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Bill Paxton, Laurence Fishburne, and Kevin Zegers in The Colony (2013)

User reviews

The Colony

221 reviews
6/10

Film is watchable but should have been much better

  • highwaytourist
  • Mar 15, 2014
  • Permalink
6/10

Violent dystopian Scifi that takes place at a far future with lots of fights , chills , blood and gore

Nice Sci-fi with the usual concept : several people struggling for survival . Passable dystopian tale with loads of violence, action , fights , and turns . Groups of people - colonies - are forced underground due to another ice age . Colony 7 is formed by a group of survivors (Zegers , Fishburne, Bill Paxton , Atticus Mitchell , Lisa Berry , Lucius Hoyos, John Tench) . In order to survive they plan an expedition to find supplies and other survivors . A little team goes to check on Colony 5 , which they lost contact with . When the group (Kevin Zegers as Sam , Laurence Fishburne as Briggsget) arrives there , they will be forced to make difficult choices about sacrifice , courage, allegiance to get their final destination . As they find that the colony has fallen and there is a whole new enemy that they have to face on their way back and they have to make impossible decision about themselves and their companions at Colony 17 . As they face dangerous challenges after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of his world . When the world changes the rules of survival change with it .When the earth froze, the rules of survival changed forever.One day, it started to snow, and it never stopped.

It's a standard but also original Science Fiction movie with no much sense where there is suspense , thriller , getaways and pursuits , frenetic action , crossfire , struggles , explosions , violence , cannibalism , plot holes and characterization enough . Thrilling rendition that picks up every mote of bleak despair of a story by Patrick Tarr in which a group of unfortunate people are forced underground by the next ice age, as a struggling outpost of survivors battle to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature . Highlights of the movie are the creepy encounter with the ominous creatures and the breathtaking battle on the iron bridge. This ¨The Colony¨ movie is a sci-fi , action and drama that contains trills , chills , high body-count and overwhelming state-of-art FX . Set in an unknown future when the global warming has caused a new Ice age , as the entire world is frozen except for those are hidden underground .Stars Larry Fishburne and Kevin Zegers giving an acceptable acting as the brave fighters who take desperate , risked choices to protect the ones they love , as well as they must confront unexpected and brutal enemies . Support cast is decent such as : Bill Paxton , Charlotte Sullivan, Atticus ,Viergever, John Tench, among others.

The picture contains a colorful but dark cinematography by Pierre Gill , it was mostly filmed in North American Aerospace Defense Command , base in North Bay, Ontario, Canada . As well as sinister production design has been rendered with meticulous attention to a futurist detail . And a thrilling and adjusted to action musical score by Jeff Danna . The motion picture was professionally directed Jeff Renfroe . Jeff is a craftsman who has made a few films , such as : Civic Duty , One Point O , He loves me . And he has directed several episodes of notorious series as Houdini y Doyle , Remedy ,Dominion, Rogue , Killjoys , Haven , Reign , Cardinal , The Hardy Boys , Bad Blood , Beauty and the Beast, The art of more , Being human , and several others. Rating 6/10. Acceptable and passable .The flick will appeal to Science Fiction enthusiasts.
  • ma-cortes
  • Feb 9, 2020
  • Permalink
6/10

Slightly underrated (but not much!)

This movie is suffering from what I'd like to call the Game of Thrones effect; the way the ending defines a person's lasting opinion regardless of what came before. GOT was freakin' amazing, but to many people it is a festering pool of lameness, because the last series (or 2) was written by a spoon.

The Colony is kinda the same. I can honestly say, for the entire first half of the movie I was thinking: this movie doesn't deserve a 5/10. It has a solid post-apocalyptic atmosphere, an interesting somewhat-innovative premise, decent acting, and an intriguing story with good tension building. The CGI was a bit weak in places, but I didn't care because I was adequately immersed. Reading the other reviews, I think most people felt the same. So 50% of this movie is a solid 7/10 ... for real post-apocalyptic fans maybe even an 8/10.

The problem is, after the real enemy is revealed, the tension rapidly drops away and a simple bland survival story begins. There's nothing at all innovative from here on. The action is underwhelming and the enemy is also underwhelming (but they're clearly not zombies as one reviewer thought). Sure, there are multiple holes in terms of realism and believability, but they're the same flaws 100 other higher scoring action movies have made. Also the possibility of the interesting apocalypse-reversal was not explored. Basically, it was just generic not-too-terrible lameness. This part of the movie was a disappointing 5/10.

