Sector 7 (Korean)

Set on a maritime oil rig, the film follows female protagonist Hard Ass (no, we’re not kidding), as she flounces, bike races and rebels against her rig captain for a tedious, extraneous half hour, only to watch her generic crew mates get eviscerated and mauled in the remaining screen time, by the least intimidating alien known to man. We mean, the poor critter starts out as a miniature, glowing jellyfish, and, thanks to human scientific intervention, morphs into a gigantic, goo-ey looking hound with no eyes and bad psychomotor skills.

The script is weak, the plot meandering and the characters caricatures of the genre stereotypes. While that’s not normally something we’d judge a movie of this particular genre by, the film relegates the ‘sic’ aspect of the sci-fi genre to the backburner, constantly and infuriatingly contradicting any form of logic that it sets up. Add to that the relatively PG-rated level of gore and violence and what we have remaining is a joyless ride that doesn’t even conform to the standards of its own logic.

On the bright side though, Sector 7 has helped us to isolate the elements that make up a failed sci-fi hour movie: agonisingly slow setup, an unscary monster, and characters that you just don`t care about.

SUMMARY: Put a quarantine on Sector 7, and give this oil rig a wide berth.

RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

Raphael Lim