People are voting emotionally.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This movie feels a lot like wasted potential; the setting is good, the set design is better (which elevates this to the upper end of average), but everything feels too rushed and the characters aren't given any time to breathe to its detriment. It's hard to care about the fate of colonists who've had little to no character development over the course of the movie, and therefore the action sequences lack weight after Laurence Fishbourne's Briggs exits the stage around the midway point.In particular, I have absolutely no idea why anyone would follow Mason's (Bill Paxton, in an unusually poor performance) orders especially when they became increasingly hardline and dictatorial for no apparent reason.I'm of the opinion that any genre piece in the realms of sci-fi is worth a watch if it has a couple of good ideas in it, and The Colony does, so if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic sci-fi it's not a bad investment for your time. Still, it feels like a solid setting left largely unexplored, which is ultimately a bit of a shame.

In a post-apocalyptic ice age, where the few people that were left lived underground in colonies, residents of such a place receive a distress signal from another colony. They assemble a team to investigate, but what they're about to find out will prove to be shocking, to say the least.It's a movie which bases its story and action in a frozen world, where people lived in underground colonies and fight every day for survival. When a new threat is found, they must think and act fast as faced with extinction. Although not having plenty of characters, they are not very well designed, and furthermore, they follow the same over-used stereotypes you would normally find in this type of movies. Like the one obsessed with control and leadership despite of every logic, the so called hero on which the story focuses but his impact is little in the overall outcome, the fearless leader who leaves his people for a "very important mission" and so on.The events presented can be suspenseful, but unfortunately fall deep into the predictable side. And, due to the above mentioned characters and their actions, the whole drama can be unleashed, in a quite uninteresting fashion. Still unfortunate, this movie bases its intrigue on some disturbing flaws, like tracks which are somehow not covered by the snow and a terrible blizzard, even after prolonged periods of time, character personalities and decisions which are simply mind-blowing, big inconsistencies like the fuse from two piles of TNT, one which burns in matter of seconds and another which simply is extinguished by the wind/snow, or just big intentional plot holes which somehow allow the antagonists to survive/teleport like otherworldly creatures. Being as predictable and flawed as it is, you'll find it pretty hard to enjoy the scenery and the icy atmosphere which surrounds everything. Although it manages to build suspense through its cinematic direction, as you don't get to care about the characters even by a small bit, the most intense events tend to leave you as cold as the environment. And it really is a shame, as it makes the plot even more pointless and less interesting than it already is.Overall, I found a movie with a good location, with some unsympathetic characters which fight for survival, with some intense but unrealistic fighting scenes which ultimately lead to a favorable but predictable finale. It had potential but failed to deliver due to some bad decisions both regarding characters and action.

I hadn't even read the synopsis for the movie before picking it up at the local secondhand DVD store. All I saw was what looked like an arctic disaster movie and one that had both Bill Paxton and Laurence Fishburne on the cast list.Director Jeff Renfroe manages to start out with a rather impressive feat of establishing a very interesting setting and a fair story, along with some detailed characters. But that all changed to the worse and the movie fell into mediocrity once it was revealed what had happened to the inhabitants of the neighboring colony. I just didn't like that approach to the story one bit, it was just ludicrous.I liked the arctic setting of the movie, and the visual effects department did manage to make it look realistic and that did a lot for the movie. Because if a movie like this had poor effects and CGI it would just collapse like a poorly constructed card house.Kevin Zegers didn't really have what it took to deliver in this movie, and as such then he wasn't a strong main actor for the movie, which did slow down the movie a bit. He is usually an adequate actor, but didn't really pull it off in "The Colony". It was without a doubt Bill Paxton who were the one carrying the movie, despite having only a secondary role in the movie. Laurence Fishburne was there simply because he is Laurence Fishburne.It was a shame that director Jeff Renfroe opted for that approach to the incident of the neighboring colony, because it was a severe crippling blow to the movie. "The Colony" had potential, but it was abruptly cut down by the direction in which the story went.

The Colony is directed by Jeff Renfroe (HAVEN, ALMOST HUMAN & BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) so he has a good eye for visuals, as you can see through his latest film. Originally this film was going to be a big budget ensemble cast piece, but thankfully they used big names & used the budget for the visuals. This amazing apocalyptic sci-fi horror has everything in it.It stars Kevin Zegers (Adam Green's FROZEN), Laurence Fishburne, & Bill Paxton both of which have acted in their far share of the sci-fi, action & horror genre. Kevin Zegers plays SAM, a almost anti-hero character who doesn't find his place till later on in the film but through his eyes & perspective we see that world needs him in more ways than one. Laurence Fishburne & Bill Paxton play two ex-soldiers Briggs and Mason who team up early on to start a colony of survivors during this whiteout that covers the earth. Both are so different as one is a born leader, the other just wants to lead but both bring so much to their characters that they immerse you into the icy hell that it's hard to see who is right and who is wrong.In the future, Earth is covered in an Ice Age. The survivors live in facilities underground named Colonies, ergo the name. When people from Colony 5 release a distress signal, the leader of Colony 7 Briggs (played by Fishburne) organizes an expedition with Sam (Zegers) and Graydon (played by Atticus Mitchell who brings a good level of faux bravery & fear to the role) to investigate what has happened to their neighboring colonists. Briggs leaves the scientist Kai (played by the beautiful Charlotte Sullivan) in charge of the group, disappointing his former friend Mason (Paxton).Walking for days, they finally reach the facility where the fifty said persons reside and they find only one survivor - Leland (played brilliantly by Julian Richings of CUBE & Wrong Turn) so scared to death that he's locked himself in a room deep in the facility. They soon come to realize that something far worse than the cold is hunting humans. The visuals and the cinematography are amazing especially considering that this is the first movie to be shot at the decommissioned NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) base in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The interior shots of the base gives the isolation and claustrophobic feel much like that of the original ALIEN film. The exterior shots which were mainly used with green screen but real snow to give the true effects of the cold hell they had to endure had beautiful destruction and chaos, quite a reminiscence of THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW meets THE THING.The tension builds amazingly well also, not just because of the trek and the weather conditions they have to endure but claustrophobia plays a huge part in this film. The tension also meets with a few good shocks of realism as well due to the human condition and what one does to survive in any condition of despair.This film has a touch of several great nods to it especially considering the budget they had. It gives nods to (some I mentioned earlier) MAD MAX, THE THING, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, as well as THE HILLS HAVE EYES. The solid tension build up, the acting, the visuals all are top notch.I highly recommend this film.