Kill Command is a solid movie, there's no doubt about it. I'm a big sci-fi fan and I've watched many, many low budget sci-fi productions. Kill Command is by far, the best one yet. Putting aside the awful script, the movie looks very professional and the acting, although a bit stiff in places, is decent. Considering the modest budget of 1 million, the special effects are fantastic. The robot designs are nice and detailed and the battle scenes are made very well. The sound effects and the music are top notch. Unfortunately, as I've stated above, the script is bad. Although all of the scenes are shot with taste, the lines that the actors must deliver are terrible. Some of the scenes feel incredibly artificial because of the bad script. There is a constant tension throughout the movie which will keep you interested but it leads to a weak culmination. All in all, I feel there's a lot of wasted potential when it comes to the script but despite that, the movie is enjoyable - 6.5/10.
Add a Review
-
electricrain16 May 2016If you're like me, you are very leery of low budget sci-fi and horror films that are written and directed by the same person who is relatively unknown and not yet an established filmmaker. More times than not, the script and acting are embarrassingly amateur and a complete waste of your time. Well, this film is a definite exception to that generalization. Apart from the lame title, this film is actually quite entertaining and worth the watch. The special effects are quite impressive and the acting and plot is good enough to keep your interest from beginning to end. If you are a fan of movies like Skyline, Predator, and Terminator, you will probably enjoy this film.
-
dkjonline13 May 2016I am just tired of how often script writers fail to justify actions of their characters. I would have liked the protagonists to show at least some semblance of intelligence especially considering the positions they held and the dire situations they were in. The acting, camera-work and production value make up for the deficiencies to some extent but not enough to absolve them. This is a one time watch. The squad leader is dumb and the techie acts like she's artificial intelligence herself. Other then the dumb characters and a predictable plot, the movie is paced beautifully with enough shifts and dynamism to keep you watching. However, it might not be as memorable an experience as it could've been.
-
atmhso5 May 2016Just got back from seeing this, and I'm glad I did. Kill Command is a relatively straight-laced sci-fi that takes itself seriously - and is the better for it.
A military team are sent to training, when they are attacked by robots. They are accompanied on this mission by an upgraded woman. I'd go so far as to say it is best to leave the summary here, as the story unfolds in an organic and sometimes surprising way. Dialogue is always solid and acted well, thankfully.
Pacing of shots is excellent in my opinion, although my friend felt it could have been tighter. There are a few jump scares, but the best tension as always is when a scene drags on while we're not quite sure if the team is being observed.
There are some plot holes, but nothing that can't be ignored. Frankly, it just about works in-universe because of the light touch with world building.
Worth the watch, especially for fans of sci-fi. -
This film had the potential to be one of the best sci fi this year. It's low-budget, yet the actors, the scenery, the CGI, the costumes, the effects, the music, the sound they are all top quality.
The direction could have been a bit less cliché at times, in how it handled scenes with "he's watching you" tension. But action/battle scenes manage to deliver a hardcore experience while keeping the atmosphere claustrophobic. I love especially that the battles make sense tactically (except one detail on one scene).
The film manages to pull off its universe. It keeps things believable and consistent. It takes care to explain to the viewer what is happening in terms of technology, without detracting from the action and the suspense.
BUT, the script is horrible. Just when the film manages to pull you in, there comes a bad line or a glaring plot hole to wrench you out again. The actors are great, but they can't shine because their lines are too unrealistic or non-sensical. It made things awkward. On one hand the actors do their job well, on the other hand, you know they are actors because no one in real-life would talk like that in any situation. It's like the script writers made a list of topics to include, but they never filled them out. Dialogues jump wildly from one point to another. Emotions and characters are given the spotlight in one scene only to be abruptly shut down the next.
The plot holes create too many questions. I found myself too often thinking "but that's not how it works" or "isn't this supposed to be different?" or "what happened between here and there". If it wasn't for the bad script I think this film would have easily been an 8/10 for me. Maybe even better. -
The movie is solid. Acting is actually on par with many of 8+ star films.
