I haven't read any of the books so I watched this film on its own merits and I'm generally supportive of Aussie films, but this film was terrible.
Let's start with the characters. Stereotypes galore from the prissy, ditsy uptown blonde through to the Chinese boy who's family owns a Chinese restaurant and he demonstrates Kung Fu skills. The actors seem very camera-aware, talking at the camera instead of each other and it doesn't help that the story is full of woeful clichés and unrealistic dialog. There was no development of the characters, i felt no attachment to any of them and towards the end i was wishing the "enemy" would kill at least half of them. The worst part for me is that the story suggests that they are mostly 17 years old, but only 1 character (the priests daughter *groan*) actually looks right for the part. I would have turned it off halfway if it wasn't for the stoner character. At this point I started watching it like it was a spoof movie.
The story unfortunately is full of holes and unrealistic events that make it so hard to watch. The enemy was made out to be so stupid and wildly inaccurate with their weapons. Please use a military adviser next time you want to make a film containing armed forces. Are we really supposed to believe that they wouldn't have engineers that could rebuild a bridge? On top of all the technical and military logic errors in the story, it almost seems to completely ignore the fact that Australia has a defense force.
Afraid of political correctness, the Asian coalition army invading has no name and it is painfully skirted around making the movie more unrealistic. Trying to keep gender equality alive with woman enemy soldiers (did we forget it was an Asian army?) another painful reminder of the poorly written script. The lead female gaining inspiration for a wall mural depicting aborigines and English redcoat troops was a vomit moment. You guys realise that the English settled here right, effectively conquering?? Just needed a scene with a woman vet holding an injured joey to finish it off.
The only good thing about this film is the view of the national park.
There is more, but I'm over it. Do yourself a favour and save your money.
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