Horror Sci-Fi that proves a bigger budget is not always better!

OBSOLESCENCE Rating: 1.5 ⭐ for effort

Rating changed: 3/27/2023 - from 1⭐ ➡ 1.5⭐ thanks to commenter "Helena Vajdi".👏👏🏿

‘Obsolescence’, from Zho Studios, starring comedy duo Jeremy Truder and Robert Fry, doesn't just rehash old alien scenes, it uses the worst of them. The main character, a nerdy science student, discovers unusual pods growing in an accidentally opened mine. These pods release a gas, the effect of which spreads through the air and into a river infects the town inhabitants, turning them into passive, vessels for food that the aliens consume. The scientist and the local authorities struggle to contain the spread of the infection and the mindless vessel humans while a chemical-pharmaceutical company, that operates in the town tries to conceal its role in exposing the alien contagion and uses its political power to obstruct the matter.

The bad and the ugly: A shoddily tied plot that can only result in a deus ex machina of a convenient and abrupt conclusion. The director, Xavier Rolando fails to coherently structure the story arc of a David and Goliath theme as very little effort is given to strategizing the solution. The audience instead is dragged through a series of recycled cliché scenes and stock actors and scenes of low key lighting where the set is so dark that we need to squint to see the action. There is nothing new and everything old and tired of a quintessential Alien Pod film.

The good: Some of the CGI was impressive which also contributed to expansive aerial shots in the beginning and at the end.