There’s a certain amount of give that I’ll allow action movies: there’s tropes to adhere to, lines that the heroes must utter, and the requisite action scenes that I’ll enjoy along with a bucket of popcorn.
Then there’s the first trailer for Cosmic Sin, a new science fiction action film starring Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo. It bends my tolerance so much that it snaps, then proceeds to stomp all over it as it piles on the ridiculousness.
Let’s start with the basics: the film’s directed by Edward Drake (who released 2020’s sci-fi film Breach) and stars Willis as James Ford, a grizzled and cantankerous vet who was booted from the service sometime in the future. He’s hanging out with a bar, beats up a couple of guys who get in his face, and is asked to come back in by a squad of soldiers for one last mission, with the promise that he’ll get reinstated.
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Cue serious walking down corridors of some sort of secret, high-tech military base.
From there, we get the tense briefing and the stakes: humanity’s been getting into some trouble in space. A first contact situation went wrong, some shooting ensued, and now we’ve got some powerful aliens pissed off at us. There’s some sort of infection, and to ensure that humanity’s going to live another day, we have to initiate a first strike against the aliens—Operation Cosmic Sin.
But wait, there’s more! There’s a giant stargate in orbit, on the other side of which is a big alien armada waiting to annihilate all of us. They push Willis and Grillo into some high tech power armor, crack some jokes about Ford’s age, and get shot out into space to deliver their weapon. More shooting ensues. Lines about how they need to take the fight to them and that they’ll have to live with the consequences are uttered. Epic, pounding music sets the tone.
You get the idea. It has the look of all the classic action/sci-fi/war films mashed into one package. Will that work? Does it matter?
The film is set to be released in theaters and digitally on March 12th.