The plot is canon and it's been rehashed in countless productions with Terminator franchise somewhere along the line. It is still very watchable when acting, camera work, and special effects are good.
Music is passable, nothing special, but they do avoid turning up volume for cheap scares.
Frankly, this movie can be compared to a novel which had to compete against the best of 19th century writing and came somewhere in the lower middle. -
vatlva24 May 2016Just watched Kill Command.
What is there to say? Thirty years ago, you'd go to a video store and there would be lots of futuristic sci fi/cyberpunk/distopian/futuristic military type films available for rental, most of which never made it to the cinema screen and starred actors you'd never heard of and would never see again. THIS is the 21st century version of those types of old VHS film.
Good things in this - the actors can all generally act and are pretty convincing, even in their death throes. The CGI special effects are exceptional in places, moreso for what is a clearly low budget film - the main antagonist (the big bad boy killing machine robot with caterpillar tracks) is truly awesome. Scared the crap out of me. There are times when you'd be forgiven for thinking it was actually a real model of a robot it's so well done. Why do they always make these killer robots look completely evil?? Anyway, it must be computer generated and its really good! The flying drones which repeatedly kept bugging the squad in the film were less convincing and while I'm sure they were needed to add to some of the scenes, they were generally a nuisance mainly because they were not as realistic.
Battle scenes, flying projectiles and explosions were all pretty awesome.
However, as with everything I still found some faults. The complete lack of a back story of any kind at the outset was pretty lame really. The individual I watched this film with asked me 20 minutes into it if they had missed some kind of Blade Runner-esqe text introduction at the start that I may have fast forwarded... nope. There was none. It would have been much better with a clear back story.
The fact that these highly trained futuristic computer augmented soldiers seemed unable to see these clunky caterpillar tracked robots approaching them in a forest that was hardly dense was also a bit implausible... so you're telling me a highly trained soldier is sneaking about and this behemoth of a killer murder-droid with half a Sherman tank stuck to it manages to jump on him from out of no-where? Suspend your disbelief if you will, and remember, it's only sci fi. While I would have been disappointed if I'd been sitting in the cinema watching this it is certainly adequate for (and clearly made for) a home movie. My rating is 5 out of 10. I would watch this again and I'm sure it would be even better second time around.
Low budget film makers take note of this. This is what you should be equaling at the very least. -
Demmha10 June 2016Kill Command is a solid Sci-fi low budget movie, it's the first credit for Steven Gomez who wrote and directed the movie that makes me curious what is next from him, from the begging of the movie you know that you are going to watch a well-made movie.
The plot of the movie is very simple, right to the point from the beginning of the movie, there are no useless points to fill the movie with it as we see in many movies these days, a group of trainees going for their regular training but something will happen will make them never to forget this training, the script really supports the movie because it is very well written and performed, IN THE OTHER HAND there are of course some plot holes and staff but personally i didn't focus on them that much, also it could have been better if they gave us more details, also the ending was very mysterious which was a little disappointed for me but i think it worked too.
The cinematography in the movie was great, the CGI looks awesome, even with a low budget, flawless CGI and visual effects which looks even better than a lot of high budget movies, I think that the fact that Steven Gomez works a lot in the visual effects department could have helped him,right?, IN THE OTHER HAND sometimes the robots looks a little weird but that happened just a few times.
The acting as everything in the movie is very solid, a group of mid- known actors each one of them played his role as it should be played and again it was very controlled by the director, awesome performance by the group leader Thure Lindhardt...Captain Bukes and Vanessa Kirby...Mills which added a lot to the movie, IN THE OTHER HAND there are moments when they were fighting with the robots i felt something weird and could have been better but maybe this isn't the actors fault i think there is a fight scenes designers or something like that, i just think it could have been more realistic.
The sound effects in the movie as well played a great role like how the robots speak and interact, the gun shots, etc .., all were good nothing over the top or abnormal.
