"Brusque and forced" is the order of the day, describing the plot development, scene writing, characters, dialogue, acting, direction, cinematography, lighting, and editing. Many aspects of the story lift almost directly from 2012 comic book flick 'The Avengers'; Chris Ridenhour's score ranges from "okay, why not" material to plainly borrowing from Alan Silvestri's music for the same suggested blockbuster. Action sequences are generally meager and wanting; special effects are perfunctory (i.e. Far less than seamless). Production design, art direction, and costume design are suitable, but emphatically as basic as they could get. The hair and makeup work for the chief female actors are done very well, while for everyone else they're simply nothing special - but don't get your hopes up on telling them apart: Snow White and Red have the most severe personalities, and Red's outfit and skills set her apart, yet the different abilities we assume the princesses would have don't come into play as much as one might hope.
There are, actually, some good ideas here. The concept is decidedly ham-handed, but purely geared for ridiculous entertainment. It was in desperate need of substantial development beyond the bare-bones treatment we get here, but then, if that happened then this wouldn't be an Asylum feature. And hey, credit where it's due; the exposition Snow White provides once the other princesses enter our world shows that filmmaker Jeremy M. Inman poured some measure of intelligence into his screenplay, perhaps more than the studio would allow to manifest. Rumpelstiltskin can't bring his army into our world, you see, so he inserts himself into the established power structure of Los Angeles city government and corrupts it. Police become his private goon squad, and they exercise extrajudicial enforcement of amplified authoritarian edicts by detaining civilians for no reason, and wantonly beating and killing. All this is to say - Rumpelstiltskin is basically a thinly-veiled allegory for any real-life conservative politician, and the police, well, they're not really any different at all, are they?
For all the poor or weak craft underlying 'Avengers Grimm,' nonetheless I can't say I didn't have a good time. It's far from any especial high quality, let alone essential, but this is a title that only wants to be a silly genre romp, and on a very passive level, this is enjoyable. The acting is overcooked, but deliberately so, and the cast sure seem to be having fun. Save it for a lazy day, you know? Why, for that matter, given that this was released to coincide with Marvel's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' I dare say that on the balance this a rare instance when The Asylum's "mockbuster" is more or less on par with its big-budget counterpart: this isn't made as well, of course, but at least it's not burdened with overwhelming disappointment and tarnished expectations.
Against all odds, every now and again The Asylum manages to turn out a picture that's kind of decent and worthwhile on its own merits. It might be a stretch of the imagination to say that this is one of them, and there's nothing here that will change anyone's mind about the nature of the production company. Yet if you're willing to engage with such fare on its level, and just sit back and enjoy the ride? Suffice to say that I've seen the bottom of the cinematic barrel, and as a matter of comparison this is nowhere near it. In fact, for lack of expectations, and in light of what this wants to be, it's arguable that this is actually more enjoyable than plenty of more well-financed movies. Recommendable mostly for the very bored or very curious, there's absolutely no reason to go out of your way for this, but if you're open to all the wildest and most kitschy bombast that the film industry has to offer, then you could do much worse than 'Avengers Grimm.'
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