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★☆☆☆☆
1 November 2016
A movie review of ORION.Seen at the Raindance Film Festival 2016.
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“I don’t believe you,” The Maiden (Lily Cole)
It is rare to come across a movie virtually devoid of merit. ORION is one such example. Imagine a visual experience so ineptly constructed a headache is almost induced. You remember Tony Scott’s DOMINO? This is even worse. At least that had a posh girl assassin. The camera jiggles pointlessly and the cuts jar irritatingly. No geographical sense of a scene is created, and one longs for an uninterrupted shot to be able to take in what little story/character/ideas there are being haphazardly dumped in front of the audience. (See also woeful chase flick, GETAWAY, starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez.)
It is rare to come across a movie virtually devoid of merit. ORION is one such example. Imagine a visual experience so ineptly constructed a headache is almost induced. You remember Tony Scott’s DOMINO? This is even worse. At least that had a posh girl assassin. The camera jiggles pointlessly and the cuts jar irritatingly. No geographical sense of a scene is created, and one longs for an uninterrupted shot to be able to take in what little story/character/ideas there are being haphazardly dumped in front of the audience. (See also woeful chase flick, GETAWAY, starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez.)
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We are in a budget post-apocalyptic wasteland – ironic, as ORION represents a cinematic wasteland of concepts. There is a search for a human enclave (see every zombie movie), there is a virgin mother (Lily Cole) – see THE PHANTOM MENACE, there is a male rescuer (see virtually every generic action flick) and some mysticism (see THE BOOK OF ELI). Tarot card reading, goat sacrifice, human sacrifice, etc. just do not suddenly create atmosphere.
Lots of one gender nudity - when is the horror genre going to reach a state of progressive enlightenment? The leading lady praying for a guy to save her, I thought Disney’s TANGLED was going to put paid to this once and for all? The Maiden (Cole) is held prisoner by some sort of supernatural evil dude, the Magician (Goran Kostic). Whatever his endgame, it is as fudged as the rest of the threadbare narrative. Even the Magician bizarrely turning into a dog does not peak the interest – the transformation is not shown, we are merely told.
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Garbled dialogue and cryptic speak do not create characters to engage with. David Arquette’s Hunter is sadly lacking in charisma. Gutting a mouse he caught at the outset hardly builds him up. The Rust, an unnamed country, has been poisoned so that barely anything is consumable. THE ROAD springs to mind, and not in a positive way for ORION. There is so some astronomy imagery thrown in. NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT this ain’t.
Sadism should have a point otherwise it is just B-movie exploitation. Clunky Eli Roth territory is traversed – a director with a similar penchant for incompetence.
Murky lighting, disjointed editing, odd camera angles, annoying focus choices. Interminable stuff.
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