"Human Mutants" (2004) TV mini-series

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Director:

Philip Smith

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 May 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot Keywords:

Series | TV Mini-Series

Cast

Jesus Aceves

...

Chuy The Wolf Boy (unknown episodes)

(more)

Series Directed by
Philip Smith		(unknown episodes)

Series Original Music by
Duncan Glasson		(unknown episodes)

Series Cinematography by
Lawrence Gardner		(unknown episodes)
Jeremy Pollard		(unknown episodes)

Series Film Editing by
David Fairhead		(unknown episodes)
Jake Martin		(unknown episodes)

Series Production Design by
Philip Barber		(unknown episodes)

Series Costume Design by
Heidi Miller		(unknown episodes)

Series Sound Department
Rada Danilovic	....	sound effects editor (unknown episodes)
Simon Firsht	....	sound recordist (unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Diego Barquinero	....	interpreter / voice-over (unknown episodes)
Aileen McAllister	....	archive researcher (unknown episodes)

Production Companies

• Tiger Aspect Productions

Distributors

• Channel 4 International (2004) (worldwide) (all media)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Tiger Aspect Productions

Brrrrh.... man, this is bad...

I have just seen the first episode and I wonder what this is about. OK: I expected to see some "freaks of nature", but I am also really interested in the backgrounds and the theory behind it. I expected something semi-scientific. This is not semi-scientific, it is zero-scientific. It is just show.

The first thing you see are Nazis(Dr. Mengele), in the mist of a night at Auschwitz, the whole scenery put into back-lighting. I got interested and thought I might be able to learn some background information, but they kept on showing Nazis using those horribly cheap and inappropriate sound-and camera-effects that made absolutely no sense in the documentation at all. Whenever they changed the subject they were cutting Nazis in between, without any further comment. What the %^&*?

It is as if in UK no one likes to watch a film if there's not at least one Nazi in it. Jesus... they kept on repeating: Mengele was gruesome and he performed gruesome experiments on dwarfs, you see all those pictures filmed in an aesthetic like "Hostel", brrrhh... they repeated that over and over. OK: I know that the Nazis were bad. What has this to do with genetics!!?? Every 8 to 10 minutes they were showing the same pictures again, without any reason at all. To be honest: I am German and I honestly do feel offended by that crap, but not because I would feel any sympathy or whatever for Nazis, but because showing them like they got shown in this docu is just a Mickey-Mouse-ation, a trivialization of the gruesomeness and cruelty of the Nazi regime. I do not mind showing Nazis, but the way they were shown here was just for plain stupid show-effect. I am not a Nazi at all (rather the opposite) but ... arh.

That's stupid show-effects for the dumbed-down masses...

Anyway: apart from that British Nazi-obsession there was that extremely vain reporter, who always got put into scenery as if he was some kind of uber-magician, running through the scenery without making any sense at all. There are the dwarfs in the casino, here is the Mr. wanna-be-David-Copperfield floating (sic! FLOATING! they made that Spike Lee camera-effect with this guy, omg) through the casino talking gibberish.

Something else? Actually: no. All the extremely scarce and superficial information of this crappy documentary is delivered in a way that reminds me of a cheap copy of a Las Vegas show. They probably had a huge expense on all that artificial mist and the light-effects. No knowledge whatsoever got transported that you wouldn't have read before, as long as your normal lecture is above the level of "The Sun" headlines.

You could read all the information that was delivered in 1 to 2 minutes on half a page of text.

Last not least: it's made like a freak-show: here the dwarfs! Here a monstrous skeleton! Here an eunuch! Oh my god. Pure sensationalism but not even sensational enough to be at least provocative. Watching this crap feels as if they wanted to produce a science show for people who normally watch "Pop Idol". I fear that I will get dumber when watching the second part, not smarter.

By the way: where's Sir Attenborough?