The trend of teen-based sci-fi films seems to be circling back this year, first with ‘Chaos Walking’, and now with ‘Ascendant’, the part-fantasy, part-thriller film from Antaine Furlong.
However, while these films, popularised among the likes of ‘Divergent’, and ‘Ender’s Game’, often set us up in new and futuristic worlds, ‘Ascendant’ sets us up instead in an elevator.
You read right – teenager Aria Wolf, portrayed spectacularly by Summer Bay export Charlotte Best, wakes up in an elevator, blindfolded and bound. She is given snippets of understanding through a screen on one of the walls, through which she watches Russian villains torment her dad for the location of ‘the engineer’ – a concept completely unheard of for Aria, who believes herself to be a member of a normal family.
For a movie set inside a literal box, ‘Ascendant’ proves itself to be a gripping film for the most part, especially in scenes where Best must climb between the building beams of the 120-storey elevator shaft she is stuck in.
However, it falls victim to a common issue within the genre – it has been written and filmed with the expectation of a sequel.
It unfortunately leaves a lot unexplained.
See this movie at Hoyts Penrith.
Erin Christie
Erin Christie is the Weekender's entertainment and community news journalist. She has worked with Are Media, Good Reading Magazine and a host of other publications.