The Colony really took four writers? It’s only eighty-some minutes long. Not surprisingly, director Renfroe contributed to the script. Maybe he put in all the terrible action sequences he knew only he could screw up.

Renfroe’s not a terrible director. All the new ice age shots are good, the confined dialogue scenes are okay… sure, he’s bad with actors, but the script’s got a lot of problems and, frankly, many of the actors are just bad.

Lead Kevin Zegers, for instance, is awful. He has one expression and a little goatee to show he’s secretly tough. Since the picture is so short, all the character establishing stuff in the first act is left dangling. Atticus Dean Mitchell, playing a scared teenager opposite Zegers, is so much better it’s uncomfortable.

What Renfroe does have going for him is the two aces in the hole–Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton. The script fails Paxton dreadfully; at a certain point, he just seems to give up–but Fishburne’s fantastic. He’s got a couple outstanding monologues, but he’s great throughout. Not great enough to make The Colony worth seeing, but great.

There are some other good performances. Charlotte Sullivan isn’t bad as Zeger’s girl. She’s leagues better than him anyway. John Tench is okay, though again… script fails him. You’d think four writer could get one successful character arc.

Half awful (during Renfroe’s incompetent action scenes), half good music from Jeff Danna.

The Colony’s a derivative B movie. Should’ve been a better one.

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CREDITS

Directed by Jeff Renfroe; screenplay by Renfroe, Patrick Tarr, Pascal Trottier and Svet Rouskov, based on a story by Tarr and Trottier; director of photography, Pierre Gill; edited by Aaron Marshall; music by Jeff Danna; production designer, Aidan Leroux; produced by Paul Barkin, Matthew Cervi, Pierre Even and Marie-Claude Poulin; released by Image Entertainment.

Starring Kevin Zegers (Sam), Bill Paxton (Mason), Charlotte Sullivan (Kai), John Tench (Viktor), Atticus Dean Mitchell (Graydon), Dru Viergever (Feral Leader), Romano Orzari (Reynolds) and Laurence Fishburne (Briggs).