Finally, everyone who is interested in the Sci-fi genre should watch this i pretty sure it will entertain you, I think Gamers will have a bit of deja vu watching this lol.
7.5/10 -
digdog-785-71753821 May 2016It breaks my heart to have to give a bad review to an independent film.
****THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS****
Kill Command is a straight Sci-Fi film; it tells the story of a group of Marines who get sent out to a drop point, where they are attacked by sentient machines.
They regroup, and find a building. Inside there is a bunch of these machines. A girl speaks with one of them and they find out that the machines think this is a training exercise. Then the machines kill them.
That is the entire plot.
But what is a let down is not the barebones plot. Films like Enemy Mine, for example, have managed to carry a film with a few pages of script.
The problem is that this film was made by someone who does not know how to make films.
OK, let me start with the good bits first;
The casting is good (this means "the actors look like they could feasibly be their characters", nothing more); the CGI is superb, the machines look almost like animatronics. The special effects are OK, and for once the film doesn't have some horrid color filter to mess everything up.
The bad;
The pacing is awful. The direction is ridiculous .. there's a shot (inbetween two identical shots of the same frame, just spaced further) with glorious light and epic music, while some guy is saying some completely irrelevant line of speech. The actors, and those who designed the scenes for them, have no idea what a military unit would behave like - and i'm not a military person myself, it's just that they look like a bunch of idiots holding their props. The story is as back of the napkin as you can get; the dialogue is pedestrian, and the acting is all over the place. It's like, a bunch of first year students got a ton of money form mom and pops and blew it making a EPIC FILM, while knowing absolutely nothing about filmmaking, while their teacher facepalms himself in a corner.
I would not recommend Kill Command, if not to see how a film can fail even with so many assets.
My vote: 5/10 - lots of wasted effort. -
rds_116 May 2016Mind the spoiler alert.
So we have a group of soldiers send to a training island to test their skills against their replacements aka droids. Because there is an excessive amount of data being learned by the droids the tech girl who designed and programmed them is send along with them to asses the product.
They easily take out some old versions and think they're done. All the wile outwards communication is being blocked but they don't seem to mind that and just stand around a lot. Don't get me wrong the movie is quite decent, way better than most of the other "low budget" sci-fi creations.
Anyhow here are a few things I didn't like about the movie. The girl/creator is way to silent. Even when it's abundantly clear something is wrong she still keeps quiet wile all the information they can get would have been helpful. Mayor annoyance.
At some point they walk into the storage facility for the droids not activated at that time. Did they turn this into an advantage, NO! They could have destroyed them as all of them are equipped with a self-destruct EMP bomb to prevent their tech from falling into enemy hands.
Or better jet as the creator is there with them she could have disconnected them from the network and given them a command to protect the humans. Did I mention she has a chip in her head/neck that gives her the ability to interact with those droids through a neural interface. So something like that really shouldn't have been hard to do and would have made it a much more realistic final battle if you have a good portion of the enemy taken out and then some left to battle by human hands.
For some reason 1 of the droids is the boss. Even though they're networked and at some point 3 of the same boss type droids are activated. Anyway they salvage an EMP bomb from one of the destroyed droids somehow up it's power (don't ask how) and manage to take the boss out. Sacrificing herself as her chip gets affected too. But guess what that thing made to take out the tech to prevent it from falling into enemy hands doesn't work the boss gets up again and now goes after the creator who plays dead and then blasts a hole though it's head. Then her chip gives out completely and she dies. Guess what happens next, the darn boss droid gets up again and manages with his last "breath" to upload itself into her destroyed chip!? So quite a bit of ridiculousness at the end and if that wasn't bad enough it also leaves an open ending. No one likes those, hell personally that's for a large part why I don't watch horror flicks anymore as they nearly always end without an end. -
yoggwork19 February 2019Although it's an old-fashioned human-machine war scenario, the possibility of a sequel is left behind. Of course, too small scenes, a slightly pale plot, and too much nonsense are hard wounds.
