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Archive for May, 2006

A landmark in filmmaking, too bad it’s not as good as we remember.

Okay courageous readers, here’s something new for you. The first review of a movie based very stongly on a book. Due to the complexity of the original Michael Crichton book, I kind of have to look at this review in a different manner. This was both a good movie, and a crappy movie. By that I mean in comparison to the book. If you look at the book and compare directly to the movie, the movie sucked. However, if you look solely at the movie, it was a pretty damn good movie. Since most of my readers are likely more interested in the movie alone, I will focus purely on the latter. Just the movie. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum, and Samuel L. Jackson (how many movies is he in anyway?), this movie is truly a landmark in filmaking as it was one of the first movies to have animals created in CGI.

Plot

Entreprenuer John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) discovers a way to clone dinosours by using the DNA extracted from the petrified remains of mostiquitos trapped in amber. After cloning many species and stuffing them on an island as a type of amusement park, he enlists the help of palentologist Alan Grant (Sam Neil), Paleobotonist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathmatician Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) to help convince the investers that his park is safe. However, Hammond does not realize that park worker Dennis Nedry (Wayne Night) has other plans for the precious park, and attempts to steal embryos of the animals to sell to a competing company. After Nedry turns off security in the park, all hell breaks loose trapping Grant in the park with two children when the dinosaurs are loose and hungry for the hunt. Based on the Michael Crichton book of the same name, the plot follows fairly closely to the book, and only misses on a few small points.

Visual

The CGI is really very impressive considering that this movie was made in 1993, right at the beginning of CGI in movies. In fact, there are only a few points where you are able to distinguish the computer animated marvels from the animatronic; and those points are easy to overlook if you let the movie draw you in. Nothing really special in the way of cinematography, but it’s a Spielberg so each shot is well planned and captures exactly what it’s meant to. Just nothing creative and new from the camera angles.

Audio

Great theme song and decent music are key in this movie, as are the sound effects. However, in the way of sound effects, it is WAY too easy to pick out the individual animal sounds from the dino roars. I catch myself thinking “who let an elephant in here?” or “add some tiger to some dolphin and we’ve got a cool growling sound, that works.” That is my main complaint with this movie. If the dino roars were believable and not just a mash-up of current-day animal sounds, I think the movie would be a lot better off.

Acting

Meh. I’ve seen better. But I’ve seen a lot worse too. The acting either seems too flat or too forced. The actors don’t really seem to work to create the believability that a movie involving dinosaurs needs to be effective. But, they don’t really suck either. There are certain points where the acting is mostly believable, but those points almost always involve the minor details instead of the major. But, maybe I’m just being overly critical.

Summary

I really enjoy this movie each time I watch it. Back in the days before I had ADD I used to be a huge fan of Crichton, so naturaly I enjoy the movies based off of his books (except Timeline, god did that movie suck my swollen left nut). The only unfortunate thing about this flick is the mash-up of animal sounds for the roaring and growling sounds of the dinos, and the flat/forced acting. I do think Spielberg could have done better with both of those, but I will give props for the astoundingly smooth CGI, even for the old-school. All in all, this movie is more entertaining than high quality. It’s fun, but doesn’t really make you think. And sometimes we all need to be entertained and not made to think, right? So even though this 1993 movie disappoints in a few aspects, I give it a very stong 3 growling dolphins out of 5

Feel like playing a naughty game? Do us a favor and play this instead of strip poker. No one wants to see that.

Throughout video game history, there have been a number of exceedingly appropriate titles for games: God of War was war-like, Doom sent you to Hell, Devastation was devastating, and The Guy Game was… stupid. Wait, what?… Enter stage right SiN: Emergence. I feel I need to go to Confession after playing this game, and I’m not even Catholic. Extravagant Boobies, excessive swearing, glorified violence, g-strings, drive-bys, drugs, graffiti–they sure know how to make a gamer feel at home. But even if you aren’t a fan of gratuitous sex and violence (who isn’t, I ask you?), you may still enjoy this shooter.

