Cosmic Sin
PARAMOUNTDirector Edward Drake brings together Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo for a lacklustre sci-fi romp across space. A perfect example of a great idea that is poorly executed, Cosmic Sin sees these two broody action stars as parts of a rogue squad who decide to take out a seemingly aggressive alien race.
Despite receiving top billing, Grillo’s protagonist General Ryle is interestingly side-lined for most of the movie, so it’s near impossible to comment on his performance. The rest of the cast is often given precedence over Grillo’s Ryle and when he does finally appear on screen, he has missed a lot of the establishing plot points. Willis plays James Ford who is first introduced in a cheesy cliché-ridden bar scene. A former General stripped of his rank Willis’ Ford unsurprisingly doesn’t care for his reputation, his steely resolve being both a strength and weakness. Thankfully Willis is just about able to breath some life into the poorly written stereotype of his character, while Grillo isn’t given the same opportunities to do so.
The concept of the story itself has some promise, but Drake fails to inject any entertainment value into it throughout. The action is bland, Drake directs the piece as a simple ‘point and shoot’ exercise and never pushes the sequences beyond the basics. His vision is constantly hindered by his budget and lack of technical expertise. A flight through space is potentially supposed to be one of the most exciting scenes in the film, but is mired by the fact it is made up largely of close up shots of the actor’s heads in an attempt to hide the surrounding CGI mess.
The script is also similarly unchallenging. Everything is taken as matter of fact, despite the huge stakes at play. Character’s reactions to first contact with an alien race, the possibility of a subsequent invasion, a war with a new species - all of these issues are met with impeccable composure and calmness despite the revelatory nature of the events. This is especially confusing from a film that seems to take itself very seriously at every other point.
The results here are uninteresting and less than effective, with director Edward Drake falling at most hurdles. From the very beginning Cosmic Sin is littered with terrible cliched dialogue, action lacking any effective choreography and no real central protagonist moving any of this story forward. Drake and Willis are set to unite in the future on multiple different projects, lets just hope that next time they can take the enthusiasm they have for each other and inject it into their work.