Firstly, it needs to be said that you should not go into this film expecting a blockbuster or high budget affair. It is neither.
That said, this film has some quite impressive qualities as well as some pretty serious issues that undermine it.
Firstly, the film is pretty high concept. It's premise is not particularly new (survivors in a post-apocalyptic, virus ravaged world) but it presents its own unique, non-derivative version of that premise. The society that the characters inhabit feels like something that I haven't seen before (and I've watch a lot of these kinds of films). It feels like a South American dictatorship meets the wild west meets 1950s knife gangs. And while that sounds like quite a mish-mash, it actually feels quite internally consistent.
The story is pretty well thought out and, in my opinion, interesting. However, its translation to screen has a number of problems. The pacing is all over the place. A number of events in the film are shoehorned in purely so that later events will make sense, and it is pretty jarring when this happens. There is one particular scene where the slow-motion approach of a group of characters lasts longer than the pointless conversation they have when they arrive - and the scene was only there so you'd know who they were later in the film. Quite odd.
The style of storytelling is not going to be for everyone, either. It vacillates between arthouse noir and student film bluntness. The first half of the film is vague and meandering. The second half of the film is tighter. Yet, there is a general lack of flow in the presentation. And there are some quite misguided scenes in the film that indicate a lack of writing/film-making experience. That said, the film was shot in 15 days and when you factor in the several fight scenes (which would have eaten up shooting time) I can understand why the final result is inconsistent.
The acting also varies wildly. The main actor (who also directed the film) doesn't have much range but he's not completely incompetent. The supporting cast do a great job, for the most part. A couple of players really struggle in their roles.
The action scenes were at times really very good. At other times they felt very out-of-character for the setting. In particular, the antagonist of the film has a really good knife-fighting scene with one of the other supports. A few minutes later he has a very underwhelming 80s action-ish fight with the protagonist, full of fancy martial arts kicks and flips and other nonsense that felt very inappropriate for the film.
If you're interested in watching films where people try to stretch a limited budget into something bigger than they can really afford, then I think this film is well worth watching. Unlike many other films of a similar ilk, it has something rather special: genuine originality.
