Revolt (2017)

My Score

The story of humankind’s last stand against a cataclysmic alien invasion. In the war-ravaged African countryside, a U.S. soldier and a French foreign aid worker team up to survive the alien onslaught. Their bond will be tested as they search for refuge across a crumbling world.

Genre : SF
Country : UK/South Africa

Cast :
Lee Pace : Bo
Bérénice Marlohe : Nadia

Director :
Joe Miale

My opinion on “Revolt”

“To live is to fight.
To fight is to live.”

Occasionally, I’m lucky enough to discover an unknown movie that, despite its limited budget and lack of global attention and marketing, still surprises and entertains me. And when it’s also a movie from my favorite movie genre, I’ll turn to bed with such a happy smile. I’ll forget about and forgive all ridiculous and extremely bad movies I’ve seen previously. It’s as if it was worth it to endure all the crap and end up discovering such a gem. The last time I had a similar feeling was after watching “The Signal“.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Although the aliens that appeared in this film weren’t high-tech looking, I was still pleasantly surprised. I have to admit, the way the robot-like creatures disintegrated people, resembled that what you saw during such an alien attack in “War of the Worlds” with Tom Cruise saving his ass. But the way these aliens were integrated in this African set, was admirable and shows the special effect department knew how to do their job.

Get as confused as Bo.

I was somewhat confused about Bo (Lee Pace) waking up in a cell without knowing who he was, where he came from and what was going on in the world. It’s only in the end everything is clarified and it all starts to make sense. Even the handsome doctor Nadia (Bérénice Marlohe) who was locked in the next cell didn’t give a practical explanation immediately. Large part of the film these two leading actors are in the spotlight while heading for an American satellite station. Apparently Bo has something to do with that (a tattoo on its arm points in that direction).

Good acting performances.

At first sight, these two actors looked familiar to me. Via IMDb I could see why. You might have seen Lee Pace acting in “The Hobbit” as Thranduil (father of Legolas and the Elf who rode on the Giant Deer before “The battle of the five armies”). And the reason why I couldn’t remember Bérénice Marlohe right away probably was because I admired her cleavage more while watching the movie “Kill Switch” she played in. If I’d looked more closely, than perhaps I would have noticed that she looks a lot like Angelina Jolie. No doubt, she’s an attractive woman. All in all, the acting of both major players was of an acceptable level. Their acting-performance as a couple convinced and it certainly wasn’t annoying, which usually is the case in other low-budget films.

This might be better than some big budget Hollywood franchises.

The mainland of Africa served as a decor. The desolate landscapes, ruins and slums gave the whole an apocalyptic feeling. Even though the story isn’t really revolutionary, the fact one was able to deliver such an excellent film with such a low budget, is truly amazing. As said, the acting was far from bad (only some African supporting actors were a bit overly enthusiastic), the special effects looked good and the video editing was proper done. As far as I’m concerned, this movie can be added to the list of big Hollywood block-busters which used the same SciFi subject.

My rating 7/10
Links : IMDB