THE COLONY is a mid-budget Canadian post-apocalypse action movie about survivors struggling to make it in a world that has entered a new Ice Age. There are shades of THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW in the scenes of characters trekking through an Arctic tundra in search of fellow man, but overall this turns out to be a straight rip-off of THE THING mixed with bits from ALIENS.

The opening of the film sees survivors huddling in a freezing base and dying off thanks to a deadly flu (a sub-plot that turns out to be rather extraneous). When they lose contact with a fellow colony, a trio of men decide to make a trip to find out what's happened, only to run afoul of a mortal enemy. The film features a good role for Laurence Fishburne, who gets to play a likable character for a chance, and a chance for Kevin Zegers, of FROZEN fame, to shine as the youthful lead. Bill Paxton also appears but is somewhat underutilised until the climax.

THE COLONY features endless CGI landscapes and the like, which didn't impress me too much, and average direction. I was disappointed that the villains turn out to be simple cannibal types who aren't very scary at all, and the chief villain is almost identical to an incidental bad guy in GAME OF THRONES. Still, the film does boast a fast pace and plenty of action, so it's an easy enough watch.

In the near future, environmental damage and failed weather control has left the world in a runaway ice age. Humanity survives in a few underground colonies. Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) leads Colony 7. Mason (Bill Paxton) is his ruthless second in command. With medicine in short supply, even a minor cold is treated like the plague. Sam (Kevin Zegers) brings his concerns about Mason to Briggs. Kai (Charlotte Sullivan) maintains the seed collection. Suddenly, they receive an SOS from Colony 5. Briggs, Sam, and young Graydon go on a rescue mission. They find 5 deserted. A survivor shows them a transmission from a working recommissioned weather machine but soon they come under attack from cannibalistic survivors.

This works fine as a cable TV movie. As a theatrical release, it lacks anything original or outstanding to remove it from being derivative. The CGI is noticeably inferior. The actors are fine with some top talents. The setting is either industrial interiors or a snowy stage. While there is competent work, it never rises above its B-movie status.

In the future, after the global warming, Earth is covered by ice and snow in an Ice Age and the survivors live in facilities underground named Colonies.

When people from Colony 5 release a distress signal, the leader of Colony 7 Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) organizes an expedition with Sam (Kevin Zegers) and Graydon (Atticus Mitchell) to investigate what has happened to their acquaintances. Briggs leaves the scientist Kai (Charlotte Sullivan) in charge of the group, disappointing his former friend Mason (Bill Paxton) that expected to be assigned to the position.

They walk for two days to reach the facility where fifty persons live and they find only one survivor that is scared to death locked in a room. Soon they learn that a savage group of cannibals have slaughtered the colonists. Briggs and Sam manage to escape but the group hunts them down. Briggs sacrifices his life to blow up a bridge and slow down the group while Sam heads to Colony 7. When Sam arrives, Mason has taken the power and cuffs him, and does not believe on his words. Soon the cannibals arrive and the group has to fight to survive.

"The Colony" is a sci-fi combined with action with a dark view of the future of mankind. The gloomy story is pessimist and realist and concludes giving an uncertain hope to the survivors. If you like this theme, do not pay attention to the bad reviews and give a chance to this movie that you may have a nice surprise. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Colônia" ("The Colony")