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damocleas
Reviews
The Last Gunslinger (2017)
OH God!..
I managed to watch about 5 minutes.
For a civil war era film, The people were spotlessly clean with clothing in perfect condition.
The sending off of the character to war seemed so wierd. Half the time i felt they were directly talking to the camera. Delivery was flat. Could almost believe the lines were written on cards below the camera.
The woman's fate was evil but she hardly reacted. I could believe people dislocating shoulders and tearing there skin off trying to get unbound yet she sat there covered in oil saying stop. Didn't seem like she was making much effort to show fear or horror.
Then he comes back from the war. Still in the same clothes, Still spotlessly clean, same clothes worn for a few years away fighting there would be frayed seams,stitches split, buttons missing or tarnished. Yet the only difference from first viewing was slightly dusty boots. He's wandering around like he's at a garden party looking for the food, no impression of any emotional reaction to the fact he's calling his wife and she's not replying.
Then the tree... In perfect condition. Granted, you dont want to burn a tree for a film , especially as i suspect they were on state home grounds for a couple of days but charcoal dust up the tree could be washed off and give a bit more believable effect. Instead you a growing green tree in perfect state and at the base a pile of ash with a necklace, he takes and rubs clean a bit.. Still no real reaction. I was laughing at this point. I couldn't take it anymore and gave up.
Im guessing this is a labour of love by some reenactors but from experience of Medieval reenactment playing up to a crowd is easier than doing the same actions in from of a static camera. Might have benefited from having a live audience or more practice in from of camera. Certainly would have benefited from someone overseeing clothing and props to ensure they reflect actions and passage of time. I can't say anything about the rest of the film or the dialog since i couldn't watch anymore, Maybe it improved a lot but I doubt it.
AE: Apocalypse Earth (2013)
They need a project manager.
Watched this with no expectations or preconceptions and it could have worked. There were bits that missed and it might be those bits were cut but it didn't improve the film. Some of the acting was iffy, There'd be a quite bit where the characters were talking then they'd hit a line that was a bit more intense and it gets delivered like it's a battle command under fire.
I understand people think the ship only held 20 odd people, but it crashes and a good likelihood that hundreds could have died. The miracle is that anyone survived and that they weren't all mangled. Why couldn't that have had liferafts trigger before the crash that would smooth that wrinkle.
Several times a chameleon is killed and yet no-one tried to investigate the creature ( is the invisibility a natural power or a suit ? ) Military would want to know their enemy. Plus the aliens have plasma weapons yet no-one tried to grab one for the first half the film.
3 people rush off frame, enter next frame the female version of Mr Benn has 'appeared' with them with no explanation.
The red jump suited people, All with their jumpsuits ripped off just below the groin. Clothes split at knees first and 2 years would either have the suits battered or all ripped. Poor wardrobe. Plus they might as well have made the suits red-shirts.
why go from cover to rush out to the waters edge while the craft is flying overhead. Ditch the orange jumpsuits and crawl in 2's out into the open. What was the trained military bloke thinking? He smears himself with mud which fades and returns between takes.
The cameo girls face marking fade and return, at night in the spacecraft she pretty much has a green face with brow markings.
Some weirdness with the aborigines results in them teaming up and providing a trove of 'ancestor' weapons. So you have aborigines skilled with primitive weapons, military skilled with firearms so how do they divvy up the weapons, yep you guess it the natives gets the firearms and energy weapons and the military carry on with their bent sticks and bent stick arrows.
Bent sticks with string makes a bow.. Yes it does if your 9 playing robin hood but come on? lashing a bundle of bamboo together would give a better effect as it would actually take some effort to bend. Bent sticks for arrows with no fletchings, nocks or head would do nothing. Though please watch you'll see the bent stick come off the string and be shuffled back by the actor, An arrowhead appears on the arrow over the hand but wide shot shows the bent stick off behind. The Black guys bow becomes a real kiddy bow near the end neat planed edges.
A Bamboo spear would be easier to make and more effective so why did film makers go for crappy bows and arrows.
The Boat. Their running towards the river then say 'there it is' and low there is a boat. Boat who knew there was a boat ? ( Cut scene maybe? ) Boats a black rubber boat covered in grass. Couldn't they have uses a wooden canoe and covered it or made a log raft effect. It looked so fake. Scroll on a bit and you see them paddling the next scene the 'Mr Benn' woman sailing over the waterfall on her own. ( her teleport wasn't working right ) pan back to the others and there all in the water. What happened to the boat.
