The only good thing about this movie is that it is quite short. All the time of watching it I have been hesitating - to stay or to leave. At last I decided to watch until the end just because I was too lazy to make any additional moves. It is the kind of movie which is possible to watch in three cases only - 1) you are underage; 2) you are drunk; 3) you are one of the cast or crew. I am nothing of above. I even didn't like how it was cut technically. It almost had no any bright color smears. Looked constantly grey - even not like made in black and white - that would be classic - but boring grey. And that terrible electronic set of sounds - I cannot call it music... And it is to say nothing of the plot. When a powerful organization instead of just sending a sniper to kill a lonely guy on the lake sends a moto boat full of stupid freaks with guns... Just because it would be more picturesque when you watch it on a big screen...
12 Reviews
Interesting but almost incomprehensible
filmnut12 August 2010
Originally known as Smersh XXI but retitled Zapreshchennaya Realnost (Forbidden Reality) and then released internationally as THE INTERCEPTOR (2009), Konstantin Maximov's film has drawn comparisons with the likes of THE MATRIX trilogy (1999, 2003, 2003) and the BOURNE trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007) and it's entirely fair. It also reminded me a little of DISPLACED (2006). A simple action movie with a convoluted plot involving layers of reality and supernatural fighting skills, it's another example of Russia's attempts to emulate Hollywood blockbusters in their own unique way. Less unique than either NIGHT WATCH (2004) or DAYWATCH (2006), INTERCEPTOR is almost incomprehensible, it's only because elements are so familiar that you're able to follow it. While it has its flaws, it's under 90 minutes (is there a longer cut?) and there's plenty of action (although I feel the intensity of these sequences would have been improved with some better sound design) and I feel inclined to watch it again to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
Great effects and action set pieces but no plot.
dbborroughs30 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Great action and wonderful effects get lost in a convoluted story about a secret group of hooded people over seeing the balance and the time shifters they use to control events... or something.
It doesn't take long before you realize that there is nothing that makes sense to the plot-- or rather nothing makes sense on screen since it's clear that this made sense to someone at some time- say in the source novel. The trouble is any sense of a plot is only that a sense. The film really doesn't make any but the most basic of sense- these are the good guys and those are the bad guys and these weird things happen. It's a nice idea but ultimately it all gets very boring really fast.
avoid this one.
It doesn't take long before you realize that there is nothing that makes sense to the plot-- or rather nothing makes sense on screen since it's clear that this made sense to someone at some time- say in the source novel. The trouble is any sense of a plot is only that a sense. The film really doesn't make any but the most basic of sense- these are the good guys and those are the bad guys and these weird things happen. It's a nice idea but ultimately it all gets very boring really fast.
avoid this one.
Execution would be a misjudgment
pontram3 July 2010
To reprimand a movie as pathetic, foolish, boring etc. is a very (harsh) personal statement of private feelings. I for myself felt entertained although I'm not one of the three 1) under-aged 2) drunk during watching 3) a member of the cast. Maybe I was in a (too ?) good mood, but I didn't oversee many lacks in plot originality, script writing, dialogs, and so on. What I oversaw was any of the three attributes pathetic/foolish/boring, where one who is really willing can throw them at SF-giants like Bladerunner, 2001, District 9, Matrix, or even Solaris.
The movie itself seems to be an interesting mixture of the common solitary fighter flick (there are soo many), a German car advertisement clip (like Transporter 2) for Russian mobster clients, Matrix (yes hate me), and Stalker (now kill me). Someone will possibly feel left alone with a certain lack of prologue, explanations, character development, and so on, either because Writer and Director weren't able to deliver those, or they simply didn't want to. I wasn't really disturbed about this. A bit of unconventionality can never harm, and I for myself get often bored by endless monologues or sad back-flashes, which are both not present in Interceptor.
What I saw on the positive side were upper-class visuals, fine locations, decent actors (despite they have not so much to "act") and a kind of Russian mood, quite different from Bekmambetov's in his Day/Nighwatch hit series (which I enjoyed at a max), but still present. The production values are O.K., especially in 3d graphics, everything and everyone is serious and believable, maybe even because there are some holes where viewers can fill in their own imaginations.
