The first feature length sojourn of Skybound, the group behind the universally successful Walking Dead comics, TV show and all subsequent run-offs, Air (featuring TWD's very own Norman Reedus) is an at first engaging and tense low budget Sci-fi that sadly descends down a rabbit hole of increasingly uninteresting and questionable scenarios.

First time director Christian Cantamessa (the man who wrote the fantastic video game Red Dead Redemption) certainly hasn't given himself an easy first feature to win out on with Air's plot almost exclusive focusing on the maintenance workers of Djimon Hounsou's Cartwright and Reedus's Bauer, who like his Daryl in TWD is still in need of a long overdue haircut.

Like any film that sets itself around a confined space and a confined cast, say like a Moon or Buried, Air has to fight to keep viewers' attention almost entirely through things not seen and engaging acting and while Hounsou and Reedus share some form of chemistry it's not enough to carry the film potentially ripe idea to levels that could've made Air a must see Sci-Fi yarn.

The central idea that Air basis's itself around of our air supply being tarnished by a range of natural of man-made causes with humankinds last hope a group of Noah's Ark like underground facilities with pods of long term sleeping humans is an interesting one and whilst familiar in many senses does seem somewhat fresh but Cantamessa and his co-writer Chris Pasetto can't wring enough out of their limited budget supply on top notch dialogue to take the idea to fresh places.

Small moments and a quality opening half make Air something more than a non-event but this is certainly a forgettable start of Skybound's foray into Hollywood movies. Cantamessa seems like a young filmmaker with some talent and it'd be great to see him go on with his efforts here while Reedus is lucky he has Daryl to fall back on and poor old Hounsou is still chasing a role of the same quality he found in Blood Diamond and In America.

2 ½ long past due haircuts out of 5

The government(s) create "Noah Ark Facilities" in order to survive the "tyranny" as hybrid nuclear and chemical weapons destroy life on earth. Two people are tasked with waking up every six months and perform checks, then go back to sleep. Bauer (Norman Reedus) likes porn and masturbation. Cartwright (Djimon Hounsou) imagines and talks to his wife (Sandrine Holt). Cartwright's sleeper unit becomes damaged which sets the plot in motion as our two try to find a fix.

Oh yes, if you come out of the "high tech coffin" unit too fast, the oxygen transition can effect the brain.

This is a slow paced two man (and one imagined woman) drama with a sci-fi background. It is a character study. The scant details of what happened comes about 20 minutes into the movie. A twist? Sure. The main problem is that we see the same two guys. Eventually I came to dislike Bauer and pity Cartwright, finding myself rooting for someone who may be a touch mentally ill.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

AIR is a generally dull indie two-hander for two popular actors, Norman Reedus of THE WALKING DEAD fame and GLADIATOR star Djimon Hounsou. They play two engineers in a futuristic landscape (glimpsed via some disappointing CGI vistas) where toxic air has killed off most of the population. Their job consists of them doing little more than tending to various instruments, but before long their isolation and claustrophobia sees them falling out. A film like this lives or dies depending on the script, but this one offers little suspense and a whole lot of lazy character-building. Reedus and Hounsou are as good as ever; the rest is a mess.