-
abhawii215 May 2016you know the feeling when you tired and have nothing to do and already watched all the recent movies up there so you pick any not-very- promising film to be as a visual background to relax with? and suddenly you face the reality that it turned to be a very entertaining picture to watch! i expected to watch a low budget-shitty effects movie with a bad story and line. instead i watched a really great effects. the line was not random and the actors were good. you wont expect to get a SHASHANK REDEMPTION story in an action film,yet the story was good very nicely done guys, it was a great job. P.S. if it was an eighties-film it would have won an Oscar of special effects hehehe , yet we are not in the 80s!
-
"Kill Command" resembles another glossy movie from last decade; "Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within" in both positive and negative ways. Story follows a female specialist and a group of soldiers as they are trying to figure out the secretive nature of their enemy, in this case a horde of combat machine. The movie looks good even though the narrative might feel stale as it progresses sluggishly.
Its most valuable asset is certainly its graphic, the effects are riveting and it brings out the sci-fi aspect really well. Camera angles are done to accommodate the sequences between humans and machines, even if there's slight editing twitch, the graphic is a solid feature. Cinematography and color tone work fine to present a secluded setting, both the contrasting outdoor nature and futuristic hallways or rooms. Audience would clearly see the near-future vibe it aims for.
Unfortunately, story moves in sloppy march. It has a good mystery aspect, but nearly everything is repetitive in motion. It doesn't give clear characterization either beyond the gifted girl wanting to understand the situation while the soldiers just want to survive and get the mission done. Acting is presentable only to that effect. It seems that it could fit more, or tidy up some scenes to shorten the length in favor of more content.
As a sci-fi "Kill Command" delivers a fine visual despite its by-the-number narrative. It's enough to separate itself from the horde and a decent foundation for a thriller. -
Leofwine_draca23 March 2019KILL COMMAND is a typical B-movie thriller, made on the cheap with a science fiction premise. The story is set in the woods where a bunch of soldiers find themselves battling malfunctioning robots set to destroy human life. Vanessa Kirby is the sole female along for the ride, augmented with new technology to give her an edge in the resistance. To be fair, the CGI effects aren't too bad here, and the pacing is quite fast which makes it a little better than most. However, it is a shallow production and way too obviously references PREDATOR and ALIENS at times.
-
A squad of marines in the near future are sent to a remote island on a training mission. Comms are down and a strange jacked-in technology specialist tagging along. Something doesn't seem right.
This is a great sci-fi movie. It has ring of Predator and Dog Solders about it.
The action and effects are great. The plot wears a little thin and could probably have done with a stricter edit as it does feel like it goes on a bit.
The characters are all good. The tech element with Vanessa Kirby's character being able to connect to hardware is quite interesting and well handled.
For the most part the director keeps it on the rails, the adversaries are threatening to the climax. But it does get a bit unnecessarily cheesy near the end. -
This was well worth watching. Up for action? There was good shooting and warfare action. The characters were pretty likable despite their shallow creation. I really enjoyed the Science fiction of believable weapon development. The special effects were well done. Really? Only a Million dollar budget? Maybe if you know what you are doing you don't need to rip off those funding the project. Just spit balling. Its amazing that such a decent quality show can go under the radar. Give this Steven guy more money to get excellent actors and script writers and a memorable block buster could be the outcome. This is my first review and to have it submitted it requires 10 lines
-
dark_droid9 February 2020Not worth the time... not at all. The robots are good and the cgi too... but thats all the movie has to offer. The story is plain, with no twits or plot, linear... characters with no depth... really boring
-
Wizard-822 October 2017I wasn't expecting too much from "Kill Command" when I stumbled upon it on Netflix, expecting it to be your typical run of the mill low budget sci fi actioner. Well, I will admit that the movie did exceed my expectations, albeit in one area. That area being the look of the movie. The movie is well photographed, and the other production values are top notch, particularly the special effects depicting the homicidal robots the protagonists have to fight off.
