Friday evening after work and I fancy watching an uncomplicated but entertaining film on Netflix, and Stasis looked promising. The thumbnail had a Mad Max vibe, and I like a good post-apocalyptic sci fi. After watching films like i-Boy and Other Life on Netflix I went into this film positively - there are plenty of good low-budget independent sci fi films out there. This isn't one of them. The warning signs that very little care has been put into this film are there right from the opening shots. It's a desolate landscape ravaged by nuclear war, yet there is traffic driving down the road in the background. The premise is interesting, if not overly original. A group of rebels travel back in time to try and prevent a war. I'm not entirely sure what they're rebelling against. They look to be a group of generically evil blokes wearing uniforms that look like they've come from '60s era Star Trek or Doctor Who (by the way, post-apocalyptic landscape yet there's some kind of shiny base inhabited by uniformed blokes that seem to constitute some kind of government - they're evil because they say evil things, but we have no idea what they do that's bad). We're soon lifted from the future and plunked back into contemporary society to a feud between a mother and a daughter (we don't know why). The daughter is rebellious because she is moody and wears emo makeup. The rest of the film is mostly dull asides from anything. I don't particularly mind the unoriginal plot (let's face it, Mad Max: Fury Road is mostly just a car chase - that doesn't stop it from being amazing) providing it's well-scripted, acted, directed, edited, produced, etc. It's none of these things. It's a film that feels like a live-action remake of an '80s anime (not least because that bloke that voices all the wise/old men in English anime dubs plays the evil guy). You get lines like, 'send in the hunter' followed immediately by a shot of the hunter working out before being sent back in time to pursue the protagonists. The acting is about as wooden as your average English anime dub. The main weapon we're supposed be scared of is some kind of grenade that the hunter pursuing the protagonists skims along the floor, landing at the good guys' feet and waiting a few seconds before 'exploding' ('exploding' because the special effects in this film are Birdemic quality, but less funny). Of course, none of the good guys react to this grenade by, you know, running or chucking it back: they just stand there, though some of the braver ones shoot back with aim that would make Stormtroopers weep. The musical score is poor. It goes from knock-off Vangelis-style atmospheric synth stuff to pseudo-orchestral in a flash. One of the many composers (seriously, there are hundreds according to the credits) has 'no formal musical training'. It shows. The thing that really gets on my nerves about films like this is that you can go down to a regional theatre pretty much anywhere in the world and see a semi-professional play performed by talented actors desperate to get an opportunity to appear in film. There are talented composers busting a gut to get a commission for something like this. The same goes for costume designers, producers, editors, whatever. In my personal case, it's writing. I write for a living and would love to have one of my screenplays optioned. When I see films with writing as bad as this I wonder, 'what am I doing wrong that Nicole Jones-Dion isn't?' How did she managed to persuade people to give her money to make a film like this? Given that there are a lot of extremely talented creative professionals out there looking to make the transition from local work to larger projects like this released on platforms like Netflix it is astounding that they manage to make something as bad as this. There's really nothing positive to say about Stasis. I should have just watched Mad Max.

This was perhaps the worst movie I've ever seen. If some algorithm suggests this movie to you, and you're not on the MST3K payroll, never trust that algorithm again.

It takes a lot to make a bad movie for me. I might be one of the most generous critics when it comes to movies because I prefer giving a movie a full review vs what they did wrong or lacked. That being said this is a watch at your own risk movie because the acting is terrible. However, (at least for me), a strong story will keep me plowing through most movies and the story definitely saved this for me. The 7* grade I gave this is purely for the original concept and interesting (yet simple) story that was told. The film also did not reach over it's budget with terrible CGI which also can be a big turn off for me. If this was done as a novel I think most of the bad reviews would not be here. If you're someone that can get past the acting in movies this is defiantly worth a chance.

I watched the entire movie, even though I knew it wasn't going to get any better after the first 10 minutes. The acting was horrible. The storyline was good...but as another person said...poorly executed. I would have fewer actors that are BETTER actors than spreading the talent so thin. (if possible)