Based on the Half-Life 2 Source engine, this first episode in the SiN series has sophisticated graphics, advanced physics, and handles very well. People familiar with Half-Life will be immediately headshot’ing happily. Newcomers will discover how an engine is supposed to be made, as it is easy to learn yet difficult to master. Gameplay-wise, Emergence doesn’t radically change the experience from Half-Life 2, but every game can’t be groundbreaking (and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).

Emergence features custom difficulty settings that can make even the most leet gamer sweat or just let a casual gamer enjoy the scenery. Flaws in the A.I. can be rather annoying, however, as enemies shoot when they shouldn’t even be aware of you. At other times, they don’t shoot when they should. Further flaws allow weapons fire and grenades to travel through solid objects (it seems always in their favor, too). But since Emergence is handled by Steam, updating and correcting problems isn’t a major issue. And you little punks that think no game is too difficult for your leetness, you will be humbled on difficult settings.

The story is about as good as you can get from a 4th grade creative writing class. I don’t even recall why I was chasing this guy and shooting anyone in my way. Allah demands it… sounds like a good reason to me. And then there’s this lady who always talks bitchy to you. Throw in a good “you’ve been injected with something; now find the antidote” and some crazed mutants and you’ve got yourself a story. It doesn’t matter much anyways because I just want to shoot things. As more episodes are released, I hope the story becomes more intense and memorable. I like being drawn in, or immersed as it were. On a side note, why are mutants always crazed? Where are all the civilized mutants sipping tea and passing the crumpets?

The atmosphere of the game is a whole ‘nother chestnut. I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between this game’s atmosphere and Deus Ex: Invisible War’s atmosphere. The level of interaction, visual style, and sounds each reinforce the ideas of the similar future in found Deus Ex. Not to diminish the in-game music, but the title screen song “What’s The World Come To” is perhaps a video game first for being better than any in-game stuff. If only Emergence had its own Kidneythieves, I could groove while sinning so badly.

For twenty bucks, you can’t do much better than this. I think Ritual Entertainment has a good plan of capitalizing on low budget opportunities and selling smaller story segments at lower prices. I know I personally bought the game because it was so inexpensive. Just don’t expect a long game or a large variety of weapons–it’s called an episode for a reason. And just when you think it’s over, Ritual graciously provides the original 1998 SiN with multiplayer alongside Emergence for your shooting needs. All in all, it’s a decent package filled with everything sinful. To miss out on it when it is so inexpensive would simply be blasphemy.

3 “Hail Mary’s” out of 5

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War games matrixified

Welcome grateful readers to a change in my lineup…a TV show. Or rather, ex TV show. That’s right. Change. Who here likes the X-Files? Everyone? Good. Then you will love this show. Yeah, it’s not the X-Files, but it is along the same lines. I rather equate this show to X-Files meats the matrix. It’s frickin’ awesome. I am willing to bet though that all 1.4 of my loyal readers neither watched this show when it was on, nor remember it being on at all. And to that I say, too damn bad for you. But you’re in luck as Fox is a money whore and is now selling this great show in DVD format (they’ve shined away from beta since it stopped selling in the 70s…). Harsh Realm is the name of the show, and Chris Carter, Mr. X-Files himself is the creator.

Plot

Lieutenant Tom Hobbes of the United States Army, after saving the life of a close friend in a military conflict, decides to retire from the army life and move with his fiance to California and start a new life. That is, until two MPs come to his door and ask him to pack an overnight bag and report for a secret assignment. Hobbes finds himself plunged into a virtual reality world of extraordinary realism where a vicious dictator named Santiago holds the high score by ruling the entire virtual world. Hobbes’ sole assignment: win the game by killing Santiago and taking the high score. But it’s not long after he enters the world that Hobbes realizes there is more than meets the eye. He finds out that if he dies in Harsh Realm, he dies in the real world too. He also realizes that there is no escape without killing Santiago. And thus begins his quest to try and win through all the impossibilities that await him around every corner in a desperate hope to return to his fiance in the real world.

