**Film Review: Drone Wars (2016)**
**Star Rating: ★★☆☆☆**
"Drone Wars" is a 2016 action sci-fi disaster film directed by Jack Perez, starring Corin Nemec, Whitney Moore, and Nathin Art Butler. It attempts to blend elements of alien invasion and post-apocalyptic survival, but the execution falls short of its ambitious premise.
**Plot and Setting:**
The movie begins with a sudden alien invasion that leaves Earth devastated. Alien ships hover ominously in the sky, extracting resources and deploying drones to patrol and eliminate any remaining human threats. A small group of scientists in Los Angeles becomes humanity's last hope to defeat the drones and take down the motherships.
**Strengths:**
- **Concept:** The idea of drones patrolling a post-apocalyptic world offers an intriguing twist on the classic alien invasion narrative. The film explores themes of survival and resistance in a ruined urban landscape, providing a backdrop ripe for tension and drama.
- **Action Sequences:** Some of the action scenes are engaging, with shootouts and chases that occasionally manage to capture a sense of urgency and desperation. These moments offer brief glimpses of what the film could have been with a more substantial budget and tighter direction.
**Weaknesses:**
- **Special Effects:** The special effects are a significant drawback. The CGI drones and alien ships often look unconvincing, undermining the sense of threat they are supposed to convey. This lack of visual polish detracts from the immersion, making it hard to take the film seriously.
- **Character Development:** The characters are poorly developed, with clichéd backstories and motivations. Corin Nemec, Whitney Moore, and Nathin Art Butler do their best with the material given, but their performances are hampered by a lackluster script. The emotional stakes never feel particularly high, as the characters fail to elicit much empathy.
- **Dialogue and Script:** The dialogue is often clunky and filled with exposition,