It's thousands of years from now, and "god" has since been banished from earth, as apparently too many wars were fought over him, and with him all those who believed in any of the gods were sent to the moon (by now barely habitable) - any of the gods as no two religions hold the same god in high regard ... and that's what caused everything in the first place. Since then, earth has still become a dead planet, as the wars raged on with or without god, and the most positive thing to say is without god the humans were just more honest to another what they were fighting for.

People on the moon aren't doing any better mind you, on there they fight for water but disguise it as a religious war. One of the last battalions from earth for some reconnaissance mission or something is shot down over lunar skies - as from both sides it's always better to leap into confrontation than to find common ground, but Seargant Machine's (Mei Malancon) shuttle is shot down and only she and four of her soldiers - Lang (Sonequa Martin-Green), Kim (Rich Ceraulo), hot-headed newby Schorr (Alexander Cendese) and mercenary Dalton (Bill Sage) survive the attack pretty much unscathed. But now they're on the moon, with limited supplies, limited oxygen, and not really sure when and if they'll be saved.

Seargent Machine tries to push them on no matter what, and when newby Shorr disobeys her and is killed in a drone attack, that seems to tighten her grip ... but when she's killed in the next drone attack, and the survivors find out things about moon that might change EVERYTHING - well, not even they are too happy about that ...

On the surface, Shockwave Darkside plays exactly like a low budget soap opera - which it is of course, and the digital effects, while great in design, might not be all that convincing, and even the retro-spacesuits might not appeal to all (though I find them fabulous) ... but that's really a bit besides the point here because the movie (some scientific facts aside) manages to create an utterly convincing world here, putting our own world just a few worlds into the future to mirror where religious and economic wars might lead us to, what they will make us into - which is something few much higher profile science fictions have been trying to do in decades. Buit despite the excellent screenplay one mustn't forget the directorial effort that really made the most of it's limited sets - appropriately limited, as they perfectly limited the characters desperation in their sheer monotony. Plus, the actors all really got their roles to make this one a very compelling and rather unusual and intelligent piece of genre cinema!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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