooting at each other; lots of shots being fired, but nothing of note happening as a consequence.
One cannot help but feel sympathy for the cast, who were given ham-fisted cringe-worthy dialogue, no character development, and a complete lack of action choreography. Looking forward to seeing lots of future technology from the year 2538? I hope you are ready for handguns, flares, and knives!
The special effects were noticeably low-budget, and this also affected the cinematography, with most of the scenes being shot with superfluous red and blue lighting to obscure the backgrounds, and very few wide shots being used, focusing mostly on close-ups with coverage from the forehead to the shoulders. This constant up-close-and-personal viewpoint is unwanted and ends up making Cosmic Sin that much more difficult to watch.
Michael Bay seems to be the only Director who can make the constant close-ups work in an action scene, cinematographer Brandon Cox simply confuses an already unwieldy science-fiction film, by making its action sequences undecipherable, with a complete lack of geography and blur and slow-motion effects that do nothing beyond stretch out the runtime. What are the people doing? Where are the people? What are their immediate goals? Everything is unknown. Characters appear, disappear, and reappear, without motive, context, or explanation.
B-movies generally know what they are, and they are enjoyable because of the limitations of their budgets. Cosmic Sin takes itself far too seriously despite the script having a complete lack of content. It consistently poorly executes elements that other films have done better; the redemption arc is practically absent, Independence Day speeches fall flat, and the passing of the torch is done without emotional impact.
I love the idea of Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis in space fighting aliens. Much like Pacific Rim and the idea of giant robots fighting giant monsters, it's a hard concept to screw up, and yet Cosmic Sin is exactly what it says it is; a sin at a cosmic scale. With the exception of some reasonably intriguing alien visual character designs, Cosmic Sin was a waste of 90 minutes.
Watch Armageddon, Aliens, and Independence Day, and leave this monstrosity to disappear into obscurity.
Cosmic Sin is in cinemas from March 11, 2021
Originally posted to: https://djin.nz/Kr8811