The Lee Pace factor
The main reason anyone stops scrolling when they see Revolt is Lee Pace. He has a history of elevating genre material, but here he’s trapped in a script that asks him to play "Confused Soldier #1" for the better part of ninety minutes. If your teen is a fan of his work in more polished sci-fi or fantasy, they might be tempted to give this a shot. Just warn them that his performance is mostly reactive. He spends a lot of time looking at alien wreckage with a furrowed brow, trying to piece together a plot that the audience has likely already figured out.
Berenice Marlohe, who you might recognize from the Bond franchise, is similarly sidelined. Their chemistry is functional but never sparks, mainly because the movie is too busy rushing them toward the next CGI encounter to let them actually talk.
A refreshing change of scenery
Most alien invasion movies treat the United States as the only place worth invading. Revolt earns a few points for taking the fight to Kenya. The sun-drenched, war-torn landscapes provide a visual texture you don't get in the usual "aliens in Manhattan" trope. The critics on Rotten Tomatoes likely gave it that 60% pass because it looks better than its budget suggests. It doesn't feel like it was shot on a backlot.
The aliens themselves look like a cross between District 9’s tech and a high-end PC gaming rig—lots of shifting plates and glowing bits. They’re formidable enough, but they lack the personality of the creatures in better films. If your kid is into mechanical design or VFX, there’s enough craft here to keep them engaged for a bit, even if the story is running on fumes.
The amnesia trap
The biggest friction point is the amnesia trope. It’s a lazy way to withhold information from the audience, and in Revolt, it just makes the first act feel repetitive. We’re stuck waiting for the protagonist to catch up to what we already know: the world ended, and the robots did it.
If your teen loved the tight, high-stakes mystery of something like 10 Cloverfield Lane, they are going to find the pacing here frustrating. There aren’t enough "reveals" to justify the memory loss. It’s essentially a "walking simulator" movie—characters trek across the countryside, get shot at, hide, and repeat.
Why the audience score is so low
That 36% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and the 2.4 on Letterboxd aren't just about the movie being "bad." They reflect a specific kind of disappointment. Sci-fi fans are usually a forgiving bunch if the ideas are big enough, but Revolt doesn't have a "big idea." It has a setting and a cast, but no soul.
It’s the cinematic equivalent of a cover band. It hits all the notes of a blockbuster—the explosions, the gritty combat, the "humanity must stand together" speeches—but it doesn't have its own melody. If you’re looking for something to have on a second screen while doing something else, it’s fine. But as a dedicated family movie night pick, it’s a misfire.