The Dragon thing. Killed by a flare in the mouth and lightly slashing it's belly with a knife. It dies instantly, no trashing around for hours as disemboweling isn't instantly fatal. Plus a small combat knife is unlikely to go through the hide on a leaf slide attack.
what was the final calculations 25000 years? Yet the rock work was still crisp. Mountains have eroded in that timeframe before? Final quirk, Invade, Terraform then have minimum population living there to study the indigenous lifeforms. Why? Writers and props guys should have looked at the pictures in kiddy books. The armies through the ages would have given the natives better weapon and perhaps if they'd read on of the old declassified military training manuals they'd have come up with better survival gear. It's like they had an interesting idea but thought they knew enough to do it on their own without research. Fewer factual problems might have given the actors a better chance to play their parts properly.
The Colony (2013)
Started good, ended halfway through, the rest was filler
I warn you before i start I'm not able to judge a film by abstracts but by actions so if the spoilers alert hasn't turned on be warned i discuss events in the film that break it.
It started good with some tension in the colony with jockeying for power and subplots of flu, This in itself could have devolved into a decent film. Colony was nice and believable, started to look like a good film.
Things started to go downhill after the cannibals were discovered, I suppose zombies have been done to death ( pardon the pun ). I could still cope with the concept yet if the cannibals were just living off meat and not farming how have they survived between meals ( The main character cannot remember the sky it was so long ago. 50 odd colonist per colony doesn't leave a lot for 40 odd fighters to eat. ) I was pleased to see Laurence listening to me as i shouted 'blow the entrance, trap them underground', so many actors in these sort of films don't and set themselves up to be killed.
Plot fault : It's snowing heavily throughout the film yet the tracks are not just clearly visible in the morning but still got crisp edges. There would be no tracks to follow.
Plot Fault : Cannibals have 49 ready meals waiting and one locked in, why would they rush off before consuming them. ( I suppose if they took them outside they would keep, but nothing gave me the impression they took the time or still had the ability to think ) Now back to colony. Scout parties been mauled, one survivor and we jump back to the original plots of coup and murder of infected ignoring imminent threat.It seems from this point on all the different plots and subplots are either discarded or we rotate through them, couple of minutes to this plot, couple to that when in reality plots would merge or be put aside while real threat is ongoing ( This is what really killed the film,it could have been a real character stretching film of tension if they were trapped in with cannibals outside trying to get, instead we just had a chaotic action/horror film ).
We go so far down the original power play plot line that no-one is allowed to leave but you'll be executed if your sick. Not even vaguely rational but obviously Bill Paxmans character has snapped under pressure again.He's not even upset that his friend is dead, but that may be because he was going to take power.
Nothing is done to set traps,sentries or barricades so the end of the film is pretty much a bunch of confusing fight scenes between heavily clothed people in beards who have had so little screen time so far we don't know them. ( The should all have worn red parka's ).
How a group of lunatics who's best missile weapon is a piece of thrown re-bar manage to take down a group of people armed with firearms is a little daft. The colonists have nowhere to run too. Hiding in the vault will just delay their death, they have to fight and win if they ever want to survive, yet they panic and scatter.
Again we get the 'Leader' punishing the presumed favored of the previous leader by locking them out the vault, yet they are in a battle they are losing and need every gun on their side.
The boss fight at the end was truly over the top. Chop his leg, get out of reach. Why go back, Place is burning, you climb out, the cold and the wound will cause gangrene if boss leaves and staying will let him die of fumes. Going back was a risk for no benefit. After he went back and laid in with the pipe you get the animal madness which was believable, the thing coming back to life again after was pathetic and how the hell did a veggie knife cut through the skull ? Nice clean incision when jawbone would have deflected blade. Director so wanted to do a zombie film didn't he, everyone else has done one and he needed to come up with a 'new way' to kill the brain.
Final thing is the survivors are dead men walking, setting out into a snow storm on permafrost with only what clothes they were wearing inside on. no packs, no food, no extra clothes.
I've seen other review mentioning the quality of the effects compared to the low budget spent. certainly the world and buildings are believable. Surely better script and more detailed character interplay would have made a better film for little extra cost. I'd have dropped the cannibals too, there was enough personal ammunition to trigger a fight over who's in charge if the fight scene was really needed.