Where to begin to actually describe this farrago of a movie that looks like it was made back in the 1980s by someone who thought Starcrash and The Last Starfighter were the way forward for sci-fi cinema? If so, then how misguided could such a person be?
The ‘plot’ concerns a teenage girl called Sarah (Isabelle Allen) who spends her time in her room obsessively playing video games, particularly one called The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud. For reasons too baffling to comprehend, she suddenly finds herself transported into this less than visually- appealing game to accompany its titular hero in his battle to defeat a singularly unimposing villain (John Hannah) and his henchwoman (Lashana Lynch), who are intent on releasing some of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy from an intergalactic prison. Ho hum!!!
The only way Sarah can escape this game is to complete it and to this end she is helped from her New York bedroom by her pratfalling boyfriend known as Cowboy, who is now in control of the game in his own inept fashion whilst being harangued by Sarah’s unhelpful father. Hero Max Cloud is a brash, square-jawed braggart given to exclaiming “Have no fear, Max Cloud is here” before punching and kicking an array of easily defeated bad robots. He is portrayed by prolific British action star Scott Adkins, who is one of the best exponents of martial arts in cinema history. Not so here as the fight scenes are poorly choreographed and will likely damage the appeal of the star to those unfamiliar with his previous work. One can admire Adkins for wishing to test himself in the field of comedic spoofery but this is just awful lame stuff and only Lashana Lynch (eventually to be seen in the Bond movie No Time to Die) emerges from this mess with any semblance of credibility. As for John Hannah, what must have he been thinking of when he signed up for this nonsense, delivering a laughter-free pantomimic performance?
Max Cloud really can’t be recommended to even the most undemanding of sci-fi fans. If you were hoping that the CGI might have been a saving grace… well, don’t get us started. Director Martin Owen currently has two more films in post-production. Our breath is not bated.
Release Date: January 18th, 2021
