For as long as Danielle Deadwyler has had to wait to take the lead in an action film like “40 Acres,” it takes far less time for the “Till” star to demonstrate the full range of her strengths. Given the kind of introduction usually reserved for the likes of Clint Eastwood or Bruce Willis as a camera runs up her back, only to reveal her face after plunging a knife into an intruder on her property, it just hits differently when a Black woman is presented with such power, and though R.T. Thorne’s dynamic siege thriller has some familiar moves, it is full of fresh ideas.

Set in a dystopian future where the animal population has been wiped out 14 years earlier because of a fungal pandemic, “40 Acres” shows a new world order: Farmers who can produce their own crops hold their own while others shuffle along for survival...