Raven Banner Film Review - SuperGrid

Deke Campbell (Marshall Williams) is on a bad loosing streak. His estranged brother Jesse (Leo Fafard) the best smuggler wheelman has retired. His last mission went sideways resulting in a tragic personal loss plus a failure to deliver. On top of everything else, he might be in the early stages of the terminal disease that has wiped out a good chunk of the population. As he is trying to lay low Lazio (Jonathan Cherry) the aggrieved party of the recent botched run turns up forcing Deke back out onto the traitorous SuperGrid for one final mission. Seeing the desperation of his younger brother and wanting to test out a homemade secretly powered vehicle Jesse agrees to come out of retirement to drive. The brothers are not told their cargo get access to the Grid through the local ruling mining conglomerate Sino-Gasam and head out onto the highway North through the Dakota's towards the Canadian border to pick up their cargo.

Director Lowell Dean underpinned by a script by Justin Ludwig and T.R. McCauley jump into the dystopian future road film genre falling in step with George Miller, Neill Blomkamp and Paul Verhoeven visions of the past. The projects hits all of the request buttons. A deadly virus, here an airborne microbial pneumoconiosis named The Black Lung. The have's work for the ruling entity in this case mining conglomerates the local one being Sino-Gasam. The have-nots are outside the protective bubble in a lawless space portrayed as an unruly lot that would just as easily kill you as look at you. There's even cheery P.S.A.'s from the ruling corporation winding up fear in between wishes of have a nice day.

The trip up and down the grid is an ideal setting for action and violence. Our heroes make a pit stop at Deke's crush Eagle's (Tinsel Korey) community as she works frantically to keep her indigenous flock healthy despite dwindling supplies. The brothers run into several Jackal Tribes along the journey. The pair has back up supplied by Jessie's ex-wife North (Natalie Krill) and her techie partner Owl (Daniel Maslany). The smugglers locate the cargo but upon securing it find themselves with even bigger problems than they had before.

Several familiar faces from  Dean's Wolfcop franchise are back in this new setting. Leo Farfad is the protective brother to Deke as Jesse. Jonathan Cherry barks out threats and demands results as villain Lazio. Amy Matysio turns outlaw as fixer mechanic Spanner. Look for former WWE Superstar Christian billed under his real name Jay Reso as Jackal head border guard Kurtis. Dean shot the piece in his native Saskatchewan and the local presence and familiarity with two fellow natives Farfad and Matysio were helpful on a tight shoot. The production also gave the piece a different look employing a drone to shoot key scenes out on the grid. The vantage was effective especially in a pivotal scene when the brothers first move in on their cargo.

SuperGrid is a sci-fi action film with a strong message mixed between the high-speed antics, explosions, and standoffs. It's often the outsiders, lesser thans and cast offs that do the right thing at the big moment. The conglomerates, corporations, and politicians are caught up in their machines too slow or unwilling to change a system that's working for them. It's the others that are willing to disrupt the status quo often resulting in change that benefits many.

*** Out of 4.

SuperGrid | Lowell Dean | Canada | 2018 | 80 Minutes.

Tags: Virus, Water, P.S.A., Smuggling, border, Vials, Briefcase, Bullet Resistant, Fuel Cell, Sniper, OverWatch, Drone.