Watches
December 23, 2021
Fun little Russian sci-fi flick. The Calculator may not have had the biggest budget to splurge on its sci-fi elements, it tries to make the best of things by levering its impressive setting, combined with some flashy CG and nifty alien designs. The result is pretty standard genre fare that had no trouble keeping me engaged throughout.
On a faraway planet, people live under an oppressive totalitarian regime. Rather than kill its prisoners right away, they get exiled into the barren swamps surrounding the prison. The swamps are teeming with alien monsters and survival rates are slim, but the promise of a distant refuge for these prisoners keeps them going.
The performances aren't great (neither is a Russian-dubbed Vinnie Jones) and the plot is little more than an excuse for the characters to explore the swamp, but the aliens and their planet looks pretty nice and there's enough genre fun to fly through the film's short runtime. Sci-fi on a budget is never easy, but The Calculator gave it a commendable shot.