Visual

Pretty cool cinematography, but no real CGI as Harsh Realm is just as real looking as the real world. The visual affects really take on an X-files feel thanks to Chris Carter. But otherwise, nothing to mention other than the occasional programming glitch allowing characters to shift in and out of certain areas, leaving a cool wavy visual thing. But it was also just a TV show and not a high budget action film.

Sound

Although the sound effects were pretty high quality, the thing that really needs the most recognition is the music. Certain areas in this show really take on a whole different feeling thanks to the fantastically organized music. And even though this was just a TV show, it was quite obvious that Chris Carter spent more that one pretty penny to create the perfect feel with the music.

Acting

Pretty impressive for a TV show, and you might even recognize a few of the actors. But I really couldn’t say that the acting is fantastic, and sometimes the characters take on a very flat cold type. This is really the only drawback I see with this show.

Summary

Damn you FOX! They cancelled this show after showing only three episodes, but fortunately the DVD actually includes all nine original episodes. But, if you buy the DVD, get ready to be pissed off by the ending. Does Hobbes finally kill Santiago and escape from Harsh Realm? Don’t count on it eager reader, cause it doesn’t happen. Sorry to ruin the ending, but Fox screwed us on this show. I guess there just weren’t as many viewers as other fine programs such as Greg the Bunny. Yep. Well, I’ve ranted long enough and will leave you all with this: you really should try to see this show in its entirety. Even though the ending sucked, all nine episodes were quite impressive and not worth missing.

4 DAMN YOU FOXs out of 5.

“Huh?”

All right, Wachowski brothers, here’s your motivation: You took one of the most original movies and brutally murdered it with the sequel, it’s the final installment, fix it. Yeah, that happened. Honestly, I loved the original Matrix, and if you’ve read my review on Reloaded you know how I felt about that one. This movie, however, fell somewhere in the middle. Still, its shortcomings were more than obvious and I felt like the brothers still missed the mark. But it definitely was an improvement from Reloaded–at least a little (right up until the ending).

Plot

Continuing from Reloaded, Neo and the rebels of Zion attempt to fight back against a huge army of sentinels and other machines. Final hope lies in Neo fulfilling the prophecy and stopping the robots. But here’s the kick: the way Neo stops the robots is to waltz into the mechanical city, walk up to their leader and get plugged into the matrix to kill Agent Smith. Once smith is dead, the robots will stop the fighting, free all the “batteries and have peace. The reason for this deal? Agent Smith has taken over the Matrix. Here’s what I think: delete the matrix and start over. Agent Smith will be deleted as well right? Or even still, after Smith takes over the matrix, he duplicates himself with every person right? I believe the Architect stated in Reloaded how easily the people plugged into the matrix figured out the matrix was fake. Wouldn’t seeing like 12 thousand of the same person make every battery in the matrix wake up? Maybe that’s just me, but it seems like a huge hole in the plot.

Visual

Fantastic yet again. The Wachowski bros really hit the mark on each movie here, but since Revolutions didn’t quite have enough in the way of action, the special effects weren’t nearly as extensive as the previous two. Also, I noticed that the final Neo/Smith fight scene really seemed a bit on the fake side. It was almost like the bros were trying too hard to make it look unusual. Smith and Neo getting slammed about and thrown inconceivable distances by punches that didn’t really look that hard, and the single hardest hit in the whole movie didn’t even look all that devastating. Of course, the hand to face effect was pretty neat (though a little over-done).

Audio

What happened to the kick-ass soundtrack of Reloaded? It seemed like instead of awesome rock and techno, it was all composed. All of it. But, the surround sound was frickin’ awesome. I really missed the rock though. I mean, anyone who knows me knows I won’t scoff at good classical music, but I felt like Revolutions should have been more about hard rock than composed classical. Oh well.

Acting

Guess what? The only increase in acting performance was from the only actors I had never heard of. Everyone else, including the people who carried over from Reloaded, gave a flat and very unbelievable delivery. This just doesn’t seem right to me. Why in the hell would the people making millions for this movie give the worst performance, when the people making table scraps were the most believable? Damn. I’m in the wrong business. Anyway, although it was slightly better than reloaded, I still found the performances less than moving.