On the negative side is the plot, which is not exactly a brainwave, but being serious, this it have in common with, say, Avatar's plot. Further, characters are only outlined and stay colorless at a cool distance from us. Action scenes seem only to be thrown in by the god of scriptwriting to fill some minutes until the end. Relations between characters are foreseeable and mostly cliché.
Nevertheless Interceptor has its qualities to entertain, primarily with CGI visuals, and a with a strange myth of alien powers, which are existing in a parallel dimension right beneath ours since thousands of years, fighting against each other, utilizing us (Russians) for their own and seemingly senseless war (Nochnoi Dozor hails).
I gave an 8 to raise the unfair rating of 3.6 a bit. I think it deserves about 6.5, if you look at the IMO ridiculous Chronicles of Riddic (6.4), or Stargate Continuum (7.4 !), or The Matrix itself, which has a higher rating (8.7) than Stalker (8.1), Solaris (8.0) or 2001 (8.4) only because of wicked leather clothing ;-)
The movie itself seems to be an interesting mixture of the common solitary fighter flick (there are soo many), a German car advertisement clip (like Transporter 2) for Russian mobster clients, Matrix (yes hate me), and Stalker (now kill me). Someone will possibly feel left alone with a certain lack of prologue, explanations, character development, and so on, either because Writer and Director weren't able to deliver those, or they simply didn't want to. I wasn't really disturbed about this. A bit of unconventionality can never harm, and I for myself get often bored by endless monologues or sad back-flashes, which are both not present in Interceptor.
What I saw on the positive side were upper-class visuals, fine locations, decent actors (despite they have not so much to "act") and a kind of Russian mood, quite different from Bekmambetov's in his Day/Nighwatch hit series (which I enjoyed at a max), but still present. The production values are O.K., especially in 3d graphics, everything and everyone is serious and believable, maybe even because there are some holes where viewers can fill in their own imaginations.
On the negative side is the plot, which is not exactly a brainwave, but being serious, this it have in common with, say, Avatar's plot. Further, characters are only outlined and stay colorless at a cool distance from us. Action scenes seem only to be thrown in by the god of scriptwriting to fill some minutes until the end. Relations between characters are foreseeable and mostly cliché.
Nevertheless Interceptor has its qualities to entertain, primarily with CGI visuals, and a with a strange myth of alien powers, which are existing in a parallel dimension right beneath ours since thousands of years, fighting against each other, utilizing us (Russians) for their own and seemingly senseless war (Nochnoi Dozor hails).
I gave an 8 to raise the unfair rating of 3.6 a bit. I think it deserves about 6.5, if you look at the IMO ridiculous Chronicles of Riddic (6.4), or Stargate Continuum (7.4 !), or The Matrix itself, which has a higher rating (8.7) than Stalker (8.1), Solaris (8.0) or 2001 (8.4) only because of wicked leather clothing ;-)
Yet another movie with lots of FX and no story to back it
audrulyte5 November 2009
While I have enjoyed some of Russian movies made in latter years, and grew to very much like some of Russian actors and actresses, I could not possibly say the same about this movie. This movie originally had quite a good potential - some pretty nice sci-fi hero storyline to begin with (and don't tell me that books are better, much better - I already know that and that is true in almost every case), a quite strong young Russian actor for a lead (Petrenko), but the result is more than lousy. Kind of the movie was about nothing. Did anyone get what it was about or what it was meant to be about? I did not. And all the time during viewing it felt as if I was wasting my time, which was quite true at the end. Here I must agree with the other comment on this movie that the visual greyness throughout the movie was tiresome and rather annoying. If that was part of FXs introduced to create some special atmosphere, then it totally and ultimately failed. Actually this movie IMHO failed in every possible aspect as it haven't delivered a story nor a likable characters (I doubt if even the very true fans of actors' could possible have found anything at all to enjoy this time).
