When she finds an Easter Egg in her favorite video game, a girl is sucked into the game and gets to have an adventure in the skin of one of her favorite characters along with the adventurous Max Cloud.
Written by Sally Collett and Martin Owen with Owen directing, Max Cloud is a space action adventure that is meant for the family, but built to be fun for all ages. The characters are charming in general and give the film a tone that is not too serious and the action is written and directed in a manner that is fun to watch. Yes, it’s a kids’ film, so of course so things are not welcomed on the screen and the action could have felt limited by this, but it never does. The film does the most with the premise it has while keeping it kid friendly.
The fun here really comes in watching Scott Adkins kick butts while keeping it PG, which his fans may not expect at this point. His work here is fun and shows a new side of him. The lead in the film is however not him, with the side character of Jake played by Elliot James Langridge who is taken over by the player and has to figure out how to make it work. His work here does indeed make it work by finding the balance between the character of Jake and the player taking him over. His work is a good reason in and of itself to watch the movie. He’s the central character to the story by way of the girl taking it over. Completing this character is that of Sarah played by Isabelle Allen who also serves as a narrator in some scenes to give context. She does this well and allows her character to feel like a teen girl and not just another random character used a way to get where the film needs to go. She does offer some of the film’s exposure here and she does so in a manner that works.
Max Cloud is a kids’ film, but it’s a fun one for adults as well. It works in that it doesn’t play to the youngest members of its target audience and it also doesn’t assume everyone will understand everything. It also doesn’t over-explain its story and action, so it works in that it becomes a film the whole family can enjoy. Fans of Scott Adkins will be surprised to see him in this kind of fair, but he gets to kick some butts here and does so in his usual entertaining way.