Summary

The plot was less than believable with some pretty massive holes. The ending made me leave the movie theater thinking, “what the fuck?” The good music was gone, and the acting was only a little better than Reloaded’s. It was really hard having this movie conclude the most impressive and original sci-fi/action movie in many years. I was very disappointed, but I have to admit that I really did enjoy most of this flick. It was really the very ending that pissed me off. Surely the bros must realize that you don’t want your audience to FINISH the movie angry. Maybe if you piss ‘em off early they can still leave happy, but right at the end? Come on, that’s just fricken’ stupid. You know what I wanted to see from this ending? I wanted Neo to wake up and the whole adventure having been a dream. That would have been more believable, plus the shock effect would leave the movie in the top forever. Anyway, the final word is this: it sucked, but it was still better than Reloaded.  3 out of 5.

Kinda wish I could go back in time and slap the Wachowskis before they started making this one

Wachowski brothers, what the hell happened? You went from one of the coolest and most original movies in many years to creating this drivel. What the hell? Anyway, let’s get this going right. I loved the original Matrix. And there were parts in this movie that weren’t terrible, I really felt like the Wachowski brothers kind of lost their way with this flick. I heard this movie described as a bridge from the beginning to the end, but I think the bridge is pretty crumbly and poorly built. Just so you know, I am aware that a lot of the plot from this movie is included in the video game “Enter the Matrix” and that you must play the game to get the movie better, but I saw the game played and I don’t really think it helped.

Plot

I can sum up the plot for Reloaded in just one word: confusing. “you’ve already made the choice–you’re just here to try and figure out why” Huh? What’s that even supposed to mean? Anyway, the general layout is this: Neo and the leaders of Zion discover an impending attack, and Neo takes it into his hands to try and stop the attack, and to figure out why he is who he is. Of course, there’s a lot more to it but it really feels too disjointed from the other two matrix movies to make a decent review here. There was so much talk about the “choice” in this movie, that if not for the excellent special effects, I might have made the “choice” to leave the theater. But that’s what it really boils down to, special effects over plot, that’s what made this movie work. I don’t want to just walk all over the movie though, as I think some of the things that were said really needed to be done in order to build towards a proper ending. Plus the movie is based very strongly off of various religions, and perhaps the joining of several religious ideals is what made the movie seem disjointed.

Visual

Absolutely. Stunning. This section is what actually made this movie work. Special effects and cinematography kept me in the movie. So many scenes are visually compelling and even beyond. While watching in the theater, I actually found myself ducking to the left and right and ducking and weaving and what-not. Most movies don’t have this effect on me and I really enjoyed the more active approach to the movie theater. I really can’t expound enough on how fantastic the CGI was in MOST parts of this flick. However, there are a few scenes that the CGI was obviously wrong. For instance, during a fight scene in a sea of Smith’s, Neo’s cloak robe thingy is flying about and it just looks obviously fake. Actually, now that I think of it all scenes in that cloak coat dealie just look fake as hell. But most everything else was truly stunning. I do have to ask though, what gives with the ten minute long sex scene/orgy/dance scene? Even though this scene has helped me get laid a few times, I really think it’s about 9 minutes too long.

Audio

I. Love. This. Album. Not the composed music but the rock and techno by real artists. It’s my favorite road trip CD and I never get tired of most of these songs. Plus, the music is subtle but effective in the movie, so after watching a few times you notice the music, but the first time through it just blends quite well. As for the sound effects: very well done. It is obvious that the Wachowski brothers chose very wisely on the dude who organized the sound effects. Plus, anyone who has 5.1 will get a kick out of great surround quality.

Acting

Flat. The Frenchman is quite possibly my favorite character just because he actually has depth. Everyone else seemed forced with most of the acting. Even the Oracle really seemed like she was forcing her role, it was not as believable and really didn’t help capture the delight and fantasy that the original Matrix was able to create.

