@MirrorImagesLTD
Its cool that you are engaging with the viewers. Please accept my comments only as positive criticism.
The relationship between Tech Support and the Player was good but it needed more depth, and there should have been a bit more banter or references to what Tech Support does for him.
Right before the Player started the game TS should have informed him that it was a 100% perma-death gaming experience; meaning once you die you never get to play ever again, no quick saves/loads, no swapping consoles/logins, none of that. You die, your character dies and the game deletes itself. This is enforced by a new type of gaming peripheral/chip. Because this is just a Beta Test, or prototype, the chip is not yet sub-dermal, so it would fit on the Player's nail or wrist. A Player cannot play without a chip and the chip cannot be modified, of course it can but that could have disastrous results, such as your Avatar being all FUBAR, something that could come into play later.
Then TS could have mentioned that civilian deaths were....discouraged. I get you were trying to approach a few topical subjects such as gun control and our ever growing acceptance of a violence "where its necessary" mentality, which I applaud to some extent. But I feel the world you were trying to portray needed more dark commentary. So rather then Tech Support saying not to kill civi's, she says its "discouraged"...after a short pause. As if she is looking for the right words/justification (perhaps looking for instruction from an unseen antagonist, this is left to the viewers imagination), simultaneously acknowledging her disassociation from the event and that even Tech Support might find some humor in the Player's situation. Initially this woould not appear to suspicaious but upon later viewing it would be apparent that this was foreshadowing her deceit.
I'm not saying this would be the best way, but this would be an alternative method to leaving the TV on in the background in he kitchen where he couldn't even see it? I don't see why he would leave it on while gaming and on the speaker-phone, that felt a little sloppy.
As a fellow gamer & modder myself I was intrigued by the initial concept of illegal modding, or however it was phrased. Just the concept alone reminded me again of the Matrix & Johnny Mnemonic. I would have preferred to see some simple yet effective mods such as a soft mod that temporarily alters the console system's BIOS, or manipulation of a save file, or even some Real Time editing, but given the nature of the remote control mechanism you had in place I can see why some of that would not work. GPS manipulation could have served multiple purposes.
It wasn't too heavy handed in its execution which I did appreciate, though there was a little redundancy. The wife character should have been given a bit more dialogue, she didn't seem like she had much to work with.
The whole leaving the one henchman alive thing was slightly annoying, especially when we see him holding the gun to Player's head later. And then he just lets Player drive his new Avatar up to the house...I mean, I know the henchman had his orders but that didn't really make sense. A better henchman would have at least pistol whipped the Player into compliance, which could have knocked the controller/batteries free and created an interesting battle for control.
The fight scenes were pretty good, the main Avatar the Player was controlling. He would have made a much better Frank Castle then the guy they went with in Netflix's Dare Devil series. So good casting getting him to play that part, however, how many programmer's of that level are that badass right?
"This is What You Want... This is What You Get"
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MirrorImagesLTD
8 years ago
Hey thanks for your insight. Some cool ideas there, but again my goal with this was to homage a 90s action film from the ground up. That includes all the cliches and tropes those films had.
Regarding Tech Support, I wanted her to be friendly and human and on "Max's side". She's like that tomboy in school with a secret crush on her best guy friend. Making her more clinical, I think, would have hurt that relationship rather than built on it.
In terms of the sci-fi tech, I wanted it to be as simple as possible to not convolute a narrative with dense social themes by introducing too much technical mythology. Especially in a low budget film when each piece of tech is costly, simplifying things was the smarter approach.
Finally, regarding the henchmen left alive. That was the point! How many James Bond movies do we see that in! It's a classic 90s hero mistake. All these elements are little winks at the audience that we stitch together by taking the world seriously and the narrative seriously.
You'll notice that Kincaid even references monologues and evil traps and all the tropes of a villain waiting in his lair.
The movie is pretty much Mario going to save Princess Peach from Bowser's castle. :)
In the end I'm glad you found some things to enjoy in it. Thanks so much for checking it out!
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bwgood77
8 years ago
It's nice to see that in your expertise film making, you would have had such tweaks after coming up with such a concept.
It sucks when people pick apart unique, different movies like this.
Sure I thought the main henchman was cheesy, and could complain about the main guy taking out like 30 guys at the end, but the whole idea was so much different than all the re-treads you see in theaters today that it was refreshing.
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