So yes, as a result of the ending the overall experience is disappointing ... but honestly I think the first half was special enough to justify watching the movie, especially if you're a post-apoc fan. Sit down, forget the IMDB score, pretend it's a hidden gem, and enjoy the first 45 minutes. When you sense it's starting to get lame, which it unfortunately will, crack on with your doom scrolling or whatever you personally do when TV loses your attention.

This might seem like odd advice but IMO, as a post-apoc fan, the beginning has stayed with me somewhat and I feel it'd be a shame to not give it a go.
  • SimonK101
  • Aug 21, 2024
  • Permalink
3/10

Just a film that could have been much better

Interesting atmosphere, solid set of actors, good opening of movie which draws you somewhat in, waiting what will happen next.

Solid graphics...

Film moves on and somewhere in the end of first third of it, CUT!.

Its like somebody came in to the set and said: "Wrap it up guys, we are closing!".

End is terrible, and over all everything that happens in first part of the movie is blown in the rest of the movie.

Nothing special, already seen, and definitely not gonna see it again. Not even recommended.

Its like short B-movie based on a short survival comic book story. Like I said i don't see what they where thinking, or what went wrong and who is a guilty party.

Graphics, actors, set, atmosphere, story, it all holds separately as parts of good movie but all together just fails terribly.
  • duckrogers007
  • Jul 22, 2013
  • Permalink
7/10

Probably realistic, because people are naturally stupid

  • siderite
  • Jul 29, 2013
  • Permalink
2/10

These are really stupid "survivors"

  • tejaym
  • Jun 29, 2020
  • Permalink
7/10

Not Scary. Pretty Good. There is a message in here.

  • bob-rutzel-1
  • Oct 20, 2013
  • Permalink
4/10

Slow to start, predictable, horrible ending.

  • jasonbolduc
  • Apr 26, 2013
  • Permalink
7/10

Decent movie!

  • RightOnTime1
  • Apr 28, 2013
  • Permalink
4/10

Great start but goes flat quickly

  • jaywalker812
  • Jul 23, 2013
  • Permalink
8/10

Actually a 7.5/10, but I'll give it an 8 since it's a B-movie done well

First off, since IMDb doesn't allow half-ratings and the current IMDb average is way below what the movie's truly worth, I decided to up my rating to an 8. I've been giving thought as to whether I should settle on a 7, but knowing that The Colony was a B-movie, I generously gave it an 8.

This movie is surprisingly done well. I have a personal liking for post-apocalyptic settings, and this one hits the nail on the spot, for what they chose. As the plot states, a small colony of survivors attempt to survive an ice age, and some unforeseen circumstances occur.

There isn't much I can say about the movie, apart from the fact that I felt that it was definitely worth the time to watch. It's a really solid movie, and you won't regret watching it. The acting was fine, there were no outrageous moments, and there were no issues with the other details in the movie, such as the CG (which was done pretty good).

The pacing of the movie is relatively nice, and the movie finishes just right. The movie wasn't stretched out, nor cut short. Any post-apocalyptic movie can easily be over- or underdone (trying to cram in too many subplots in a small timeframe, or not putting in enough to take full availability of the setting), but this one has just enough.

There's not much else I can say without spoiling the movie, so I'll just say that if you like post-apocalyptic movies, you're sure to have a kick out of watching this one.
  • tetraslash
  • Jul 21, 2013
  • Permalink
7/10

A very solid movie

SPOILER: I was surprised to find how low grade this film received, since I found it be very good actually. With a low budget of what it had to deal with it turned out very good.

It deals with post apocalyptic colony underground while it is constantly snowing outside. It is showing very well how people turn into animals in self defense. We had a similar situation in Sarajevo in 1992-1995. When society fails, community is either doomed or it receives help from outside. Since in this film there was no help from outside even the remnants of the civilization left in the colony were attacked by a gang of cannibals.

If you like sci fi post apocalyptic films this one is for you.
  • petarmatic
  • Oct 21, 2013
  • Permalink
4/10

Why doing bad when yo can do good?

When I first heard about this film I thought it was going to be like "It" (80's version, of course)or even "30 days of night". I love apocalyptic movies mixed with frozen world and eventually with monsters. Unfortunately, "The collony" turned to be another inconsistent and time- wasting entertainment movie. Yes, I'm talking about usual empty characters, boring plot and of course a good looking hero unable to express anything. A bit of action at the beginning but after knowing the villains you realize nothing good will come. Hollywood guys, please, you have huge resources, spend some more bucks on the script and on the casting and save on fx, anybody can create explosions on the computer but doing a good film is beyond that.
  • albert-marcos
  • Jul 23, 2013
  • Permalink
3/10

So many glaring "whys"

  • nomen_meltdown
  • Jan 1, 2014
  • Permalink

The Spoiler already exists in the "Storyline" section

  • fureetutawk
  • Dec 31, 2013
  • Permalink
7/10

Did its job.