Summary

Disappointment. I don’t see how you can mess up the first floor of a house when you have such a solid foundation, but the Wachowski brothers managed it. They poured sand on top of concrete and expected it to turn into walls just because it was on concrete. But, like I mentioned before, a lot of these things needed to be said and done, they just needed to organize it a little better and relay the meaning a lot better. Fortunately, the special effects are great and the audio is just as good. And although this movie left me wishing instead of waiting like it should have, I did enjoy it overall, but would not recommend it unless you want to get confused and leave a little ticked off at the “cliffhanger” that made no sense.

3 incomplete sentences* out of 5

*Editor’s note: I give up.

Who actually needs a review to convince them to see “The Matrix?”

I freakin’ love this damn movie. It’s creative, original, and well created. The Wachowski brothers hit the mark in every possible way here, from the fantastic and beautifully crafted special effects to the incredibly original plot and story line. This Sci-fi/Action flick in my opinions redefines the lines of both genres. There’s really not enough I can say about the amazing originality of this movie, I just love the idea of waking up in another reality. There’s something about that idea that seems excessively appealing to me, and this movie encourages that idea so perfectly that I need new pants (Cause I just showed my O face to the computer screen. Get it?) But anyway, here’s some serious props to the Wachowski brothers for a fantastic flick.

Plot

Average everyday guy Thomas Anderson (hacker alias Neo) spends every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment (well, every time sleeping technically if you’ve seen the movie, cause he’s a battery and always sleeping in the…well, you get it) Searching for answers to life’s little mysteries. That, and some guy named Morpheus. Morpheus ends up finding Neo and offers him a red pill to see “how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Neo soon finds himself hurled into a different world running from the “Feds” and realizing the answer to the question: “what is the Matrix?” The answer? A virtual reality world created to keep billions of people asleep and unaware of the bitter world that is “the desert of the real.” But why are these people imprisoned? To turn them into batteries for the machines to live off of. Neo is then told that he is the one that will free all people from the Matrix.

Visual

Absolutely awesome. As many times as I have watched this movie, I could not find a single visual flaw in it. Everything is perfect to what it should be. The Matrix is beautifully crafted after our current cities (New York, I think) and really is believable. As for the real world, it’s a filthy, desolate place where the only happy retreat is plugging into the matrix itself. It’s so perfectly grimy and terrible, that it really makes you feel almost dirtier just for watching the movie. Some key visuals, as you all have seen, are the bullet dodging scenes. The slower they are the better. I just love when Neo is first realizing his abilities while fighting Morpheus and the slow-motion looking blurry hand movements as Neo takes the upper hand in the fight. Then when on the roof top and Neo dodges around the bullets “screaming” by in super slow-mo, it’s just freakin’ awesome.

Audio

Badass rock, even better techno. The Wachowski brothers really don’t leave you imagining what could have been here. They make sure that the music fits perfectly and flawlessly in the whole movie. There wasn’t a single moment where I thought, “wait, that song doesn’t fit here.” I thought all of it was perfect. Plus major appearances from Rage Against The Machine and some techno by bands I’ve never heard of but that were freakin’ great. In addition to the awesome music were some very kick-ass sound effects. Every touch of sound was very impressive. All of the shattering glass, the gunshots, the punching sounds, it’s all blended perfectly into a wonderfully believable flick.

Acting

Well, kind of what you’d expect really. Nothing that really blows my skirt up, but it didn’t really suck either. It really seemed like the Wachowski bros really wanted the performances to be just a touch on the flat side. If that is the case, then everything was perfect. But, otherwise the acting was just a touch on the flat side. Either way. Very impressive performance from Keanu Reaves, and I laugh every damn time I hear the line “I know kung fu” (thanks in part to Celebrity Jeopardy Skits from SNL (For the last time, no you don’t)). Did I just use a double parenthesis? Right, moving on. On the plus side, this movie was actually made when Carrie Anne Moss was still hot (look closely at her face next time you watch Reloaded and Revolutions, its like looking at a leather seat from the 50’s…gross).

