Revolt (2017)

Low budget science fiction thrillers are ten a penny these days, and way too many of them turn out to be absolute rubbish. Not so REVOLT, an engaging little effort that comes to us courtesy of South Africa. The film reminds one of DISTRICT 9 to a degree, with a sun-scorched and devastated landscape patrolled by hulking CGI robots (the good news is that animation is passable here). The main character is an amnesic soldier who has to fight his way across the landscape, encountering violent rebel groups at every turn. This film benefits from a simple story, a fast pace, and plenty of action. The budgetary constraints are evident but the cinematography is nice, which makes all the difference. Jason Flemyng has a small but memorable cameo.

Everyone involved overacts, almost like it is an instruction from the director. They plot in nonsensical at times and they apparently misplace items between scene's, having assault weapons in one scene and not having them moments later, after a short (not shown) skip in time. Perhaps some scenes was cut due to budget or time, and the continuity suffered from it.The directing, chosen angles and editing is poor - perhaps some of the jarringly poor camera work and editing can be traced to 'oh, here they had to skip showing how they got somewhere since if they turn the camera 5 degrees more one can see the barricades and non-apocalyptic scenery'.I was surprised how little I enjoyed this one.

This film is very noticeably low budget to the trained eye. Minor inconsistencies from reality (people one handing a sub machine gun; spoken word being louder than gunshots; slightly campy dialogue, the French aid worker has a russian accent and name) keep this from being a strong recommendation from me, but the themes and plot are definitely interesting. The mystery of who our protagonist actually is keeps the suspense up through out the film and allows us to traverse thre African wilderness while entertained in speculation. The special effects in this one are also better than most low budget sci fi flicks. The finale to the film does feel a bit rushed, but overall this is a good time waster. If you enjoy sci-fi or action then this will appeal to your palette.

This is a good entertaining movie and I see it as:Cinematography : EXCELLENTStory : OK (considering it is a sci-fi)SCI-Fi Content : ABOVE BASELINEActing : GoodDirecting : GoodHave flaws : A fewThrill : GoodResemblance (OR idea taken from) : 1- War of the Worlds (2005) (Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/) 2- The Darkest Hour (2011) (Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093357/)My Rating : 7. But I gave it 8/10 because of too many negative ratings.Recommended : YES, if you like good sci-fi.Further Notes:I like this. The problem with sci-fi genre is that it is too hard to invest new ideas, so it merely depends on other elements like actio, thrill, cinematography and mainly on acting and direction. Having said that this is a good movie.