Drawn in by the premise, appetite whetted by the opening sequences promising the possibility of a cool battle between aliens who had been here thousands of years ago and scrappy present-day humans for the domination of earth, I found myself taken ever deeper into a journey of ancient dangers, wondering mostly which character would die next and by what predictable means, although the millions of wasps was a novel idea. Too bad that death also killed any further expectation of something new in this well-traveled genre, as the wasps were duly conquered with flame-throwers that could easily have been used before the young soldier volunteered his life for the greater good of the mission. It was clear this crew of boundless treasure seekers was inept when they went in but this lowered expectations to nil.
I was still waiting for the battle to ensue when eight shots were fired from a six-shooter, ending any such possibility.
Only Emily Holmes as the clairvoyant Claire Becket who declares "I don't have a good feeling about this" (truer words have rarely been spoken) pulls off her role with some aplomb. David Charvet appears never to have left the set of Melrose Place and Carmen Chaplin almost pulls off the role of mistreated daughter descended from ancient princess but misfires, just like the romance between her and Charvet. John Rhys-Davis has, of course, been here before so he knew his lines but introduces nothing new to the role.
This would have been a good sci-fi read as a short novel. Alas, books don't get funded these days, but less than optimal films do. Listen to Emily: don't go there.
I was still waiting for the battle to ensue when eight shots were fired from a six-shooter, ending any such possibility.
Only Emily Holmes as the clairvoyant Claire Becket who declares "I don't have a good feeling about this" (truer words have rarely been spoken) pulls off her role with some aplomb. David Charvet appears never to have left the set of Melrose Place and Carmen Chaplin almost pulls off the role of mistreated daughter descended from ancient princess but misfires, just like the romance between her and Charvet. John Rhys-Davis has, of course, been here before so he knew his lines but introduces nothing new to the role.
This would have been a good sci-fi read as a short novel. Alas, books don't get funded these days, but less than optimal films do. Listen to Emily: don't go there.