I quite liked the premise of this film - but that's because it's basically The Terminator with a storm thrown in for good measure. The US has created an artificial intelligence called Echelon which becomes self-aware and turns on its creators. Our only hope is in a clinically inept woman and her robot buddy who are following a series of cryptic clues to stopping Echelon left to her in a VHS tape by her dead father, one of the creators of Echelon. Our bungling heroes are doggedly pursued by evil Echelon robots and psychotic government agents, neither of which are fully explained due to formulaic, lacklustre writing. The murder of the girl's father, Echelon's ability to manipulate the weather, the sudden appearance of the VHS tape at just the right moment and the father's use of cryptic clues to lead his daughter to the 'kill switch' instead of just telling her straight up on the tape could also have used some explanation.
Despite a relatively promising story, the film is let down by a terrible cast of Z-list TV actors and a director with a background in mannequin restoration. Sometimes it's possible to salvage a bad film with good editing, but the editor here had very little to work with and with this being his first film was completely out of his depth.
The CGI is also terrible. I've come to expect bad CGI in low budget films from 10 years ago, but this film is less than two years old. It seems anyone with even a little experience in Cinema 4D and After Effects thinks they can start their own visual effects company and make feature length films. If only it was as easy as that.
This is a prime example of a low budget film where no-one in the production was prepared to give 100% or even lift a finger if they weren't paid extra for it. Everything about this film is cheap and formulaic. If you've seen one SyFy film, you've seen them all and there's certainly nothing about this one that makes it stand out from any of the others.
Despite a relatively promising story, the film is let down by a terrible cast of Z-list TV actors and a director with a background in mannequin restoration. Sometimes it's possible to salvage a bad film with good editing, but the editor here had very little to work with and with this being his first film was completely out of his depth.
The CGI is also terrible. I've come to expect bad CGI in low budget films from 10 years ago, but this film is less than two years old. It seems anyone with even a little experience in Cinema 4D and After Effects thinks they can start their own visual effects company and make feature length films. If only it was as easy as that.
This is a prime example of a low budget film where no-one in the production was prepared to give 100% or even lift a finger if they weren't paid extra for it. Everything about this film is cheap and formulaic. If you've seen one SyFy film, you've seen them all and there's certainly nothing about this one that makes it stand out from any of the others.