i saw this movie before i knew anything about it, or its rotten tomatoes score, when it was over i thought it was a fun little British sic-fi that was a little different, i enjoyed it.
and i just want to say, i find it sad that no one really liked it overall, it's a dam shame.
not saying you can't hate it, oh lord no, to each his own i always say, but, i thought it was ok and the hate it's received is a little saddening.
peace.
[deleted]
I agree its not a bad film, its not a master piece either but for a Brit sci fi film it was ok for what it was, am surprised by the low ratings as i have watched some real bad films that should never been release, one was Gallowwalkers that was bad on every level, in the UK they do not have the big budgets like Hollywood.
shareJust watched it, and felt it worked surprisingly well (despite a few vague points). 8 stars out of 10. Why can't people recognize good sci-fi when they see it?
sharei quie liked it-its never going to be a hollywood big sci fi film but i think clarke done pretty well for what he has
I've noticed that most of the SF that gets good marks is the -BIG- Hollywood stuff. It seems folks just don't appreciate SF on a budget.
To me, the core story is what I look at - Do the character motivations make sense in context (without insulting your intelligence)?, Does the plot hang together (with reasonable allowance for small inconsistencies)?, Do the character actions make sense in context?, Do the MacGuffins used make the death penalty for the entire production crew seem reasonable?
Nothing ruins a story for me like bizarre motivations/decisions/reactions, bad science, superfluous effects, cardboard characters or simplistic character development. I don't need a big effects budget or "big" stars, just a reasonably well acted/written show.
A perfect example of this is Impostor (2001). Very little effects, characters behave quite believably, the primary MacGuffins go down easy without causing indigestion, Sinise and crew all delivered fine performances, the script holds together without clumsy artifice, and it's based on a fine piece of published SF (admittedly PKD is one of my all time fav writers, but I don't feel that biased me). What's it get? 6.2!?!? Criminal. The comment thread itself is quite thoughtful and emphasizes my point quite effectively. Yep, there are a couple of small quibbles, and 40 mil isn't really low budget, but overall a very workmanlike effort. An eight point something rating would be much more appropriate for this film.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. My Plex transmogrify stats show a very clear bell curve centered at 6.5. - and I consider myself fairly picky about what I dedicate disk space to. Either I have *beep* taste in shows, or the whole rating system sucks.
Clearly I feel it's the latter. What about you all?
It wasn't the budget for me. It was the editing and general flow of the scenes and the believability of them.
Just because it's science fiction, it doesn't mean you can break physics and time without justification. SciFi gets scrutinised even more than normal films.
Eg. When they were chased by the type-casted pimps into the streets, there is a really long circular camera shot with him just staring at the city centre. It's really awkward and takes too much time as the type-casted girl just stands there looking at him almost bemused by him staring. And yet the pimps get nowhere nearer.
I'll have to watch it again, but I'm sure a grave stone wobbled like a piece of polystyrene when the the kid touched it.
Some of the fights scene were clearly a poor copy of the techniques used in better films and TV shows like Daredevil.
You can see the speeded up frames that show how slowly the action was filmed. They were more like a sped up dance than an injury inducing smack downs. There were really some eye rolling moments, laughably cliched and hacked in.
The scene in the open field was a really brainless back-of a-beermat idea.
You can't sit covered in petrol and ignite a lighter ANYWHERE near you, it's basic stuff that also a really bad thing to show. Just look on YouTube to find people discovering how petrol fumes ignite. Such an awful scene should have been left on the editor's hard drive.
One minute acid rips off his fingers in one touch, the next it's just sitting on his face, smouldering?
And why did Ryan make the acid drop anywhere near the girl and show such hatred on his face? His character is so unlikeable and unthinking.
The story did not unfold properly anyway, and was completely unsatisfactory, I gave it 4 stars for the ability to release such garbage AND get it on the Sky Movies channels. Well done for that.
But 40 million? Sheesh, who looked after this budget? Don't use them ever again!
The film clearly lost it's vision, if it had one. Next time, get a proper writer in, someone with experience.
Sorry, that was quite a rant! :D oh well.
I think the film is fun if you dont know anything about it. I actually enjoyed it more than many of the recent scifi films from hollywood and I had no clue what was going on so it was a nice mystery.. I think if you have seen the trailer or know the story then there wont be anything further to look forward to. Tha matrix type fight scenes were different.
C I Am Not a 'Chicken shiet'
Good script, but the director just has very little technical knowledge to pull it off.
The editing is awful, pointless long fight scenes and bad camera work.
A letdown for sure.