Mindstorm Reviews

Despite overlong prologue and predictable plot twists, this reasonably proficient sci-fi odyssey delivers sufficient thrills to make it worth watching for genre fans. Rayanna (Sarah Carter), the daughter of presidential candidate Bill Armitage (Michael Ironside), vanishes, but the Senator — whose got a closetful of secrets, including sponsorship of a failed NSA brainwashing project — decides an official search might compromise his campaign. Aware that psychic Tracy Wellman (Emmanuelle Vaugier) assists FBI agents in finding missing persons, Armitage requests her services. Tracy has blocked the painful memories of her own participation in Armitage's Mindstorm project, which kidnapped gifted children and exploited them as secret military weapons. To finance his personal ambitions, Armitage eventually sold out the project to the Russians, who stormed the training compound and killed most of the youngsters. Tracy also doesn't realize that her brother survived the assault, and has no idea that as an embittered adult he assumed the name David Menendez (Eric Roberts) and formed an anti-government religious sect. Rayanna Armitage, who despises her ruthless father, has been seduced by David and joined his cult. Capable of transferring his mind and personality into another body, David can already bend the human will to his power-mad desires. But in union with his talented sister, he would be unstoppable. David also nurses political aspirations and wants revenge against Armitage. Poor stuck-in-the-middle Tracy must weigh Armitage's evil ambitions against her brother David's god complex, with America's future hanging in the balance. Though action-packed, this conspiracy flick is choking on an indigestible volume of plot and must resort to flashbacks in the name of exposition. Although not in a league with superior mind-control thrillers like THE FURY (1978), it manages to get across its anti-cult message with considerable fervor.