Lockout

I guess I made the repeated mistake of having too much anticipation for this movie.  Well, I would argue who wouldn't after seeing the impressive trailer with it's comparisons to classics like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, having a great actor like Guy Pearce in the lead, and the talented Luc Besson as the executive producer. Pearce plays a sentenced CIA operative given the chance to rescue the President's daughter held hostage on a space station prison.  This film is not to be taken too seriously, and indeed it doesn't take itself too seriously as demonstrated throughout with the rapid fire, typical action, one-liners of Pearce.  It resembles Blade Runner only in the futuristic noir setting, not in any larger themes running through it.  Indeed, there are so many pieces of many action films stitched together in Lockout, that it becomes hard to discern if the filmmakers were giving homage or making fun of the whole genre.  Salvaging that whole ambiguity is Pearce, who has been transformed into a seemingly authentic action hero and really seemed to be having fun at doing something different.  I would imagine that Lockout would be disappointing on the big screen, as it's green screen effects have been done better before in other films, but with only a $20 million budget, I suppose they were necessary.  Perhaps Besson should have personally taken the reigns of directing this with a better script and production.