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<body> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/JavaScript>  </SCRIPT> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" height="1%" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="99%">    <p>The future. A barren prison planet, somewhere in a remote galaxy.<p>A spacepod has landed, containing West (Daryl Boling), an as-of-yet unregistered convict, and Athena (Kathleen Kwan), the law enforcement android delivering him, who will be gone by the next spaceship - which only lands here once a month though.<p>The planet is a strange place, mostly it's just wasteland populated by dangerous mutants, but behind a forcefield, there is a small village in which the convicts move in relative freedom, but they are controlled by their <i>implants</i> at the back of their necks, which will severely punish them for every wrongdoing. It's a fact however that the prison guards lead a life just as rotten as the ones they are guarding, and they also carry implants, which are supposed to make their lives easier.<p>The implants tend to be faulty though, and they are mended by the <i>dispenser</i>, Babish (Jeffrey Plunkett), who does a rather lazy job though and is an alcoholic on top of that, so when it's found out that West also has dispenser skills, superior to Babish's even, Babish is cast out into the wasteland (to certain death) while West gets his job. When West mocks thrown out Babish, you get the first idea that he might have some sinister agenda.<p>Warden Galloway (Jef Betz) has a special task for West: There is a girl he loves, Maleyna (Diana Ferrante), but she detests him - so maybe, West could recalibrate her implant a little so she loves him back ... West agrees to do the dirty job, but demands time.<p>While he is supposed to work on the girl, West lures two more guys out into the wastelands to their certain doom, a less-than-intelligent guard (Greg Oliver Bodine), and Luther (Jason Howard), a fellow convict who actually was his friend. And it's revealed that Athena is not really West's guard but his ally, and furthermore she has fallen in love with him.<p>But why does West do all of this?<p>Babish, Luther and the guard all took part in the rape and killing of West's wife and the killing of West's daughter, and they left West for dead as well ... only West didn't die and got plastic surgery so the others recognize him no more. The ringleader of these guys though was (no surprise here) Galloway ... <p>Click here to open the <a href="javascript:openBrWindow('../movies/popup/solarvengeance(2008).htm','bildgross','width=610,height=500,top=150,left=150')"><b>Spoiler Pop-up</b></a>! <p>Benjamin Thomas gives a scene-stealing performance as the soft spoken and eloquent local marshal.<p> <p>Post doomsday science fiction meets Western mainstays in the best possible way in this low budget film. Basically the blend that has failed quite a few times in the past works quite as well here because director Andrew Bellware doesn't try too hard to create the perfect genre blender but concentrates on telling his story with its busload of twists and turns, doesn't really try to pay any direct hommage to either genre but on one hand concentrates on elements that could work in both (like the God-forsaken desert town and the whole vendetta plot), on the other just does what's best for his story.<p>The outcome is quite a fascinating and highly original, despite of all its futuristic trimmings archaic revenge tale (also think ancient Greek tragedies here), that's also helped by a very competent cast, atmospheric cinematography, and pretty impressive spartanic sets and locations.<p>Recommended, actually! <p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top" height="1%">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2011"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>