The Colony (2021) User Reviews

For the Mannie (nothing you haven't seen before)

[kuarinofu · 5/10 · 12 July 2021]

'Tides' or 'The Colony' is not a bad film. After a sloppy start which didn't make much sense, like a capsule drowning in water (that is full of air and is specifically designed to float), the absence of technical means for navigation or communication, the film starts to grow. The production quality is great, it looks and sounds really good, the location is solid. Some of the visuals reminded me of the Metro Exodus and Fallout games.

Then, around 30 minutes into the film, it turns into complete boredom after a sequence of vaguely motivated decisions. The problem is the predictability of the story. Every character, every plot thread, the ending - everything is so full of cliches you can pretty much recite the dialogue along with the characters. You know how it is going to end. In fact, I'm writing this review while still watching it, and it is really that predictable.

They don't really try to obscure it or provide an interesting twist. Like, come on, you can't cast Iain Glen and make him look like a good guy.

Anyway, now as the film is over, I can conclude my review. This film is everything you have seen before, plus some virtue signaling fueled by popular political ideas, making me think that it was probably made to fish out some festival awards.

Great production shell, but empty inside.

Okayland

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 2 September 2021]

Solid produced post-apocalyptic movie with some serious trouble regarding logic, psychology/behaviour and world building - I read a lot of pulp fiction sci-fi novels and magazines back in my younger years, that got more science in their DNA despite being mostly adventure stories. Anyway, if you like such movies and shows, to mind comes The 100, Tribes of Europe and the like, this may do for you.

This had nothing to do with astronauts, space or anything sci-fi

[mochteam · 4/10 · 24 January 2022]

This was just a movie about boats and roaming around in the fog and boy did it suck. Very boring movie that didn't deliver on anything it advertised. It was like Beyond the Thunderdome without anything that made it good. Some even say this is like water world but I remember that movie actually having scenes that kept you awake.

If you do choose to watch The Colony of your own volition just know that this is a very long and bland movie. It takes like an hour and 20 minutes before you even get to see the lead character fire her space gun. The ending is right on par with the monotone pace of the film and for some reason this movie is filled with more fog than a cheap dance club. The entire movie is just fog everywhere...even the final scene is plagued by fog. I guess they did that so they wouldn't have to spend money on actually creating backgrounds. Not like that be difficult since a broken down cargo ship is the entirety of this movies scenery.

I couldn't say for sure just how bad this movie is that will be up to you but it certainly is worth a solid 4 for me. The best part of the film is the first 5 minutes because that's the only part of this movie that feels like a sci-fi space film. It also doesn't help that the movie is somewhat predictable but still manages to be highly anticlimactic. Usually you'll get a worthwhile ending to a predictable film but not this one.

Also I'm quite sure I saw a plot like this on an episode of Star Trek once. Not as extreme but a similar plot where a planets species could not reproduce except...they just made clones of everyone instead and forced them pre-assigned jobs in society (don't worry that's not the plot of this movie).

Overall this movie is highly forgettable because it's so bland.

Missed opportunities and story holes...

[RodMartinJr · 6/10 · 10 July 2021]

Lack of clarity in the story robs this of its potential. Some questions are never resolved. One big plot hole involves the immense distance to the extrasolar colony in the Kepler 209 system. At 587 pc (1,914 light years), they would have to have FTL technology. And if they had FTL technology, they would likely have chosen something far, far closer to Earth. Better than that, with the right use of FTL tech, they could have terraformed Mars in a few decades.

Great acting, nice cinematography, but pacing seemed too slow in places. A movie like Das Boot could make boredom seem interesting. That time of deep creativity was missing, here.

Simple logic doesn't apply to this movie

[jordandellavecchia · 1/10 · 2 January 2022]

This movie is one of the worst i've seen in 2021.

How old are the writers? 10 years old??? I mean there is absolutely to logic in the way the story was written and depicted on screen.

1- humanity has devolved a few centuries = ok, i'll believe that.

2 - boats are still being operated? Where are they getting the fuel, the parts, the oil, the maintenance???

3 - where are they getting fresh water from? Rain maybe?

4 - how are they not sick being always in the water?

5 - how can they light fires if there is no trees, wood, etc?

6 - where are they getting their clothes from?

Writer(s) must be smoking some good weed? Not sure how this movie got funded!

visually pleasing dystopian (if derivative) art-house sci-fi

[spasticfreakshow · 7/10 · 6 July 2021]

Is it reminiscent of other sci-fi dystopian flicks that came before it? Yes, but so what. Everything in life is a bit derivative or reminiscent of something else. Personally, I enjoyed the casting, the actors and the acting, combined with the cinematography...as an artistic take on the genre. A bit of an art-house indie version of a sci-fi trope if you will, by comparison with big budget studio productions, which sometimes fall short of late by relying on one or two big name actors to carry them. Aside from Iain Glen, I wasn't familiar with the cast, but they not only performed well, but were relatable and won me over. I didn't mind that the script was light on plot and dialog, but the ending felt rushed. I'd rather they'd have taken their time and added 20 minutes or so to the final cut. Still, the imagery was lovely and the main actress both lovely and powerful.

