Anti-SDI

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2012)

The only alternative to our dependence on machines is devolving to a primitive existence of labor intensive survival, that leaves little time for leisure activities and vanity devices like Walkman and hair driers.
So in the future when our sophisticated, high-tech indulgences become self aware and decide we are the plague that infests this planet, all Hell breaks loose. This is not an original Sci-Fi scenario but it is one ready made for the Reagan era (SDI) and our periodic pondering of industrial and technological "advancements".
This was a modest budget sleeper that awakened movie goers with its dark palette of stylized violence and intense, non-stop action and pacing. It revved them up with a screen filled with loud machines, dark cityscapes, seedy motels, and an air of impending doom. The intensity only pauses long enough for the virgin Father (a modern twist) to plant the seed of the "Savior".
This has all the elements of a classic Sci-Fi welded on to a Horror movie chassis that moves like a roller-coaster. It is intelligent and intense, violent with sensitivity, and is humorous and entertaining. This movie was the beginning of a "new wave" and its style and conceits would become classic, unlike that 80"s synth soundtrack that is as dated as Disco. Speaking of time-lines, oh on second thought, let us not.