REVIEW: ‘Warriors of Future’ Delivers A Solid Sci-Fi Experience

After countless high-tech wars and environmental catastrophes have left Earth barely livable, a meteorite came crashing down, bearing alien plant life of enormous scale that proliferates when exposed to water. Now, an elite squad of Air Combat troops must undergo a dangerous mission to turn the plant that threatens to overrun the world into its best shot for salvation in the sci-fi action movie Warriors of Future.

As your journey through Warriors of Future‘s one-and-a-half-hour runtime begins, you are beset by what is easily the film’s weakest element. An overly convoluted backstory. While I touched upon the largest elements above, there are several more layers that the viewer is walked through as the film paints a picture of a world on the brink of death. While it all makes sense to an extent, there are a few threads that could’ve been trimmed down, if not totally omitted. For example, there is a lengthy explanation for how and why robots have largely replaced humans on battlefields and the effects that it has had. This could’ve been handled just as well with a line of dialogue from a character when the robots first appear, making one fewer concept for the audience to process as the film begins.

Once the foundations of the story are out of the way, Warriors of Future delivers a solid experience that manages to provide fun action sequences while hitting many of the time-honored personal struggles such films love to weave in, if just barely. The movie tries to do too many things with its cast given the time allowed. The story would’ve been better served clipping a couple of these out in exchange for either delving deeper into the remaining plot lines, or building out some of its action moments.

Even as they are though, the action sequences in this film are easily the stars. While clearly working with a smaller budget than the biggest sci-fi flicks out there, Warriors of Future manages to keep the focus small enough that it can deliver the film’s exciting sequences with enough flair and polish to keep the viewer engaged and feeling the danger. This is especially true during a fight on a moving vehicle and utilizes some great cinematography to make that particular sequence shine above the rest.

The acting in this film is just fine. While the actors each feel like they are doing what they can, none of the characters ever really manage to click. Even the orphan girl the squad finds during a battle and ends up bringing with them is never able to truly grab the viewer’s heartstrings the way such characters generally do. There just isn’t enough time to really get to know these characters.

When all is said and done, Warriors of Future is an enjoyable, if middle-of-the-road sci-fi action flick. If you are looking for something from the genre and you are out of better options, this succeeds enough to make it worth the time investment for those who could always use a bit more science fiction in their lives.

Warriors of Future is streaming now on Netflix.