“Kin,” an action-filled-Fi thriller, arrived into theatres Aug. 31 full of family drama, crime and guns.
“Kin” opens with a few shots of an abandoned building and bursts of alien light. No beings are shown, but the audience does get a good view of an explosion that blows through the walls of the building, opening it up even more to the outside world.
A few shots later, and the audience meets Eli Solinski (Myles Truitt). He is a young, 14-year-old boy who has just been suspended from school for punching a fellow student. He rides his bike all over Detroit, collecting scraps and salvaging to save up for new shoes, and overall feels like he doesn’t belong where he is.
The audience also learns that Eli has been adopted by father Hal (Dennis Quaid). The two tend to make ends meet and work together to make a life for themselves after Eli’s adopted mother’s passing. They have gotten used to life without the mom in the picture and have developed a routine, but that soon gets interrupted as Eli’s adopted brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor) is released after a six-year sentence in jail.
After a tense family dinner, Jimmy ventures out to try to reason with Taylor (James Franco), a man who had protected Jimmy throughout his jail time for a mere $60,000. Jimmy tries to tell Taylor that he will have the money, he just doesn’t have it now, which angers Taylor who expected to be repaid as soon as Jimmy was released. All the while, Eli ventures into the abandoned building from the beginning, after having nightmares of a previous visit salvaging, and obtains an alien gun.
As Jimmy attempts to pay Taylor back, tragedy strikes the Solinski family, and Jimmy convinces Eli to a road trip to a cottage where the whole family would vacation to back when everything was much simpler. Jimmy does this to hide the crimes committed and to run from Taylor and his men. But, unknown to the two brothers, Cleaners, the aliens of “Kin” are hunting them down for the gun Eli found in that abandoned building.
The sci-fi element in “Kin” revolves around a special ray gun that seemingly can only be used by Eli (Myles Truitt). @IMDB
Along the way, they meet Milly (Zoe Kravitz), a dancer who becomes a big sister to Eli, and they all get into more trouble than they can handle.
“Kin” was based on the short film titled “Bag Man” (which can be found on the internet) and was directed by brother-duo Jonathan and Josh Baker (both also directed the short film).
Like in the short film, the sci-fi element is highlighted by the alien gun. It has the power to shoot, taze and obliterate depending on which setting the user sets the gun. The special effects relating to the gun were even well done and credible enough.
The special effects relating to the Cleaners were also clean and believable. Though none of the ideas were particularly novel, the way they were used was exciting and cool to watch. “Kin” was also a nice divergence from many of the movies that come out nowadays that are crammed with effects. “Kin” didn’t suffocate the audience with an overkill of unnecessary effects.
Another element of “Kin” that was enjoyable was the relationship between adopted brothers Eli and Jimmy. Though the brothers are of different color, it never really seemed like that was an issue to them: only to others surrounding them. The relationship started rocky, but as the movie went on, the audience could really see the care and love the brothers cultivated as they shared experiences while traveling across the country.
Sadly, one element made the movie slightly unenjoyable: the pace. At times, it took nothing to be enthralled with what was happening in the movie. However, there were other moments where scenes dragged on and made it only too easy to zone out or not even care for what was going on.
It was the ending of the movie that really made “Kin” a good watch. The sci-fi twist wasn’t expected and makes wishing for a sequel even plausible.
Overall, “Kin” was a decent movie as long as the movie-watcher has an interest in Sci-Fi, action and a lot of crime thrown into their stories. This isn’t a movie for everyone, especially not for children due to the extent of crime and violence, but it is worth a watch.
Rating: 3.5 paws out of 5.
