Jason KingSkyline (5/10)
November 22nd 2010 00:15
:
Impressive Effects
Category: Reviews
After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window. Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air. They soon discover an otherwordly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
When the first trailer for this film hit the screens my friends and me were so excited - it had some amazing visuals and watching a huge chunk of the population get sucked up into a spaceship like dust into a vacuum cleaner was inspirational imagery. It was a breath holder and a moment when people thought this could be it - the Strause brothers who have been amazing in film and effects for years could finally make a spectacular film of their own.
Colin and Greg Strause are special effects royalty in Hollywood having worked on the effects for films like Avatar, Titanic, Iron Man 1 & 2, X-Men, 300 and a list that is very impressive and goes on and on. They directed their first feature film AvP - Requiem a couple of years back and the film was a dog although the effects were impressive. So everyone had high hopes this one could be the one to throw them into the mainstream as directors.
And to some extent they do make it and the film is successful, however sadly, only through it's effects. They are spectacular and make the film, however the plot is kind of silly and the ending, while it explains a lot of interesting things, is pretty ridiculous.
One thing that I love about this film and find absolutely amazing is the budget and the success to which they put it to. Based on budget this film is sensational. To film the movie only cost $500,000. That's it. However, it also cost them another $10MIL for the effects. But seriously this film has better effects than say Independence Day which was made for over $100MIL. This is why these guys are so good at their effects. And another brilliant thing about this film. They own the whole thing. They financed the film themselves and it is not owned by any studio, excluding distribution rights. The film was almost entirely filmed at co-director Greg Strause's condo building in Marina Del Rey, CA.
The film has some mildly known people in it. The two leads are Eric Balfour and Scottie Thompson. Balfour is known from TV and most notably 24 and The OC. He has also had roles in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Spread. I like him. He is very good looking and holds the camera well, this film would have totally sucked if the actors did but they keep it from sliding into oblivion. Thompson is also known from TV and it kept bugging me that I could not work out where I knew her from. Then it hit me - she was Tony's girlfriend for a season in NCIS. And she was also Nero's wife in Star Trek. I also found her ok in the film. It must be so hard working in front of Blue Screens or showing emotion to non existent threats. For this I find these two admirable, all though the entire argument they have about being pregnant was just unnecessary.
And one person you should all recognise from the film is Donald Faison - but none of you will probably know his name. You will all know him as Turk, from Scrubs. I just love him but there is no humour from him in this one, it is pure action drama. As for the rest of the cast it is pretty lame.
The film is a great visual B grade mish mash of such films as Independence Day for it's invasion visuals, (surprisingly) The Matrix - you may or may not feel the same way as me about this at the end of the film and District 9 - for it's low budget Alien styled film - although it fails miserably compared to the wonder of District 9.
Nothing is really explained until the lame ending and while the ending was lame the theory behind the invasion is fresh and I enjoyed it. The film could be open for a sequel and trilogy possibly, but I doubt it will eventuate. Eventually I loved the idea of the story and the film but it failed in its delivery except for the visuals. Visuals must be backed up for people to enjoy things otherwise we all would have loved the newer Star Wars films
.
It is out now and worth a 5 out of 10.
When the first trailer for this film hit the screens my friends and me were so excited - it had some amazing visuals and watching a huge chunk of the population get sucked up into a spaceship like dust into a vacuum cleaner was inspirational imagery. It was a breath holder and a moment when people thought this could be it - the Strause brothers who have been amazing in film and effects for years could finally make a spectacular film of their own.
Colin and Greg Strause are special effects royalty in Hollywood having worked on the effects for films like Avatar, Titanic, Iron Man 1 & 2, X-Men, 300 and a list that is very impressive and goes on and on. They directed their first feature film AvP - Requiem a couple of years back and the film was a dog although the effects were impressive. So everyone had high hopes this one could be the one to throw them into the mainstream as directors.
And to some extent they do make it and the film is successful, however sadly, only through it's effects. They are spectacular and make the film, however the plot is kind of silly and the ending, while it explains a lot of interesting things, is pretty ridiculous.
One thing that I love about this film and find absolutely amazing is the budget and the success to which they put it to. Based on budget this film is sensational. To film the movie only cost $500,000. That's it. However, it also cost them another $10MIL for the effects. But seriously this film has better effects than say Independence Day which was made for over $100MIL. This is why these guys are so good at their effects. And another brilliant thing about this film. They own the whole thing. They financed the film themselves and it is not owned by any studio, excluding distribution rights. The film was almost entirely filmed at co-director Greg Strause's condo building in Marina Del Rey, CA.
The film has some mildly known people in it. The two leads are Eric Balfour and Scottie Thompson. Balfour is known from TV and most notably 24 and The OC. He has also had roles in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Spread. I like him. He is very good looking and holds the camera well, this film would have totally sucked if the actors did but they keep it from sliding into oblivion. Thompson is also known from TV and it kept bugging me that I could not work out where I knew her from. Then it hit me - she was Tony's girlfriend for a season in NCIS. And she was also Nero's wife in Star Trek. I also found her ok in the film. It must be so hard working in front of Blue Screens or showing emotion to non existent threats. For this I find these two admirable, all though the entire argument they have about being pregnant was just unnecessary.
And one person you should all recognise from the film is Donald Faison - but none of you will probably know his name. You will all know him as Turk, from Scrubs. I just love him but there is no humour from him in this one, it is pure action drama. As for the rest of the cast it is pretty lame.
The film is a great visual B grade mish mash of such films as Independence Day for it's invasion visuals, (surprisingly) The Matrix - you may or may not feel the same way as me about this at the end of the film and District 9 - for it's low budget Alien styled film - although it fails miserably compared to the wonder of District 9.
Nothing is really explained until the lame ending and while the ending was lame the theory behind the invasion is fresh and I enjoyed it. The film could be open for a sequel and trilogy possibly, but I doubt it will eventuate. Eventually I loved the idea of the story and the film but it failed in its delivery except for the visuals. Visuals must be backed up for people to enjoy things otherwise we all would have loved the newer Star Wars films
.It is out now and worth a 5 out of 10.
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