Lockout review

Lockout is a mixed bag.

Many have said (including myself before viewing it) that it is a throwback or even a remake of Escape From New York. This couldn't be farther from the truth. It's more like Die Hard meets Con-Air...

Without the NUTS.

Simple story. Space prison. President's daughter is visiting on some stupid-pseudo political endeavor while the inmates escape. The Government sends in a rogue, badass SEAL team-like soldier in to rescue her. Bad stuff ensues.

Sounds great, right?

At certain points it is. The problem is that the movie get's bogged down in it's own plot devices and political commentary. I'm sorry, but when I watch a movie like this, I don't want to be preached to and I definitely don't want totally useless and utterly redundant sub-plots that go absolutely nowhere.

Political commentary, you ask? Aye.

The President's daughter is this annoying ultra-liberal chick that constantly tries to get us (the audience) invested and intrigued with the fate of the prisoners...

Did I forget to mention that all of the prisoners on this space prison are the worst of the worst. Psychos, pedophiles and rapists.

Yet we're supposed to care how they are treated or that because it's essentially a cryo-prison (prisoners are mostly frozen), you are supposed to be bothered that there's apparently a major malfunction in the freezing process and that a small few can come out of the freezing process worse than they already were.

Am I the only one who sees a gaping whole in the logic of this plot point that we are meant to care about? These fuckers are lifer's. Who care's how they come out IF they come out? Shouldn't they NEVER come out in the first place? Why aren't we launching this prison into the sun?

I've really tried NOT to bring up politics in the Batcave, but I'm a massive supporter of the death penalty and if you're a sadist, a sociopath, or better yet a psychopath, I could give two shit's about what happens to you when it happens to you. The worse the better.

Yet there's even a scene (spoiler alert) where it's revealed that horrific medical testing is being done on some of the prisoner's...and we're supposed to care? Why? Dude killed people...get's his brain hacked into for whatever scientific research you wanna label on it - sounds like KARMA to me.

These guys are BAD guys. The worst of the worst. The movie makes a point to make THIS point. Forgive me if I feel no remorse in caring about their fate. Say I'm crazy if you want, but I take pleasure in watching bad people suffer. Evil should not be cared for, nor protected.

Furthermore this is actually an example of only one of the negative subplots of the film. The other horrible subplot has to do with the leading character, Snow (the badass military dude). Throughout the film Snow is chasing a briefcase that will supposedly lead to incriminating evidence against someone for something to prove he's innocent of a crime we already know he didn't commit.

By the time he get's to the briefcase the movie is practically over and it's almost entirely inconsequential as to what's in it, what it means to you and me, and how it's going to affect Snow's fate. We learn someone was behind him being set-up in a crime that yet again, we KNOW he didn't commit and it's completely useless knowledge that has ZERO baring on the rest of the story. Especially because the guy who's ultimately the person who framed Snow for the crime that we KNOW he didn't commit was almost solely responsible for his SURVIVAL throughout the mission.

Yeah, I'm serious. Re-read that again.

So to clarify:

DON'T.

CARE.

Lockout tries to be a badass flick. The main problem with this besides what I've already stated is that it isn't badass. It pussies out left and fucking right. I brought up Con-Air earlier, and while Con-Air is a flawed movie, it understands what it is and has some fun with it. Ultimately I would argue that BOTH films pussy out in the IDEA of what they are doing. What are they doing? They are pitting a BAD ASS SOLDIER with practical training against DOUCHE-BAG PRISONERS with ZERO training who only THINK they are badass because they've only ever preyed upon weaker subjects. I want to see these SOLDIERS cut through these worthless mother fuckers like butter. In Con-Air's defense, we do get this to a certain point. We never get it in Lockout and that's a damn shame because that's NOT what they advertised.

With Con-Air, Cameron Poe has an objective. He's laying-low, trying to keep himself and his friends alive, only striking out when needs be and trying to remain almost within deep-cover in order to protect as many people as possible. But when shit hits the fan and he has to fuck up one of the loser convicts, he doesn't hesitate and he has no problem dealing with them because he's had formal training...and he's SANE, and/or RIGHTEOUS. 

I feel that in many ways Lockout disappointed me in the way that revenge flicks almost entirely disappoint me. Revenge flicks can be compared to movies like Lockout and Con-Air because they initiate a conflict between ultra-evil and good. I feel like most revenge flicks fail because they try to gain some sort of sympathy for the villain when that's missing the boat entirely. If the main character wants revenge, there's usually a good reason, we should only be sympathetic towards him/her/the Bride's cause. Screw this namby-pamby feeling bad for the antagonist shit.

IMO, the Crow is the one and only true GREAT revenge flick. Eric Draven doesn't hold back.

When I watch a movie like Lockout, where it's sold as the way it totally was, I want to see Snow beat the ever-loving crap outta of these worthless low life's and smile and quip his way through, cigarette after cigarette. I don't even want it to be challenging for him...because it wouldn't be challenging. Again, we're talking about a hardened soldier against a bunch of wannabe tough guys. Sociopathic bullies, for God sakes!

Put a Navy Seal into a prison and I bet you people get RUINED. That's what was sold to me, that's what I expected...but that is certainly what was NOT delivered.

Where's my Goddamn Rorschach in jail movie?


6 / 10