A mere 482 years after colonising space (according to a confusing pre-credits info-dump), humanity is about to make first contact. Regrettably, considering the wait, these alien lifeforms aren’t particularly interested in being our friends, and would rather turn us into twitchy, acid-spitting space zombies instead. Not cool. For reasons the film struggles to ever fully articulate, the only two people equipped to deal with this new menace are Frank Grillo and Bruce Willis, and so the action heroes are dispatched alongside a squadron of assorted military minds 13368 light-years across the galaxy… to some dreary-looking woods up the road.
Cosmic Sin is an ambitious movie, always commendably stretching its clearly minuscule budget to breaking point. It’s unfortunate then that the biggest burden on the production’s finances is also the final product’s biggest handicap – its near-redundant star duo. Bruce Willis delivers a frankly shameful performance here, sleepwalking his way through his scenes, refusing to emote to the point where it’s sometimes hard not to question whether he actually knew the cameras were rolling. When he does muster the strength, line deliveries are depressingly fractured and flat, and can surely only have been recorded in a single take. (This is a far cry from Bruce in Die Hard, rather Bruce refusing to try harder.) Equally baffling is his minimal screen time – though Willis’s “Blood General” James Ford is projected as one of the film’s chief protagonists, he’s barely actually in it. A blessing for anybody who ever spent any time defending Hudson Hawk and is now watching through gritted teeth, but a curse for any narrative coherence. The same can largely be said of Grillo – while his performance is consistent with previous roles, there’s precious little for him to do either. The presence of Willis and Grillo no doubt helped get the film made and will increase its desirability in a crowded market, but once Cosmic Sin makes first contact with its audience, fans of either are likely to be just as hostile as those acid-spitting aliens.
On the plus side, a smattering of horror elements liven things up, there’s some impressive digital effects work (one space-based action sequence, in particular, is indistinguishable from bigger budget Hollywood fare), and the world-building efforts are admirable. There’s also strong performances from some of the key players (i.e. anyone not answering to Bruce and/or Frank), particularly Once Upon a Time’s Adelaide Kane. Ultimately, though, this is one Sin even Pope Francis would struggle to pardon.