For a conclusion, I would like to say here that I doubt no more in Russians' abilities to make a good FXs, but respectively they also could realize that strong FXs and nothing to support 'em cannot make a trick of a good movie no more. We've seen that in Daywatch and Nightwatch, but to watch so many movies with FXs and non-existent story lines is getting just too much. Move on, please.
For a conclusion, I would like to say here that I doubt no more in Russians' abilities to make a good FXs, but respectively they also could realize that strong FXs and nothing to support 'em cannot make a trick of a good movie no more. We've seen that in Daywatch and Nightwatch, but to watch so many movies with FXs and non-existent story lines is getting just too much. Move on, please.
very boring
arcticurse13 August 2010
I love nightwatch/daywatch and picked this up in the supermarket-what a mistake. The story is confusing and nothing or no-one is ever explained. the music is plain even during the action scenes, and not one person in the film had to 'act'. what little dialogue there is is churned out in monotone sentences, and there is no character development. I had to stop this before the end. I was a little tipsy but 15 mins into the film i was stone sober, so i was certainly trying to figure out what was going on. The special effects are pretty dodgy and over used to fill time it seems, at least in nightwatch(which had similar effects) they were put to good use. i wouldn't recommend this film to anyone unless you fancy a dreamy bit of background noise. Sorry if this sounds harsh but i couldn't find anything good about it, waste of £5.
Striking visuals but confusing plot.
paulclaassen25 June 2018
Writer-director Konstantin Maksimov had a unique story to tell with a unique vision. Unfortunately he wasn't capable of conveying the message very clearly. The visuals are striking, but not much of the film or characters are explained, leaving the viewer dangling wondering what to make of it all. There are some nice action sequences, but they're few and far between and the accompanying music is very bland. Although the actors are trying their best, the plot is just too confusing for it to make sense.
Reality needs content
p-stepien19 June 2012
As much as I hate to say it this seems to be Russia's response to "The Matrix", an awe-inspiring orgiastic extravaganza with revelatory fight scenes and a twist on what is reality. This version of Neo is a special operative Ivakin (Andrey Chubchenko), who in the opening scene tumbles from a plane through forest coverage and miraculously survives. From then on we get to meet Georgiy Kurylo (Aleksandr Baluev), a political figure with dark unclear plans (left unclear even after the end credits). Enter guns, hot chicks, fast cars, big blasts and a lot of meaningless filler.
A movie with such visual pizazz, but lacking any constructive build to punch home a semblance of coherency. Instead viewers are overladen with imagery, that is supposed to somehow supplant a story. The other extreme of American blockbusters, which feel the need to disclose every single detail, this pic goes to lengths to avoid explaining anything. The characters remain empty shells, which lack any emotional pull. It is essentially nothing more than a random sequence of extremely well-conceived, inpenetrable and imaginative set pieces and/or VFX, barely guled together by a convoluted and unfocused story, which does it's best to create an alienating experience.
By the end you don't really care about the story, what happens to our heroes or where this will take us in future outings. What's worse you stop even admiring the view.
A movie with such visual pizazz, but lacking any constructive build to punch home a semblance of coherency. Instead viewers are overladen with imagery, that is supposed to somehow supplant a story. The other extreme of American blockbusters, which feel the need to disclose every single detail, this pic goes to lengths to avoid explaining anything. The characters remain empty shells, which lack any emotional pull. It is essentially nothing more than a random sequence of extremely well-conceived, inpenetrable and imaginative set pieces and/or VFX, barely guled together by a convoluted and unfocused story, which does it's best to create an alienating experience.
By the end you don't really care about the story, what happens to our heroes or where this will take us in future outings. What's worse you stop even admiring the view.
Awful but compelling
mark_devlin25 April 2018
This is a truly awful film, that has to be said, but somehow they've put so much energy into the special effects that it becomes sort of compelling, in the sense you want to see how bad it can get. The plot is a very basic, juvenile fantasy of good and evil. In this case evil in corrupt politicians who are run by evil forces from another dimension opposed by the good guys, a joint effort of a rebellious vigilante group, a lone wolf special ops agent and som white magic types that look like they may have escaped from a Canadian spin-off of Lord of the Rings together with the cheesy green screen backgrounds. The overall effect is rather as if you would start off with a Turkish soap opera, add some Transporter, a dash of The Matrix, some snatches from Counterstrike. It has a certain entertainment value if you don't have to pay for it.
