Eric Scott (Scot Cooper) and best friend Jason White (Shane Wellington) are working on a new first person shooter game, in their spare time. Game programmers by night, and by day they work for Jason’s father at a large intelligence corporation Sky Corp.
Planning their game launch party in an abandoned building, Eric stumbles upon a dormant AI mainframe. In a bid to save the system from being destroyed when the building is torn down in a few days, he secretly transfers all the programs code to Sky Corps. mainframe, where it begins to show its true colours, and begins attacking the system, putting all the company’s top secret data at risk.
Now, Eric and Jason must find a way to fix what they have done, and save the day.
Reconnect is billed as showcasing South Africa’s filmmaking abilities and special effects, but sadly it may just do more harm than good. Thankfully, South Africans have proved their works on the big international shoots that take place here all the time.
The dialogue, acting and interaction between the characters is cringe-worthy at best, while at other points, feel like these are actors in a beginner workshop, being presented with a script for the first time.
Factually, the technical aspect, of a story about hacking and computers, is lacking, with several inaccuracies, and many parts just not explained at all.
The showcased special effects feel flimsy too, with the final showdown of the programs (XJ-1 and the mutated virus) belting it out on a 3D screen, with cannons and fists.
Not forgetting that it feels like the story has borrowed ideas and dialogue from the greats of sci-fi / computer movies, there is just no substance to the story at all.
The story, characters, dialogue, basically everything, are just not worth the time and effort of watching this. If you enjoy making fun of things, wait until the film appears on TV, and get together with some mates for a silly time. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Reconnect infects South African cinema screens with its virus 16 October 2015
