[yasr_overall_rating]
A troubled high school student discovers the truth behind his hidden abilities.
“Kill Order” is an absolutely terrible movie. As an independent filmmaker myself for over 30 years, I know only too well the hassles, headaches, and neverending problems that plague every film ever made, big or small, feature-length or short so when I review another filmmaker’s project, especially if it is a bad movie, I always try to find something redeeming about it, and with “Kill Order,” the only redemptive aspect is star, Chris Mark. Mr. Mark has worked as a stuntman for many years on such big-budget films as “The Hunger Games,” “Pacific Rim,” “Star Trek: Beyond,” “xXx: Return of Xander Cage,” and the upcoming “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.” His martial arts abilities are astounding and he performs some truly jaw-dropping moves in “Kill Order” but that is where my praise must stop. While Mr. Mark is the star of the movie, he is by no means an actor. Watching an actor who is supposed to be upset or distressed and having them turn away from the camera so we can only see their shoulders tremble and quiver, to simulate the effect of them crying, can be embarrassing and sadly, that is what happens throughout the film. Mr. Mark could very well become an action star and his capabilities are up on the screen for everyone to see but he should realize his strengths and stick with them.
“Kill Order” desperately wants to be “X-Men” meets “The Matrix,” mixing sci-fi elements with martial arts and while the fight choreography is handled with amazing precision, it’s obvious the movie doesn’t have a big budget and as a result, the sci-fi components suffer terribly. David (Chris Mark) is in school when he begins having horrific visions. He cannot decipher if they are memories or visions of what is to come but before he has a chance to understand them, masked men break into his school and try to kidnap him but he kills them all and then escapes. The rest of the film has David running away from the bad guys and we discover that he was part of an experiment gone wrong, one that could turn him into the greatest fighting asset the world has ever seen but because his mind couldn’t adapt to the program that was inserted into his head, he suffers from grisly and harrowing dreams of him killing and mutilating others.
There really is no satisfactory story because after all, this is about martial arts, gunfire, and science fiction. The bad guys wear shades all the time, akin to “Men in Black” and the aforementioned “The Matrix,” even when they are indoors but every scene is just an excuse for Mr. Mark to flex his fighting skills and hope that it will be more than enough to gloss over the movie’s many plot holes. It’s not. The acting by the majority of the cast is insufferable with the main bad guy imitating Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) from “The Matrix” and doing such a poor job, it makes you wish the real Agent Smith would turn up and kill him quickly, just to put him out of our misery. The film is directed by James Mark, Mr. Mark’s older brother, who is also a stuntman and while the movie in general, is quite terrible, I could see James Mark improving as a director. He has a good eye for framing his shots and the fight scenes are gloriously executed. In scenes of action he delivers, sadly, “Kill Order,” does not.
Available on DVD, VOD & Digital HD February 6th
