Today’s quick review: Retrograde. Two hundred years after an extraterrestrial plague was accidentally released by an Antarctic research expedition, John Foster (Doplh Lundgren) leads a team of soldiers into the past to prevent the plague-bearing meteorite from being discovered in the first place. Foster intercepts the expedition and recruits the help of scientist Renee Diaz (Silvia Di Santis) but faces treachery from his subordinate Dalton (Joe Montana).
Retrograde is a budget sci-fi action movie about a soldier sent back in time to prevent the outbreak of a devastating disease. The movie aims to be a taut thriller that pits John Foster against his own rebellious soldiers in a battle for the fate of the world. However, Retrograde has neither the budget nor the creativity to make its premise pay off. Slow pacing, weak special effects, and flat acting all contribute to a less than stellar watch.
Retrograde picks a decent plot to work with but has a hard time bringing it to life. The characters are not worth investing in, with minimal development for Foster and only a little bit more for Renee. The members of the expedition have no useful role to play in the story, and the movie goes out of its way to make sure they are kept clueless until the end of the film. The plot has no surprises, while the action mostly consists of bare-bones gunplay.
The end result is a movie that gets off to a slow start and never builds to an adequate conclusion. Fans of budget science fiction may find it to be a passable watch just by virtue of taking a decent premise from start to finish, but it’s missing the passion and originality that even flawed entries into the genre tend to have. Retrograde will appeal only to the most forgiving of viewers, and even then only marginally. Nearly everyone should steer clear.
For a better science fiction movie about a man sent back to the present to stop the outbreak of a disease, try Twelve Monkeys. For a more gripping sci-fi thriller about an extraterrestrial plague, try The Andromeda Strain. For a sci-fi horror movie set in the Antarctic, try The Thing. For another budget science fiction movie about an agent sent from the future, try Stasis.
3.2 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 4.0 for a mediocre plot and bare-bones action.