Mark Reviews Movies: COSMIC SIN

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 11, 2021

The title of Cosmic Sin comes from a hypothetical scenario—more likely in the movie's world, hundreds of years in the future, in which interstellar travel and colonization are the norm—in which first contact is made with an alien species. If such an event were to occur, the theory, as terrible as it may be, is that it would be better for humanity to destroy the aliens immediately, lest the possibility that the aliens wipe out humankind occurs. It would be genocide—a "cosmic sin"—but better than the alternative.

This hypothesis, of course, arises in the movie because humanity discovers an alien species on a distant planet. When the idea does become the subject of conversation, co-writers Edward Drake (who also directed) and Corey Large's screenplay starts to sound as if it has a mind to go along with its depiction of an impending war between humanity and aliens. That single scene, though, is the end of such discussion. The aliens are bad, bad creatures, and it's up to a team of assorted specialists to ensure that their kind is wiped away from the known universe.

The result is a pretty dumb movie, which cares primarily about spectacle and action. Drake is working with a big enough budget to create a series of visual effects setpieces, such as the team of rogue soldiers flying through a spaceship battle, but his imagination for action is about as limited as his consideration of the central moral conundrum presented by the title. We mostly get a bunch of lazy shootouts, taking place in generic locales (This universe seems to made up of a lot of large, hanger-like spaces) and against enemies that are little more than somewhat-intelligent zombies (smart enough to learn to shoot a blaster rifle).

What was the thinking here? Why did Drake and Large even put forth the notion that our heroes are set on committing something so cosmically immoral if that idea isn't discussed, debated, or even momentarily questioned? Why would they muddy the moral waters of their premise so, not only raising the ugly specter of genocide, but also framing their story in such a way that genocide is the only and correct answer to the main conflict? Such questions are probably putting more thought into this material than the filmmakers have offered, so as tempting as it may be, we won't take the movie's line of thinking to its logical end.

It's so tempting, though, when the movie's hero is James Ford (Bruce Willis), a disgraced general who was dishonorably discharged for using a weapon of unthinkable destruction to end a battle. The movie offers little in the way of exposition or back story to this decision (Some opening text explains the colonization of other planets, the forming of an interplanetary government alliance, and some separatist activity over the centuries, but that's just to establish the basics of the movie's world). Some think he's a monster, and others believe he's a wrongly derided hero. We're just left to accept the controversy.

When a mining colony is attacked by an unknown alien species (One of the miners opened fire first, but that fact becomes irrelevant, since the aliens are quickly revealed to be conquerors anyway), Ford is the right man for the task at hand in the mind of General Ryle (Frank Grillo). The old general is called to the military base where the miners have returned, and it takes an oddly lengthy amount of time for Dr. Lea Goss (Perrey Reeves), Ford's ex-wife, to figure out that the miners have been possessed by the aliens and have murderous intentions. Ryle and Ford, with a small team and without government approval, travel to a planet that the aliens have invaded.

The rest of the story features a lot of repetitive action (especially in the third act, when everything is resolved with plenty of shooting, fights, and explosions), many scenes of planning how to get a "Q bomb" to the aliens' home world, some forced humor, and some ineffective attempts at emotionally grounding the heroes (The team includes Goss, who promises Ford an opportunity for reconciliation when the mission is complete, and Ryle's son, played by Brandon Thomas Lee). Any potential intrigue about the aliens, quandaries about the ethics and morality of the mission, or exploration of the expanding universe is ignored or dismissed.

Cosmic Sin relies on the simplistic and routine. That might leave us with some questions about the movie's discomforting moral framework, but the movie is thankfully too dull to think too much about that.

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