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Old 02-22-2012, 10:03 AM
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_____V_____ _____V_____ is offline
For Vendetta
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Heard so many good things about this one, but I am not impressed.

When the core of a film is good and solid, often the smaller flaws are overlooked, specially in the case of low-budget (indie) efforts. This one from Down Under Land had potential, but blew it because of two main reasons - lack of sustenance of atmosphere, and a complete disconnection of (implied) opening and (real) ending.

The first main reason is quite obvious - nearly half the film is over and nothing happens. The makers try to pass this off as a real documentary-styled film complete with intercepts of interviews with the survivors, who are NOT supposed to survive in the first place. (if anyone does survive the events of this film, he/she would be mentally scarred for life and not continuing to lead a normal life thereafter)

And the interviews themselves become pretty annoying, and instead of explaining things a bit, they start to get on your nerves. The climax certainly didn't need extended interview footage; instead they could have shown a bit more about the "creature" itself - mutant, possessed human, deformed human, male witch, failed government experiment...what was it? Even a slight clue would have been nice.

The filming bit is quite good - capturing the silent, dank and eerie silence of the underground tunnels with the occasional break through water drops, faraway creaks and trains on rails somewhere in the distance.


***SPOILERS START***



And I actually loved the fact that they didn't explain everything in detail and left a lot of things for the imagination (specially about the "thing"). But the contradictions which pour in when you sit back after the film is over to ponder over plausible explanations are so many, and the credibility of the "thing" goes out of the window.

If it's a demon, how could anyone survive it, let alone 3 very frightened and frail humans?
If it's a human, how can it hang on ceilings and have any possible use of human eyes?
(Jeepers Creepers?)
Then again, if Jeepers Creepers is the answer, then why did it shrink away from light?
Why the heck would "it" want to use the camera and record?
If it's a deformed human, how could it chant Satanic verses when it was trying to drown the female lead?
And lastly, if it is a human, how could it move so fast when "it" took out the guard and the soundman? And if it was really so fast, why couldn't it finish off the female lead and the other guy who bled to death on the platform?




***SPOILERS END***


And I have a big problem with the total lack of synchronisation of the very beginning with the climactic ending. The implication of the start of the film was one and one thing only, and that was not what the ending really showed. Add to all this the really annoying female lead, and the actress who performed her wasn't as good as the one in Grave Encounters. The only good ones were the soundman and camera man, and sadly they didn't have enough screen time.

Direction left a lot to be desired. Cinematography and effects (especially sound) are commendable.

Promising, had potential, but execution wasn't upto the mark. It still had it's moments though.


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Last edited by _____V_____; 02-22-2012 at 10:06 AM.
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