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Ambitious might be the least of the reasons to describe Wesley Clark. He has assumed full control of the only feature listed on his IMDB account, Sirona, by directing, writing, and acting in it, which makes it his first and only credit. What makes his claim to fame even more bizarre is that he attempted to make an X-Men-style movie using a budget that was far less than a blockbuster. If you know anything about movies, then you know that this is one of the classic examples of “what not to do”.
Valkyrie, a government black site, is where Sirona (Ashlynn Hideman, Deadly Promises, My Amish World) and her brother are currently held captive and are trying to escape from. But her and her brother’s absence is being actively noticed and searched for by armed men. As part of her brother’s managing to escape, he utilizes a strange yet powerful energy to kill those men chasing them. Just as Sirona is making her escape, the men surrounding her brother succeed in overpowering him.
She manages to escape this time at least, and a team of mercenaries set out on a mission to capture her. This team consists of Allan (Jeremy Calcote, Draco Ortus, Curse Of The Black Lagoon), Jason (Ben Johnson, Jurassic Thunder, The Jurassic Dead), Julie (Sarah Klaren, Alarmed, Invocation) and Tuck (Wesley Clark). The team has some issues of their own most of these revolve around Julie, their new Tracker who replaced Jason’s brother who met an unfortunate end.
If it wasn’t blatantly obvious, guess one of the experiments done in the facility was human hybrids, which meant Sirona and her brother were experiments too. In case that is still not clear, she explains everything in detail to Calvin (Rafael Velasquez, Fettered, Art of War) whose cabin she seeks shelter in.
Sirona’s spending strategy hints that she will depend much more on dialogue than action sequences, which she is also bound to have. And this applies to any film based on superhumans. If you have ever watched superhero films made for television from the eighty’s or seventy’s, you get what I mean. It is only those films which involve super-powered mutants that are presumed to cost nine figures.
Luckily, Clark doesn’t have the faintest idea to try and match the film effects of those movies using low-budget CGI or trying to create an action movie with no action. Sirona uses the effects in moderation as the ethics and morality of the situation are more important, and logically so. It’s something that was indeed featured in most MCU films but only as part of the groundwork reasoning for all the action parts.
Sadly, Clark is clearly overestimating his skills by taking on so many different tasks so early in his career. One of the film’s biggest issues is the dialogue, which often feels stiff and overly direct. Making matters worse, some of the performances feel as if the actors spoke the lines and were added to the film later through dubbing. I would argue, for the sake of the some of the plot, this is how some of the performers tried to sound like emotionless professional killers. A good portion of the plot involves them being far too emotional which makes the comfort of others awkward.
Eventually Morrow (Shale Le Page, Monster Force Zero, Tsunambee), the boss of the squad, appears and orders for Sirona to be killed, bringing the film back to action for the last half hour. And considering what they had to work with, it does a fairly good job of it, Even if it does contain some of the worst shots this side of a Star Wars film.
For a first film, Sirona’s seems to be acceptable but it does not achieve what it set out to do. There was far too much working that went into the dialogue, and the film did not explore many of the issues it presented. The last parts feel as though a sequel could go within that framework. If there is one, I really hope it is accompanied by a more competent script.
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