The Colony

As I continue on with my Laurence Fishburne movie homage, we come upon The Colony. This Netflix sci-fi thriller was tucked away in my “Recommended for Rodney” queue because my little ones have an intent fascination with Curious George and Iron Man.

I’m not complaining, I love cartoon Iron Man, and who doesn’t like Curious George? That monkey is nothing but trouble… but Neflix thinks I’m either 5-years-old, or a Soccer mom.

The Colony is your typical end of the world movie, set in a frozen wasteland, the world crumbling to a grinding halt.

The surviving humans have created colonies underground to withstand the frigid elements.  Food, water, everything is rationed and accounted for.

Sickness can kill a whole colony, and therefore, you either go to quarantine, leave the colony, or get shot. What a life.

Running colony 7 is Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) and ex-military soldier with a propensity for stern words, fairness, and the truth. Briggs’ Sergeant at Arms and former military cohort, Mason, (Bill Paxton) is the loose cannon that has become disenchanted with the world as it is.

Mason doesn’t think sick people should have any choices. If you get sick, you die. Clearly Briggs takes issue with this, putting a rif between the two blood brothers, and setting the tone for hostile take over.

But wait, before we can worry about colony politics, a distress signal comes from a neighboring colony, number 5. Briggs rallies up a team of three, one of those being his adopted son of sorts, Sam, (Kevin Zegers). Sam is also the only one with a smoking hot girlfriend, Kai, played by Charlotte Sullivan.

The third guy is a teenager with no girlfriend and his parents don’t want him to go, but he wants to be a man…So, they let him. Needless to say, he’s the very first one to die. Upon the team’s exploration of colony 5, they stumble upon a grotesque scene, the entire colony slaughtered by something they call feral humans. Or as I like to say, zombies with hearts. Or, The Kardashians.

And so, the scene is set for an epic showdown between a horde of blood thirsty, bad-breathed human-ish beings. The team escapes, minus the kid who want to be a man. Oh he’s dead. Real dead.

But they’re followed, and now the rest of colony 7 is in for a real long evening. There’s some basic, yet entertaining twists and turns that will keep you entertained for the entire film.

For the basic nature of the plot, the acting was spot on as one would expect from two veterans like Fishburne and Paxton. Don’t count on any “I am Legend” musings, but it’s engaging nonetheless, and definitely worth an “Add to My List”.