So what's the problem? Well, although the movie looks good, it does not give the viewer the feeling a movie like this needs to give. For starters, the movie is quite slow, particularly in the first thirty minutes. Although the movie picks up the pace slightly after that point, the movie makes a serious stumble with the action sequences that then unfold. The action simply isn't that involving. It feels routine at best, and you never feel the protagonists' peril or panic. Add in a far too long running time (100 minutes), the viewing experience ends up being somewhat of a lengthy slog. -
payasoingenioso29 April 2021This movie is well paced and entertaining.
The plot and dialogue have implausible moments, but the film is well executed overall. -
jjpete703 July 2017The special effects are top-notch. Robot designs are diverse and detailed.
The plot leaves something to be desired. The setup is threadbare and tests our suspension of disbelief. It then starts pursuing something interesting, but never develops it. Instead it becomes a linear escape-or-die exercise. Some meager attempts at character development, then back to the explosions.
Not much suspense, the film relies on a few jump scares, humans behaving stupidly, and some fun firefights.
A couple of the actors stand out, the rest are on loan from central casting.
Final conclusion: Okay entertainment, just leave your brain out of it. -
redtiago5 October 2021Fairly reasonable British sci-fi/action film.
Good cinematography with pretty cool spaceships, minimally interesting script/plot, where acting altough not being brilliant, deliver.
It's not "oh! My God!", but it's a reasonable entertainment for anyone who likes the genre, and wants to see something little complex. Good to relax without having to exercise too much brain, without, however, being a bad "flick". -
DoctorThotcer5 March 2018If you stuck the script for Dog Soldiers, Aliens, Terminator and maybe a Black Mirror episode or two into an idea blender and pressed go, you'd get the basic script for this movie. Think fairly generic 'Machines turn on their creator' type stuff but with a lot of ammo, some pretty cool robot designs and some quite well written interpersonal relationships.
This movie mainly is a spectacle movie, but it's a bit low budget, so built sets are kept to a minimum, larger locations are office buildings, forests, abandoned buildings, muddy fields, etc. they stop short of an actual quarry but there's nothing terribly spectacular there, it's all about the digital augmentation.
If you've seen fan made Star Trek movies that rely on green screen, CGI sets, movement tracking, key frame animation and an awful lot of atmospheric plug-ins, this movie is like a slightly higher budget more professional version of one of those.
It mostly holds up well, the animation can be a bit stiff at times, the robots walk, interact and shoot well, but don't pull or push people about nor fall well, and occasionally something doesn't quite look right at all, but it's mostly all pretty convincing. The actors do just fine at selling this augmented reality to the audience considering they themselves presumably cannot see it, and you're seldom distracted by the weird eye-lines or odd framing that sometimes plague this style of film making.
The pacing is good, there's some decent characters, plenty of action, lots of cool stuff to look at and it's reasonably entertaining.
Good for a wet Wednesday, give it a go. -
siderite19 May 2016For a low budget movie with almost no marketing Kill Command is a cool film. The special effects are top notch, the acting is good, the story is engaging, the pace is keeping you on your tows. It's not the most original story, that's true, but up until the very end I didn't cringe at all.
Think Aliens with robots and you get a pretty clear picture of the scope of the script. Not as good, but not bad either. Some things were a bit off putting. I mean, the movie actually has a Chekhov's gun, only his name is not Chekhov and he's black! The military tactics used are bad, but not laughable. Also the ending... I am conflicted about it. On one hand it could be Matrix's AI in the human world sequel that we've dreamed about ever since Smith uploaded himself into a person. On the other hand it could be a high tech classic villain second wind which dooms the story to obscurity.
Bottom line: There are no high level questions being asked about Artificial Intelligence or human nature here, but it is a well done action sci-fi movie. I am curious if a sequel will be made, considering the efforts in the CGI and the successful establishment of the universe. -
swedzin15 January 2020I was searching for some new SF / action films and I discovered Kill Command after I saw the poster with the giant robotic machine on it. I wasn't swayed away that much, but I kind of liked the design. So, I decided - let's check this one out. And I was not disappointed.
