As they are sent to rescue a VIP on a remote island, a group of an elite security team find themselves fighting for their own survival.
Written by Sean-Michael Argo, Philippe Martinez, and Leigh Scott, and directed by Martinez, Black Noise is an action sci-fi film that just doesn’t land. It’s hard to define this clearly, but the film has a story and characters, none of which the viewer will likely care about. The set-up doesn’t bring much to the table, leaving the characters to be clichés and generalizations within a movie that has stakes which don’t feel like they are that important to anyone involved. The film somehow feels like it doesn’t care about itself, it’s one of those movies that exists and is done with the utmost last of interest from anyone involved from what can be seen on the screen. This led to this viewer checking out early and just not caring about the writing, the characters, or the direction of the film. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is. The film comes off as something where everyone involved got the work done for the sake of their paychecks but not much more.
The cast here is, ok? Maybe? They do what they can with the story and characters they are given in most cases, but none of them seem all that interested in their respective parts. The worst of the bunch may very be Alex Pettyfer, who gets top billing and central placement on the poster but gets not a whole lot of screen time and even less lines or interesting things to do. His part feels like a throwaway part, so he can’t really be blamed for obviously not being into it. His performance here is the definition of phoning it in, much like the majority of the cast to be honest. A few hours after watching the film, it was difficult to remember which character was which, who played who, and who was worth checking out here. The cast seems uninterested, and it makes it hard to remember who did what and if they looked like they cared about the movie at all.
The film does look mostly good though, so there is that. The cinematography by Mike Mahon is actually pretty good, giving the film decent visuals to work with, which is almost too bad considering this is one the rare positives of this film. The work here is far above the rest of the film, but it’s still not exactly postcard worthy. Nonetheless, this is the best bit of the film, the cinematography, so it is worth mentioning.
Overall, Black Noise feels like a film where no one involved (with the exception of the cinematographer) cared much to make or to be there for. The locations are stunning, so you’d think it would bring something out of the cast beyond boredom and bland performances. Sadly, the script and direction may be to blame just as much as the cast here, so the blame can be evenly split between the parties involved. Black Noise is one of those films that feels like it’s not worth putting on even as background noise while doing something else. Much better action sci-fi films are out there for the public to watch and enjoy, let’s not waste any more time on this one.