It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop (Vin Diesel), lives by a simple survivor's code: kill... or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora (Melanie Thierry) and Aurora's guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) embark on a 6,000 mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in "New Russia," across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined - as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.
This could have easily been a very good sci-fi movie. Unfortunately, it was done totally half-assed and ended up being a big pile of poop. The movie started off great. Sure, there was bound to be horrible acting throughout but they did a good job of setting up the future world and what not. The transporting of the girl started off great with mystery about what the special girl was, tension between the three parties in the group and action scenes sprinkled in. It all fell apart when the three of them were in a tent after a snowmobile scene and they were suddenly all good friends. I could tell at that point that there was a massive amount of footage edited out of the movie and it would probably be a bumpy ride for the rest of the film. Sure enough - it was. I'm going to guess that this was probably a 2 hour and 20 minute movie that the studio wanted cut down to 1 1/2 hours and the director totally screwed the pooch by randomly editing and making the movie from that point about as close to unbearable as it could have gotten.
I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. It was really really bad. It probably would have been bad regardless of editing, but the editing made it a steaming pile of dung.
This could have easily been a very good sci-fi movie. Unfortunately, it was done totally half-assed and ended up being a big pile of poop. The movie started off great. Sure, there was bound to be horrible acting throughout but they did a good job of setting up the future world and what not. The transporting of the girl started off great with mystery about what the special girl was, tension between the three parties in the group and action scenes sprinkled in. It all fell apart when the three of them were in a tent after a snowmobile scene and they were suddenly all good friends. I could tell at that point that there was a massive amount of footage edited out of the movie and it would probably be a bumpy ride for the rest of the film. Sure enough - it was. I'm going to guess that this was probably a 2 hour and 20 minute movie that the studio wanted cut down to 1 1/2 hours and the director totally screwed the pooch by randomly editing and making the movie from that point about as close to unbearable as it could have gotten.
I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. It was really really bad. It probably would have been bad regardless of editing, but the editing made it a steaming pile of dung.