MORE art-house indie sci-fi with larger casts, please!

Pretty good

[thoughton71 · 7/10 · 14 August 2021]

A solid sci fi film. Cinematography was great, acting was good. As others have noted various plot points have been done before but what film doesn't do this? Fairly slow-paced but still holds your attention.

A Contingency Plan for the Wealthy

[TruView · 2/10 · 6 November 2021]

...and the Meek shall inherit the Earth, according to Matthew 5:5; that is, until the Rich come back to reclaim it. Failing to seed the Cosmos with "the very best" of human stock, they return with their tails tucked between their legs and begin preying on the surviving primitives that were supposed to have died. Even on this water world of a planet, they go back to their old imperial games of conquest and enslavement.

This film is ultimately a quiet celebration of the status quo. There's this cheesy litany for solidarity cited by the returning descendants of the killer elite who forsook Mother Earth when she was at her worst; they quote it a couple of times hoping to dignify their nefarious plans of reconquest. Don't be fooled by it! I couldn't give this film a score any higher than a 3 and it has convinced me to take a long deserved break from the dystopian.

A more realistic Waterworld

[siderite · 8/10 · 13 July 2021]

This is a film made in Europe, so naturally the score of 5 on Imdb translates to an actual 8 if you think about it a little. The acting is great - even the children, the story makes sense, the direction is good, the atmosphere well thought out and the movie well executed. And that on a budget that is probably orders of magnitude smaller than an American film.

Earth is made uninhabitable by people, so the elite just leave it behind and move to another planet. However, the joke's on them, as they lose all reproductive ability there, so they need to come back. The story is about this woman who is the sole survivor of a survey mission and who discovers people still live on Earth, including earlier surveyors. The action is well done, the characters believable and, other than a rather disappointing finale, it's a pretty good film. There are themes of racial supremacy, protecting the Earth and a general moral that ethics are important and the means are not justified by the end.

Bottom line: I recommend it. It's not perfect, it has its flaws, but overall it does exactly what it set out to do and does it well.

Grey, slow, well-produced.

[Safetylight · 6/10 · 7 July 2021]

The world is wet, covered in perpetual mist, there is almost no color and everything is miserable and rotten.

I became fed up past the first thirty minutes and then spent the next fifteen clicking the 'Jump Ahead 10 Seconds' button looking for key scenes in order to see if things got any less dreary and dull, and to get an idea of the story thesis.

I can report that the sets become more interesting, (rotted big ships from a previous age form a depressing community), and there is something of a developing mystery in the story, featuring fascist leadership and poor waifs, etc. However, even with the power of "Skip Ahead" at my disposal, I found I just didn't care enough to see how the miserable tale played itself out.

Perhaps I've been spoiled, my brain re-wired by a diet of high-speed flashy films and peppy story lines. Maybe slow and dreary and damp are your thing. If so, this film is for you.

As for the thesis...

This film offers a vision of the world from the perspective of Climate Change alarmism. -Which is hard to take if you know anything about how C02 works on plant life; (you don't get endless mud flats and too much water), but who cares about science or facts? -Not the writers, who evidently envision advanced space faring humans capable of removing our species to a distant star system as apparently NOT capable of engineering a landing craft which doesn't look like an ancient Apollo capsule and which doesn't immediately sink to the bottom of the ocean upon touchdown and kill its occupants. Even in the 1960's we knew how to make more reliable space ships.

Tides offers lots of dreary 'feels' which don't care about your facts. Otherwise, the production values and acting were above average and the film made good use of a limited budget.

6/10 because honest craft went into this production.

More plot holes than plot, amazing amount of cliché packed into dialogue

[random-70778 · 23 September 2021]

Wow, I don't think I have seen a film in the past few years with more clichés packed into the dialogue. And there is a lot of yacking in this film, so the clichés and predictable conversation becomes overwhelming.

And for Sci Fi one expects to suspend disbelief on even core elements, but one does not expect more plot holes than a sieve. A civilization that is doing interstellar travel hundreds of years more advanced than 2020 space efforts, but doesn't have landing technology of 1960's Mercury or Soviet Vostok????

Lastly, the acting except for Ian Glenn is atrocious, cringeworthy.

Like Waterworld, but on the beach

[dclift-86405 · 5/10 · 7 July 2021]

Lots of Water, Rust and Beaches and fog. Could do with subtitles here and there but overall a watchable movie.

Nice SF movie

[Jneo04 · 7/10 · 9 July 2021]

Great atmosphare, great actresses and actors. Great camera work. Story ist a bit predictable but entertaining.

Why is everything shot in the dark these days?

[rgb-03178 · 6/10 · 27 June 2022]

Dune, The Northman, The Colony... and surely there's more. All in the dark!

I'll give it a 6 because it's ok, but not surprising or original.

Worth watching? If you're a sci-fi fan, yes.

Unimaginative and stale

[lafilmgroup · 1/10 · 26 August 2021]

Bad dialogs. Not a single line that we haven't heard exactly like this in many other movies. Stop stealing dialog, it just makes you look stupid.

