Following the death of his daughter, a war veteran calls on old friends for some specialized help.
Written by James Clarke, Sam Seeley, and Daniel Shepherd, with Clarke and Shepherd directing, this action film takes the revenge theme and brings in a few friends for extra firepower, giving the film that extra oomph of violence. Described as tense, dark, violent, intense, etc, this film is that indeed, but it’s also a bit too long. The tension and the violence work, the action scenes are well done, the dialogue works for the material, the writing in general works, but it feels long which usually means it could have used a few cuts here and there in the script, at time of filming from the direction, or at the time of editing. The film is good, it’s mostly solid, but some sequences and scenes linger just a bit too long and once you add enough of these together, the whole film starts feeling like it has pacing issues and like a good extra bit of editing could have tightened the whole thing up and make it really extra intense.
The cast here is led by Tip Cullen as Andy who turns in a quietly violent, angry father who is out for blood. His performance leads the film and dictates the mood. He takes his character, imbues him with sheer fatherly anger, and makes him human while making him seem inhumanely strong and violent. His portrayal also has the right amount of emotions to connect the character and his plight with the viewer. Joining him are Tom Leigh, Luke Solomon, Steven Blades, Will Bowden, Nicholas Clarke, and a few others, all giving decent performances, but all feeling a bit interchangeable. This is not a slight on their acting, but their characters are not memorable enough to really remember them a few days after seeing the film.
The work here is all framed and shot by cinematography by James Clarke and Daniel Shepherd who also edited. Something that may explained the pacing issues and the need for perhaps another pair of eyes on the editing. Writing, directing, filming, acting, and editing, that is a lot for anyone to handle and it would be difficult for anyone to not be too close to the material to make the needed cuts. That being said, the cinematography works and most of the editing works, it just needs a bit of adjustment on the pacing.
Sunray: Fallen Soldier is a satisfying revenge film with some pacing issues. The work overall is more than decent, creating a tense film with plenty of action and violence, exactly what this kind of revenge film needs. It is clear that it is a passion project for the directors/writers/actors/etc and it works for them. The rest of the cast is good but feels like they are less connected to material. Nonetheless, the film works well here.