COSMIC SIN (2021) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

cosmic sin (2021) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   88 minutes

Released         |   11 March 2021

cast

Frank Grillo ... General Ryle
Bruce Willis ... James Ford
Brandon Thomas Lee ... Braxton Ryle
Corey Large ... Dash
C.J. Perry ... Sol Cantos
Perrey Reeves ... Dr. Lea Goss
Lochlyn Munro ... Alex Locke
​Costas Mandylor ... Marcus Bleck

director

Edward Drake

writer

​Edward Drake ... (writer) &
Corey Large ... (writer)

cinematographer

​Brandon Cox ... director of photography

music

​Scott Glasgow ... (music by)​

film editor

Justin Williams ... (film editing by)

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box office result

Worldwide               $5 million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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movie minutiae

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COSMIC SIN (2021) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

COSMIC SIN (2021) STORY SYNOPSIS

​In the year 2524, four centuries after humans started colonizing the outer planets, retired Gen. James Ford gets called back into service after a hostile alien fleet attacks soldiers on a remote planet. The threat against mankind soon escalates into an interstellar war as Ford and a team of elite soldiers try to stop the imminent attack before it's too late.

COSMIC SIN (2021) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 13 March 2021

Pop ​Movee Rating

It’s hard to say how much Bruce Willis being attached to COSMIC SIN lured prospective financial backers to help fund the film, but, in terms of the endeavour of actually making this film, there is a wide chasm between his participation versus “involvement”. As the headline talent involved with COSMIC SIN, Willis participates, but rarely becomes involved in his scenes. It seems as though there is a prevailing sense on the part of the production that his presence alone is enough to generate enough passing interest in Edward Drake’s film that it would not have otherwise achieved. 

Perhaps a “Starring Bruce Willis” line may have been enough to convert a casual interest into a confirmed viewer ten years ago, when Willis still had something of a career. Not these days. Too many of the star’s more recent films have been much like COSMIC SIN. B grade movies with second and third tier talent whose collective efforts are not enough make an okay film from a patchy, derivative script. His only decent role since 2013 was a return to the character of David Dunn in M.Night Shyamalan’s GLASS (2019). Even then, it wasn’t the same. For an actor who has demonstrated such a solid range over the years, it’s a shame to see him in such low-grade fare as COSMIC SIN.

Willis is not the film’s only problem, nor is he its biggest…

It’s main issue is the manner in which the story has been edited into a film. It’s a mess.

On paper, COSMIC SIN must have looked pretty straight forward…

An alien race infiltrates Earth by taking over the bodies of human colonists who are repatriated back after a failed first contact. The alien “Trojan Horse” attempt is defeated by Earth forces, led by Willis and Frank Grillo. Realising the aliens are now determined to invade Earth, Grillo and Willis lead an infiltration team to track the aliens to their last known location, uncover the whereabouts of the alien homeworld and use a weapon of mass destruction on the planet to defeat the enemy.

The standard tropes are thrown in for good measure and Willis must have felt especially at home, as multiple set-ups seem to have been lifted from his 1998 Sci-Fi Action movie ARMAGEDDON. Loud rock music, tearful sacrifices, impossible odds. It’s all there.

Unfortunately, Edward Drake’s attempt to make his material appear “meaningful” confuses both the story and the viewer. Even simple story beats are poorly executed…

The first large scale set piece of the film involves the return of the colonists who have been “infected” by the aliens. Arriving back at a secret military base, the colonists are given a simple “spray” to decontaminate them. From  there, they’re allowed to enter the facility and come in direct contact with complex personnel.

Oh my lord! Edward Drake mustn’t have seen too many science fiction films about alien invasions. Never ever let the returning colonists out of quarantine, especially when you know they’ve had an alien first contact! (For Alien Quarantine 101 training, please refer to ALIEN (1979) for measures on how to effectively deal with this type of matter.)

It only gets worse...

Drake and his Film Editor, Justin Williams, really struggle to put scenes together in a coherent sequence. The action bounces from one take to another but doesn’t seem to make sense, while character interactions are drawn-out, talky and, invariably, don’t seem to have a point.

COSMIC SIN also has a problem with inconsistent production value…

The story is set hundreds of years into the future, where Earth military forces have the ability to send soldiers through a “Stargate” to the other side of the galaxy, but - somehow - everyone is still driving pick-up trucks, riding motorbikes and shooting weapons with bullets.

There’s a sense that some very budget-conscious decisions were made behind-the-scenes and that key visual effects sequences were prioritised over physical props. The exception being the battle suits that Willis, Frank Grillo & Co use to travel to the other side of the galaxy to fight the alien threat. These suits feature heavily throughout the second half of the film. Again, a sign that Drake was stretching money as far as it could go. That in itself is not a problem, but in the context of the story’s timeframe, relying so heavily upon contemporary physical surroundings and props raises a question about the film’s authenticity.

On the whole, COSMIC SIN is well below average, but a couple of actors deliver some reasonable performances...

Veteran Canadian character actor Lochlyn Munro is pretty good as Alex Locke. Munro has been in and around the Vancouver film industry for years dating all the way back to the late 1980s when he started making uncredited appearances on shows like 21 JUMP STREET and WISEGUY. More recently, he had a recurring role in the second season of RIVERDALE, as Hal Cooper. Munro punches up the film’s energy levels whenever he’s on screen, but it’s not nearly enough to lift an otherwise meandering story.

Wrestling personality C.J Perry isn’t the film’s saving grace, but she certainly adds some interest to its second half. She tempers her WWE antics, but does more than enough to help lift the action to a level that is better than is otherwise attained during the first two-thirds of the movie. She also has some pretty funky hair, adding a bright splash of colour to the washed-out, grey look of COSMIC SIN’s various interplanetary locations.

It should be noted that Writer-Director Edward Drake has also secured the services of Bruce Willis for a further three films. Here’s hoping that he’s able to elicit a little more out of the veteran star in at least one of these upcoming releases and delivers a movie that is a little more coherent because he sure misses the mark with COSMIC SIN.

COSMIC SIN MOVIE (2021) USEFUL LINKS

Cosmic Sin (2021) - IMDb
​Cosmic Sin - Wikipedia
​Cosmic Sin (2021) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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