Bad guy threatens the tough female hero? Female hero doesn't say a single word. Probably because these dudes cannot for the life of them create a female character that actually speaks. Embarrassing.

Visually? If you like looking at pictures that are way too dark and then become overexposed foggy blurry because they couldn't or wouldn't come up with and build good sets then by all means, watch it...

Music: stupid boring. I can't believe this guy gets to do this sort of music in 2021. Unimaginative drones, a thousand times heard before. Likewise with the drums. Learn how to create tempo with elements other than drums. Bush league.

Two groups of people, none of them we get a connection with. Why should we care about these people? Filmmakers: please show us!

Don't waste your time.

Boring and pointless nonsense

[mm-75687 · 2/10 · 14 January 2022]

I have no idea how I lasted more than 10 minutes with this piece of garbage. It seems to be a cheap knockoff of "The 100". But this movie just has nothing interesting or compelling whatsoever. It is a complete waste of film.

Huge science fiction fan. Don't understand the hate

[rwalk-2 · 8/10 · 30 August 2021]

I saw the reviews for this movie and the negative reviews almost drove me off. Don't let them! This is raw sci fi at its best. I was thoroughly impressed by this film. Very good and a must watch.

A smart, dark look at the future

[tkdlifemagazine · 6/10 · 18 January 2022]

This is a smart film. This foreign film reminds me in many ways of three other films; The Road Warrior, Blade Runner, and Pierre Boule's 1970's Planet of the Apes. The beginning scene had me looking for Charlton Heston. Nora Arnezeder is very compelling as the women from Kepler who returns to Earth to see if this abandoned planet will sustain life. Class issues, an undercurrent of Colonial politics, and moral relativism are all intertwined in this dark futuristic Sci-Fi film. It is ambitious. It is visually Dank but not low budget in appearance. It does drag a bit but overall it is pretty good. It is a German film but it is in English.

Waste of time

[kalem-cossette · 1/10 · 9 July 2021]

I love sci-fi. This isn't it. A dreary look on a not so possible future. No color. Unrealistic science. Underdeveloped and unrealistic characters. Slow moving and boring.

Scifi script from 1955 got made in 2020

[jackbaumel · 1 September 2021]

There was not even one detail about this movie that is logical, scientifically correct or even plausible. It is as if the producers found an unsold script in their great grandfather's trunk and decided to make it into a movie without any updating.

Very good movie despite the reviews

[vromano1003 · 7/10 · 30 October 2022]

I'm not sure why this movie got such bad ratings!!! It's very well filmed, it's in fact a work of art. The story is strong, the characters are solid and there are absolutely NO plot holes - despite most of the reviews.....luckily I decided to ignore the rating and watch it anyway. This is way better than most of the stuff that's out there! I'm a writer & producer (in the film industry) and I tend to over analyze shows when I watch them especially when it comes down to plot holes and character development and The Colony is very well done. This movie deserves to be recognized for what it is, a good one!!

Sci-fi by morons

[matthewjsandoval · 2/10 · 23 January 2022]

Can you fold space-time to travel through the galaxy? Yes.

Can you deploy a worldwide network of stations to tell you the weather? Also, yes.

Can you safely parachute to the planets surface, like NASA did in the 60s? No.

Can your ridiculously expensive worldwide network of monitors tell you anything amount the environment besides the weather? Ridiculously, no.

The plot starts at step 0 with utter nonsense and then staggers forward as far as the budget allows.

I don't know why this movie was made.

One star for the setting. One star for pity.

A solid sci-fi dystopia

[christopherkoldfield · 7/10 · 23 July 2021]

Grim, grey with stunning cinematography. Not exactly a home run but a solid film for sci-fi and dystopian fans. Worth a watch.

Simply worth watching

[ravindra-01279 · 7/10 · 7 July 2021]

Kudos to Tim Fehlbaum for this film.

Was expecting a low budget Si-Fi film, but whatever said & done........ it's really very well made. Viewers will be pleasantly surprised seeing this movie. Really enjoyed it.

The story had so much more potential.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 8/10 · 7 July 2021]

For starters, this German/Swiss film was shot very well, with excellent cinematography, and outstanding production design. Adding the spot-on eerie score, and you feel like you're right there, in that dystopian future. It's one of those unique set designs and atmosphere that you'll remember for a long time. The directing couldn't have been any better. The casting and performances were great and convincing.

What bothers me, is in that 104 min runtime, the story needed much more substance, more action, and a better pace. Aside from some typical plot and technical issues, I was confused with the mission; the plan starts with the need to contact the colony and have them come back to Earth. Then No. Then yes? Or no? It really didn't make much sense, nor were there any good reasons for the changes back and forth.

To make matters worse, the ending was so rushed, it added so many plot holes and leaves you with so many questions. It feels like the budget ran out and they wrapped up in 5 mins of filming. Had the pacing been faster, and/or added an extra 10-15 mins of story towards the end, a real and possible great ending could've been achieved. I instantly played 5 more minutes in my head when the movie was over that would've been a perfect ending, and even fill in some of the story's gaps.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it, and it's one sci-fi I'll remember for sure. I really hope they come out with a part 2. It's a well deserved 8/10 from me.