Good action packed sci-fi
roelluvbabes24 November 2009
This is a good action packed science fiction movie. Great action sequences, good story and fun to watch. The main character is also of the movie Zvezda (a action war movie, which is also very good).
Some of the story i didn't understand(so maybe it gets an 8 after all) because i got no good English subtitles.
The acting is good, and the visuals are fantastic. Just see the trailer and you know what i mean. This visual artist did also worked on movies like Night Watch and Day Watch.
Overall a good movie to see, and for the sci-fi fans a must see!
I look forward to see the sequel!
The Dutchman has spoken ;)
Some of the story i didn't understand(so maybe it gets an 8 after all) because i got no good English subtitles.
The acting is good, and the visuals are fantastic. Just see the trailer and you know what i mean. This visual artist did also worked on movies like Night Watch and Day Watch.
Overall a good movie to see, and for the sci-fi fans a must see!
I look forward to see the sequel!
The Dutchman has spoken ;)
Nice Translation of Dreams
azure_critic15 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I've just watched this movie on TV. I liked it. It was like a sci-fi poem. I write sci-fi stories and I found some of my images being translated to pictures. And they were nice pictures with acceptable level of special effects.
I don't know why they say it was about nothing. The storyline was so clear. It was about a man who fights against using his own technology in an evil way. Some good people helps him to fight the evil and find his powers, and also he meets a girl. The evil in the movie is so dark and the good is too white. Since the evil notion was developing inside the mind I was expecting the final battle to happen in a library and it did! There is only one negative point about the movie which is where they did not consider international audience especially in other countries than Russia who are accustomed to faster rhythm and more talkative characters.
But for me, I just can say I liked it.
I don't know why they say it was about nothing. The storyline was so clear. It was about a man who fights against using his own technology in an evil way. Some good people helps him to fight the evil and find his powers, and also he meets a girl. The evil in the movie is so dark and the good is too white. Since the evil notion was developing inside the mind I was expecting the final battle to happen in a library and it did! There is only one negative point about the movie which is where they did not consider international audience especially in other countries than Russia who are accustomed to faster rhythm and more talkative characters.
But for me, I just can say I liked it.
A dazzling, Russian-made, sleekly super-charged, Sci-fi, thrill-overkill!
Weirdling_Wolf26 October 2020
The dazzling, Russian-made, sleekly super-charged, science fiction, thrill-overkill, 'Zapreshchyonnaya realnost' aka 'The Interceptor' (2009) is a frequently exciting, supremely polished, visually spectacular, Tech-noir/action extravaganza that, entirely curiously, has yet to establish much of a fan base who would vociferously extol the film's all-too considerable merits! While the convoluted narrative of crypto-evil corporations and their gleefully grandiose, internecine struggles for total world dominance/annihilation is, to be fair, entirely derivative, and not just a little bit uninspired, and while, regretfully, 'The Interceptor' occasionally over-eggs certain sequences, thereby stretching all plausibility to the giddiest extremes of B-Movie absurdity, it is never once dull or sickly-sentimental, and for this most welcome boon, I can readily forgive these momentary lapses into tired sci-fi tropisms. And having 'The Interceptor' generously endowed with a suitably masculine male protagonist in the steel-thewed, heroically-handsome figure of fleet-footed special forces butt-kicker, Matvey Sobolov,(Igor Petrenko), merely increased the sinuous authenticity of this altogether exhilarating, gravity-defying, 'super-dude against the nefarious machinations of some esoteric, supernatural, super-weapon wielding villain' adrenalized action-fest, that any less judgmental fan of 'Nemesis', 'Day Watch' or 'Equilibrium' might well enjoy as much as I did!
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