The plot is pretty simple. It is set in the near future, the team of marines are assigned to go in training facility for two days to test the latest robots for practice. However, things go bad when they discover that machines started to develop and upgrade themselves. So, it is a pretty typical cliché story. Some people say that this film is reminiscent of "Terminator", "Predator" etc. Me, personally, I think it is more close to "Screamers", because the plot is almost the same. About machines that built and upgrade themselves. Through the movie, there isn't too many exciting scenes, it is a generic stuff of human soldier VS machines.
The movie is directed and written by Steven Gomez. Gomez has worked on visual effects on at least dozen films, so this is his debut as a writer/director. Which explains this film's very solid CGI. But, about that later. I think that Gomez directed and wrote this film fairly, but I think he has to learn more on how to develop characters more and to make them more deep, interesting and likeable. Which brings me to characters. I think they are the weak point of the film. The characters are pretty much generic. They are really not that likeable or relating. The team of marines is led by Cpt. Bukes, played by Thure Lindhardt. Thure seems like a competent actor, but flat in his performance. I think that his character was weak. He starts off as an off-beat guy who does not like machines or AI and he automatically has a dislike towards one of the temporary members of the team. And afterwards, because of the obvious circumstances and plot he decreases his dislike just to survive. OK, fair enough. So, the disliked, temporary team member is Mills. She is an advanced cyborg, or android. She is played by Vanessa Kirby, I think she done well playing a cyborg. And that's about it, there isn't much to her character. The other ones are nothing special, but I must say that Drifter (David Ajala) is pretty much likeable of the bunch... however as the movie progresses, he did not leave some certain impression. Which brings me back to Gomez, who I think still needs to mature in writing interesting characters.
So, let's discuss other things. Music score was nothing special, or memorable. Editing was decent. Action scenes were solid, but not that quite intense. Now, scenery was really good. At least 60 percent of film is occurring in the woods. I think that was because of the budget. However, I think that shots of the woods were well used. Now, CGI is good in most of scenes and I highly appreciate the usage of practical effects. Now, the best thing - production design. The costumes are OK, they look like today's marine uniform with some modifications, I think that the budget did not allow to create something more slicker. The same things goes for weapons, I think the weapons could have been a touch better. The interior and exterior design is just great and to mention the design of robots. It think it's amazing. With high detail and really cool looking parts. So, these robots are used for training in the film, but they managed to give robots this sophisticated looks. Non-threating in a way, but still nice looking.
So, overall this is one pretty interesting-looking B film. I highly recommend this film to people who enjoy watching something simple and enjoyable, with robots and soldiers. I am hoping that the actors and the director Gomez will have more offers and jobs to prove their talents, I would truly like to see their further progress. And to tell you the truth, I enjoyed this film more than some certain BIGGER SF films which came out during 2016-2018. Enjoy this pleasurable little SF film. -
tkaine314 May 2016My reviews will never contain spoilers.So you can ease your mind of that fact but you should take offense to how terrible this movie is. I give it 3/10 simply because the camera and special effects along with a couple actors I was familiar with wasn't the worse thing I've seen on screen but boy it was definitely no where near good. I felt like I was watching a short not a full featured length film. I certainly did not have any connection with the characters, More than 7 times I was able to say the next line verbatim before the actors did so predictable is pretty much a understatement. someone spoke of a sci fi film that takes it self serious, I had no Idea what that meant before I saw this movie and now that I have I am even more confused no flabbergasted. The movie did not create that yearning of trying to survive like a good movie is supposed to. I had no idea even of what the agenda was. is this a training mission if so what are we training for.. please if you do watch this movie make sure you are somewhere you wouldn't mind falling to sleep at. For Sci Fi fans this was Not a good movie at all.