If this flick was made with the same premise in the ’80s, it’d be a no-budget Z grade Mad Max knock-off… but thankfully instead this is a serious take. A serious, gloomy, grimy, muddy, ugly, rusty take. And that’s not a complaint, just an observation and, indeed, a compliment toward independent sci-fi.

The Colony is about an Earth that was evacuated due to all the usual reasons (climate collapse, pandemics, etc.). Now a second return mission is arriving to check to see if the planet is habitable again (since things aren’t going swimmingly at the new world). But things don’t go swimmingly after the capsule splashes down in a tidal basin and the crew is immediately captured by hostile post-apocalypse survivors.

This movie is grimy, depressing, gloomy, sad, muddy, and rusty down to its bones. It creates an oppressive atmosphere and builds a world nobody would want to return to. The production values from both location and on-set shooting are very good. This is a waterlogged, rusty post-apocalypse and you might come away thinking you’ll never be dry – or free from tetanus – again. For that, the movie gets a lot of credit… assuming you want to spend your afternoon being depressed by a grimy, rusty, waterlogged, miserable excuse for a planet.

While the world-building is excellent, I wish the story and the storytelling they hung on it was as good. The first hour is kind of directionless… things are definitely happening and its usually muddy and depressing, but it’s not compelling. Happily things do turn around a bit in the final act and we start to get more of a plot and concrete drama. I won’t say it’s amazing but it can be interesting… even if the film’s ethical dilemma, once revealed, seems murky. Which, hey, was probably their intent.

So I’m half recommending the film and half not… that score is on the cusp of losing a few numbers but the world-building, production value, and ability to create a gloomy oppressive mood were good enough. And the final act, while not revolutionary, at least got the ball rolling on actual drama and stakes.

Score: 75