Cosmic Sin

NOW ON NETFLIX! Bruce Willis and his band of space soldiers take on a horde of aliens in Edward Drake’s sci-fi feature, Cosmic Sin. But are the aliens the aggressors, or is it us?

Cosmic Sin begins in the not-so-distant future when humanity has successfully colonized the planet Mars. Centuries later, this new society fails, and a civil war erupts between fractured colonies: Earth, Zafdie, and Ellora. As Zafdie attempts to secede in the union, they are decimated by the dreaded Q-Bomb (think portable space nuke) deployed by the man known as “Blood General” James Ford (Bruce Willis), who has been disgraced.

As Mars colonies are in a state of disarray, a lone mining outpost is visited by aliens making first contact. Alone in the middle of the night, fear takes over, and a miner apparently fired first on the extraterrestrials. This causes alarm as it is unknown whether or not the alien’s arrival was a mission of peace or war.

When the miners return to Earth, a bloody battle occurs as the aliens take over the miners’ bodies and execute a sneak attack. In response, Earth’s elite soldiers are sent to Mars to confront the aliens, with Q-Bomb in hand — just in case. The team is led by General Ryle (Frank Grillo), who reluctantly must team up with James Ford for this certainly deadly mission.

“…a lone mining outpost is visited by aliens making first contact.”

I’ve had the opportunity recently to review several of Bruce Willis’ final films he made just before announcing his retirement. Director Edward Drake has helmed many of them, yet Cosmic Sin is his first tale in outer space and stands out from his other titles featuring Willis. The film runs less than 90 minutes yet manages to quickly build an entire futuristic/apocalyptic world that I was able to understand and jump right into from the get-go.

Also, unlike his recent run of action/thrillers, Cosmic Sin is effects-heavy with space jumps, space battles, and a good blend of actual alien costumes and possessed-alien/zombie make-up for our heroes. Of course, there’s an abundance of gunplay (real and laser), which is trademark Drake action. I also have to call out the ridiculous spacesuits that only Willis and Grillo can make look cool.

Regarding Willis and Grillo, it’s no secret that getting big names for a “small” indie film like this means you have a limited number of days with the actors. Thankfully, both have meaty roles and take up a great deal of screen time. Though they don’t have a lot of screentime together, they are spread throughout the film giving it the right balance of star power. Backing them up is an impressive cast, including Eva De Dominici, C.J. Perry (WWE’s Lana), Perrey Reeves, and Costas Mandylor, to name a few.

Cosmic Sin is much more a roller-coaster adventure than a thought-provoking sci-fi essay. Nevertheless, there is a theme that runs through the film that makes one wonder as we begin to explore the final frontier. In the eyes of the alien life, are we humans the aggressors, the invaders, the colonizers?

Not burdened by lore or fanatical franchise fan expectations, Cosmic Sin delivers a fun film with some exciting action and sci-fi for fans in need of a good time. It’s got big names while not burdened with big Hollywood expectations.

Cosmic Sin is available now on Netflix.