I hadn’t heard of this movie, at all, but apparently it did actually show on some screens. Not really important, just that when I saw it I’d expected the sort of thing that dwells in the direct to DVD market these days.
Apparently it received a lot of negative reviews, primarily arguing that the plot was too convoluted, which is completely untrue. I’d suggest that’s merely a barometer of the average attention span. You’ll also find mention of the plot being somewhat monotone, which is a fair criticism.
The movie drops you headlong into a world that is recognizable to any fan of science fiction- Nazi scientists set about enhancing latent abilities in people, the rest of the world co-opted the research once they fell. These abilities fall into a bunch of categories-
Pushers can force thoughts and memories into you.
Shifters can change the physical aspect of objects temporarily.
Sniffers can track people from psychic traces left on things.
Watchers see potential futures.
Bleeders emit this ghastly wail that shatters glass and can rupture organs.
Shadows generate a sort of anti-sniffer field.
Wipers erase memories.
Stitchers can mend injuries.
Movers are telekinetics.
First off, I really enjoyed the movie. It was filmed really well, the actors all did good work, the script was not bad and bordered on really good several times. Well worth renting or buying if you’re into collecting DVDs.
The good-
Sets were wonderful. Lighting and camera work were all really well done. Location shots were brilliant. The story was really rather compelling, conceptually, and carried off pretty well. Makeup and clothing left people looking like people, which is shockingly rare.
The questionable-
There’s a power enhancing drug in the film, but it kills everyone they try it on, leading me to wonder how they know it enhances anything. This is questionable, rather than bad, because in most movies the drug would turn you into some freakish juggernaut, but this one is aptly compared to steroids, meaning the effect is significant but not overwhelming. Which, of course, leads you to wonder why you’d test something of marginal benefit, and near certain death, on such worthwhile resources. One is left to assume that they use it on people that have Fucked Up, which makes sense given the rest of the story.
Nick, one of the protagonists, initially has little skill with his telekinesis, because he doesn’t use it. I have trouble buying this. There’s no indication that using it makes him easier to track, and it doesn’t appear to have any negative consequences. I mean, it’s not like his eyes bleed whenever he bends a spoon, ya’ know? With a little bit of tweaking it would have been easy to paint it as more of a lack of teaching. Still, I’m willing to buy it.
The bad-
There are definitely a few places where you go “Haven’t we been here before?”. It’s not so bad as to ruin the film, but it is enough that you’ll notice it.
At one point they’re trying to figure out where a certain locker is, and realize it’s being Shadowed. In a startling lapse of logic, given how internally consistent the rest of the story really is, the little girl Watcher says something about not being able to see the building if it’s being Shadowed. There’s some mention of how that shouldn’t be possible and how Shadows shouldn’t be able to do whole buildings, but it felt really weak just because of that lapse. Seriously, how did she know?
There’s other dangling threads, but I won’t lump them in as bad, since it’s obvious that the writers want to finish things up in either a sequel or a comic book series I saw mentioned.