Summary

Good God damn I love this movie. I’ve seen this movie so many times I practically have the whole thing memorized, but I still never really get tired of it. I just flat love the part where Neo goes to try and save Morpheus. The whole movie following that point just makes me need new pants. (Get it? I alluded to the O face thing I said earlier. Get it? Huh?) Right, moving on. If you actually haven’t seen this movie, you should just eat a bullet now. Either that or see the damn movie. The latter would be more PC but if you’re actually reading this review for encouragement to go out and spend a whopping dollar to rent this flick for the first time, then you probably should be shot. Or you have been in a coma for 30 years and just woke up four days ago. In that case, go rent it, you’ll like it, trust me. 5 “I know kung fu’s” out of 5

I wish I could find a good MMO

So I was looking for a distraction from school this one time and thought to myself, “Hey, an MMO would be nice!” Thus the search began to find a MMO that I could actually get into and wouldn’t abandon my characters after a month or so. What I found, however, was The Matrix Online.

I started actually playing this game during beta testing and thoroughly enjoyed it. What made it so fun was not necessarily the gameplay–it was more the community. There was one server running and all the beta testers knew each other. I guess this is a major reason people can ruin their lives over MMOs, but for me, even the best community won’t keep me playing an un-fun game. Once the game released, the shit hit the proverbial fan. First of all, I hate how MMOs are split onto different servers; don’t feed me that BS that it is the only technological way possible because I don’t care. Fix the problem network programmers. The game’s release also drastically changed the community, leveling at lower levels was different than what I had learned in beta, combat still absolutely sucked, and all I got was a plain black virtual t-shirt as recognition for beta testing. The new gang members in lower level areas were the worst: where you could experience the awesomeness of the movies kicking gangs’ asses earlier, now they could one hit kill you. Lame bitch tactics were the best solution. THAT’S NOT FUN MONOLITH (especially if you’re a newbie and that’s the first thing you encounter). It actually drains the fun from you. Crap, even with all the bugs in Enter the Matrix, it doesn’t drain you like MxO does. Why is it that The Matrix films (or any flicks, for that matter) can’t be converted into good games? Let’s hope Stargate Worlds doesn’t misfire, too. Please Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, learn from Monolith’s mistakes!

This isn’t just MxO though. I think the entire genre needs a revolutionary game that breaks away from all the mundane and “inherent” parts of leveling up, learning every aspect of the game, and not being able to put the game on hold for a while without doing major catch-ups later. I want to be able to pick up the game and immediately have the same kind of fun experience as the guy who hasn’t logged off for more than 20 minutes this week (it would’ve been 15 minutes, but his supply of Red Bull ran low). Hello? Are MMO developers reading this? Why aren’t there minigames or puzzles or even interactions with other people as well as market stuff that can give experience? I don’t want to spend 30 hours killing endless mobs, and I don’t want to find an exploit that will do it for me either! Why can’t the person’s gaming skill help determine level? Dammit, I hope they can make Starate Worlds a successful MMOFPS so skill is rewarded, not patience.

Enough of my continuing disappointments in MMOs and back to MxO. I stuck with it long enough for their combat revision to release, but I don’t know why. They lied when they said they were fixing multiple enemy engagements. Hell, single enemy engagements were still terrible. Leveling still didn’t make sense. Events were becoming exclusive to higher levels and people of “importance.” And my black beta t-shirt was still sitting in my inventory collecting dust. The only entertaining thing remaining: standing in a crowd running as many emotes as I could till somebody tossed their spare change into my hat on the sidewalk.

It wasn’t all painful, however. It really was a great community during beta. I made some friends, listened to the great online radio stations dedicated to MxO, and went to some surprisingly fun eRaves. The world builders did an amazing job creating Megacity (but a little more variety of buildings couldn’t hurt). It looked straight from The Matrix with all the clothing, events and main characters. And I did manage to ignore school for many hours per week. Not bad.

