Gamer Films: Red Faction- Origins

It held a fraction of my interest.  Today's film is Red Faction: Origins.  After three games, they decided to make a TV movie.  Why?  Who the hell knows?  I do know that this was a segue into what may be the last game in the franchise- 'Red Faction: Armageddon.'  Sure was a prophetic title, huh?  So, let me make this clear: I'm not big on this franchise.  I have nothing against it, but I've only played one game.  It was alright.  I know that there are a lot of people that do.  For you, I'll say this: the movie is decent.  I can't speak much to how it represents the franchise or its story, but it's alright.  The film is about two major Factions (get it?) on Mars trying to co-exist.  Unfortunately, there's a third, seemingly-dead Faction that has their own plan to take over.  Can the hero of former-franchise hero Alec (yea!)- who's now a drunk, old man (boo!)- save the day like his father did?  Can he make true peace?  To find out, read on...

Years after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla (the only one I've played), Alec Mason (Robert Patrick) is a wreck of a man.  His days of being a hero are over.  His days of being a drunk are upon him.  Subtle imagery, right?

His son is a Soldier and they have issues.  It doesn't help that Dad is a drunk, sure.  However, it all goes back to...

their childhood.  When they were young, some Militants killed their mother and took the sister.

Our hero got away, however, and Dad holds it against him.  Interesting choice of person to be mad at...

The outsider group lives in the Mountains and is a bit militant.

On the plus side, it was nice of them to re-use the Star Wars hologram effect.  Classy stuff.

On a whim, our hero goes out into the Forbidden Zone (aka rebel territory) to find his sister.  He gets stuck with a scientist/third wheel.  She...tries to be important.

In sheer movie coincident, the man that he sees stabbed by his mother before she dies is the lead villain of the film.  Pretty impressive how he survived that wound too.  The brain is meant to be pierced.

Oh and the other villain was on Torchwood.  He was also in The Asylum's Sherlock Holmes, so let's focus on that instead.  Tee hee.

'Dr. Watson' has a romantic angle with our hero's sister- who's alive...duh- and refuses to shoot her when she leaves.

Naturally, he turns full evil minutes later.  Subtle characters- what are those?!?

Thanks to circumstances that I won't SPOIL- although anyone with a brain can guess- the bad guys are taken out.  How can this day get any better?

It can!  With very little effort, our hero makes a tentative peace accord between the two groups.  Hurray for possible, eventual success!  The End.

Get your ass to Mars...if you have the time.  The good parts: the effects (usually), the basic story and the use of the setting.  The bad: just about everything else.  That's a bit of a generalization.  The execution of the story is lacking for me, just kind of meandering.  It's not a bad story per se, but it's just told in a sub-par way.  Does that make sense to anyone?  The Acting and overall Production is good, but not great.  They were trying here and it shows.  It would have been nice to see something more interesting.  Speaking of which, what's up with the subtitle?  I was expecting some sort of Origin story or something.  Instead, this is a bridging story between two games, so...Origins?  In all honesty, I was expecting something really bad.  A video-game tie-in film that only aired on Syfy- it must be shit.  Well, it's not.  It's not great either, but...well, I've already covered that.  Speaking of covering things...

Next up, a week of random Horror films because...why not?  First up, the unofficial sequel to Tales From the Crypt featuring...Doctor Who.  Stay tuned...