  • PanoactionImagineer
  • Sep 5, 2013
  • Permalink
4/10

Decent beginning horrible 2nd half.

  • robfisherking57
  • Jul 24, 2013
  • Permalink
7/10

Words that elevate and words that condemn

I watched this movie without watching the trailer. I watched the trailer afterwards, and sadly it's one of those trailers that tells the whole story. Anyway... I rated this movie as a 7 because I'm a sucker for details. There is one scene and one word that makes it worthy of the Sci-Fi genre, and gives this movie sudden, unexpected depth, even though it might largely be by contrast. It is indeed a shame that the last word of the movie almost subtracts everything added by my favorite scene and finishes by throwing this one back into the inescapable black-hole-bin of clichés. As for those of you not attracted to over-analyzing golden nuggets - you will still find a very decent (6-ish) action movie as my fellow reviewers suggest.
  • bmradux
  • Jul 21, 2013
  • Permalink
2/10

Started off okay, totally died when the "villains" were brought in.

  • ThatDarnIrishMan01
  • Jun 28, 2021
  • Permalink
6/10

Chills to you the bone - Underrated horror/action

I think this is a pretty underrated film. Not only does it have a pretty strong cast but it is finds success in a multitude of ways. For a small indie movie the action and horror is very capable. It is scary and action scenes are very ... well action packed. Although it does suffer from a lack of a budget there is very decent movie here that will keep you hooked. With the original setting and strong narrative perspective it is one of those movie that you will be glad you have seen. I really do recommend watching this movie even if it is lacking in few areas because it will make up for that in horror/action department.
  • KoolCatReviews
  • Oct 28, 2022
  • Permalink
3/10

Awful

I don't know what the makers were thinking, why will you cast Lawrence Fishburn if you're not going to use it in any meaningful way?.

The movie portraits humanity after the ice age has begun. The Colony only explains partially what happened to the planet and why we as humans destroyed it burning all the fossil fuel which contributed to a new ice age, all humanity is lost and the only remains are some "colonies" beneath the earth.

The starting point is quite good, the first minutes of the movie too. Although it is clichéd, it is standard sci-fi, it develop it's characters sufficiently enough but then.. it speeds up its downward spiral once the "enemies" appear on the scene.

The movie has an incredible change of pace once the enemies arrives with poorly execution on the director's side and just god awful fight scenes... Hardcore music and slaughter, i'm in the 80's again?, is this a joke?, I could accept that kind of embarrassment on a B low movie, I just can't accept it in a movie with Lawrence Fishburn that began as well as this one.

It's like the director throw away the script and said "just put the rock music and kill everyone, because that's cool!"... He appears to just shoot himself in the foot with the directing the movie takes.

It goes without saying that this was actually an incredible missed opportunity to tell a interesting story of the survivors of humanity... and a potential hope for the story.

The conclusion to this mess is, kill your opponents swiftly and survive.

I wanna kill myself for wasting all this time. How can they ruin their own potentially good story is beyond me. It seems Hollywood is full of stupid people that takes stupid decisions in the making of movies these days.

Avoid it, if you want to see killing, see it with some meaning added to it. If you want action and scares, go watch Dawn of the Dead, is 1000 times better than this horrendous mess.
  • alexvojacek
  • Jul 20, 2013
  • Permalink
8/10

A Frozen & Scary Dystopia

7.4 of 10. Saw this close to Oblivion and preferred Colony. Both are solid dystopian sci-fi, with this having the far more solid science behind it, which helps with the believability and immersion. The only other qualities they share involves isolation and some annoying narration by the lead character.

Colony has a strong horror aspect to it, including an answer to the question of what might be the middle-ground between human and zombie. There's very little tech involved, contrary to what those seeing Lawrence Fishburne in it might expect. The action, however, is almost entirely fight related, with some connected to the extreme climate conditions and the decaying nature of the cities they're using for shelter.

Outside of a forced end kill and gaps in how the enemy creatures manage to get to certain places, there are no horrible or weak scenes. Budget issues are more evident in undeveloped story elements than the FX.
  • in1984
  • Jul 23, 2013
  • Permalink
6/10

Familiar post-apocalyptic shenanigans

  • Leofwine_draca
  • Apr 11, 2017
  • Permalink
2/10

A cold movie without the cold

  • paulcf-510-910462
  • Jan 28, 2014
  • Permalink
2/10

Could have been better - full of holes

  • pinsent-883-605677
  • Dec 28, 2013
  • Permalink

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