Synopsis: In Echelon Conspiracy, text messages from a mysterious sender lead to the uncovering of a massive technological conspiracy.
Release Date: February 27, 2009 MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Action, Thriller
Film Review
Production
Echelon Conspiracy is just another go at the man vs. his own creation storyline; the poor man’s Skynet comes to mind. It lacks any sort of new excitement, unless you consider mysterious text messages exciting and fresh. You are purely given a tired story that would fare better on the small screen, as a movie of the week, then in a theater.
The one redeeming feature of the film is the occasional score that accompanies the scenes. It may not add to the action as it should but it is nevertheless beautiful and thought provoking and even romantic at times. A mix of an orchestra and piano fill the air and are enjoyable if you ignore what is on screen and simply listen to the music.
Directing
As Echelon Conspiracy begins you are given a wealth of information, that you cannot see the point in. It is a jumble of locations, messages, and characters whom all seem to have a point in the story but remain so poorly developed one has to wonder if any direction is even present. It is not until midway through Echelon Conspiracy that you start to see the actual plot develop and by then you are so lost in confusion as to what this film is trying to do you could care less about the conspiracy and merely wish it was over so you could move on with your day.
Simply stated…Echelon Conspiracy is bland. Aside from the forgettable car chase you get sporadic moments of action that are paced incredibly slow and instead of gripping the viewer they do the opposite – you lose your concentration on the film and start thinking of anything else.
Cast and Crew
- Director(s): Greg Marcks
- Cast: Shane West (Max Peterson), Edward Burns (John Reed), Ving Rhames (Agent Dave Grant), Yuriy Kutsenko (Russian General), Sergeet Gubanov (Yuri Malanin), Martin Sheen (Raymond Burke), Tamara Feldman (Kamila)
- Country Of Origin: USA