Not surprisingly, a movie game was disappointing–and doubly so for me since it’s an MMO. One of these days, someone will get it right, even if I have to do it myself. For now, you go on back to your Warcrack while I think of emails to send to Cheyenne Mountain threatening castration if they screw up. Nobody is gonna defile my Stargate… oh, and MxO gets a plain ol’ 2 out of 5.

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A modern generation’s version of Labyrinth, now with fewer David Bowie.

Remember that time you did acid in your best friends basement and watched that one circus movie? Yeah, me neither. But if you could remember that experience without slipping just a little closer to madness, this movie would kind of remind you of that. I really can sum up this movie in just two words: drug trip. But nonetheless, it was a truly interesting and captivating movie. Even with the strange creatures and the alternate reality thing, I really found myself being drawn into this flick. I know what you’re thinking: but King, I’ve never even heard of this. That’s because it’s an independent film ya dork. I hadn’t heard of it either before watching it, and it was definitely worth owning (thanks Jessica for expanding my mind just a little more; you know I could use it!) From acclaimed story teller Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean, this story is beyond Hollywood film making and truly becomes a work of extraordinary talent and vision.

Plot

The daughter of a “successful” circus family, Helena, wants nothing more than to lead an ordinary life. She falls asleep in her bedroom full of trippy charcoal drawings and soon finds herself plummeting into a dream world. Helena’s only hope in escaping from this hellish and bizarre reality is to search out and locate a “mirrormask” that no one has ever seen. While traveling in the alternate reality she is able to look through windows into her own bedroom through her drawings on the wall, and can see a version of herself doing terrible things. It becomes all too apparent that she must escape to her own world before it is too late. During her travels, Helena discovers many new friends and enemies, and learns tons of life lessons–including that sometimes want you want most isn’t what you should want. The movie really feels a lot like Alice in Wonderland meets the Labyrinth meets Wizard of Oz.

Visuals

This film is packed full of stunning visuals. Even before entering the dream world, Helena’s bedroom is packed full of strange and sometimes chilling drawings and artwork. Even the city she lives in is stunning in its blandness and lack of color–a complete opposite from the world where she becomes trapped. As for the alternate reality, it’s packed full of color, strange characters, and bizarre architecture. Although the CGI is not the best, after a short time you really don’t even notice it even more. It becomes more of the story than anything else. My favorite visual throughout the entire movie was where Helena would peek through windows and watch herself do terrible things, but no one else could see through the windows as she could. However, the dream world really takes on a drug trip kind of feel, which makes it fairly difficult to watch, and can even be dizzying at times.

Sound

The music is stunning. I found myself humming the main theme for days after watching it, and it’s so perfectly balanced that you don’t notice the music when you aren’t supposed to, and really feel yourself drawn in by its quality and unique sound.

Acting

I really didn’t recognize any of the actors in this movie, but let me tell you, they did a great job. I believed every bit of acting; even the acid trip parts of the movie seemed believable through the acting cast. Although there was a cliche part of the good guy selling out the main character to the evil lady then coming back to save the main character, it was very well performed and fairly believable.

Conclusion

Buy this movie. Yep. Just go do it. Do my bidding. It won’t be very expensive. It’s only an independent film, so there aren’t a shitload of people’s salaries riding on the purchase. It really is worth the twenty bucks for this flick–it’s that kind of good. The only thing I found wrong with this movie and the only reason it does not recieve 5 stars is that it just seems too drug trippy. It almost seemed that the alternate world was overdone just a little, or perhaps that the creators just expected everyone who watched it to be stoned. And in my opinion, that just enough to downgrade it a little. Anyway, even if you don’t buy this movie, I strongly recommend you rent it or borrow it or something. It’s the perfect movie for when you’re feeling a little depressed and need to see someone else’s crazy-ass life. After seeing this movie, our main editor LilPickle exclaimed “it’s good to see I’m not the only crazy person in this world” or something to that effect… I think I was drunk when he said it, so I’m not really sure on his exact wording, but that’s close enough. Anyway…

4 creepy masked critters out of 5