Today’s quick review: Lockout. When ex-CIA operative Snow (Guy Pearce) is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, Harry Shaw (Lennie James) offers him a way to out: a dangerous rescue mission that requires Snow’s set of skills. Snow must sneak aboard M.S. One, an orbiting maximum security prison, and rescue Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), the President’s daughter, from a gang of escaped prisoners who have taken her hostage.
Lockout is a sci-fi action movie that pits one operative against a space prison full of violent inmates. Lockout is a bread-and-butter action movie with the added wrinkle of taking place in the near future. The movie gets a fair amount of mileage out of its action-oriented premise and talented lead. However, mediocre writing, flaky characters, and a limited special effects budget cause it to fall well short of its potential.
Guy Pearce is easily Lockout’s strongest feature. Pearce has enough swagger, sarcasm, and tenacity to make Snow a solid action hero. Nearly all of the film’s best moments involve Snow adapting to the situation around him, tackling a threat head-on, or trading barbs with Emilie. Snow is not a deep or memorable character, but he’s a cut above the others in the film, and he lends the film most of its panache.
Lockout is on shakier ground when it comes to its story and overall execution. The premise is perfect action fodder: a one-man mission in a dangerous environment that pairs the altruistic but pampered daughter of a politician with a rough-and-tumble soldier. But the follow-through is merely adequate, with a plot that has the right beats but skimps on content, narrowly defined characters, and decent physical action that gets undercut by weak CGI.
Lockout also flirts with being a more conventional Fugitive- or Shooter-style thriller, but it never follows through. The beginning and end of the film deal with Snow’s arrest and the circumstances leading to it, just not in enough detail to be meaningful. There are a couple of ideas in these bookends that could have been promising if given a proper treatment, but they have almost nothing to do with Lockout’s main story and are simply jammed in abruptly.
Ultimately, Lockout is a movie with better ideas than execution. It’s a fine popcorn pick for sci-fi fans who are in the mood for a little action and aren’t feeling too picky, but those looking to be impressed by either its action or its speculation should steer clear.
For an action movie with higher production values, a similar premise, and a tighter story, try Die Hard. For a sci-fi action movie with a similar premise, try Escape from New York. For the lower-budget equivalent, check out Incoming. For a gorier sci-fi action movie with better craftsmanship, try Dredd.
6.1 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for fun action with flawed execution.