The Subjects

After seeing the fake reviews from users that signed up the same month that they post the review, I... well, I'm making a review signing up just mere minutes before making the review. Alright, not the best intro, but hey, I prefer to start by being honest.

Now, about the movie... no spoilers here, I'll just say that it turned to be really entertaining for me. I didn't recognize any important actors (you know, the OHHH IT'S THAT ACTOR/ACTRESS), but they did their part alright for me.

The plot is rather interesting as well, even with the limited background story that is given by the script. Just a bunch of people dealing with the circumstances in which they are put into, and what comes out of it. And the human nature affecting everyone's decisions. In all, it keeps you watching to see what's happening to who, and that's the minimum a plot can aim to.

Yes, there might be some plot holes left unexplained, but nothing groundbreaking or that might ruin the experience.

In sum, don't be mislead or discouraged by the glowing and amazing reviews of users days old (despite being said by an user minutes old :P), The Subjects is worth watching.

"Superhero" films are a dime a dozen, and the genre has grown so stale and life-less as to be a modern caricature of their former glory. This film takes a wholly unique approach to the "human with special powers" angle, and really runs with it. While being an entertaining film that will hold your interest for its entire run-time, it could have used so much more TLC in order to make it a classic in the sub-genre.

I knew this film was going to be interesting after the first power was "introduced". It was shocking, and came out of nowhere, and really sets the stage for the rest of the film. The SFX is low budget, and very poorly done in some instances, and the acting is disjointed and all over the place. Some actors are good, while others (like "Jizz") should never appear in a film ever again. The story is unique, with plenty of twists and turns, and the run time of one hour and 11 minutes makes it an easy watch, although not all of the pertinent questions are answered in the end.

Overall, this film varies too much in all departments to be given a proper score. The acting ranges from B-grade to less than F, as do the special effects, and the script. Ultimately, it's a very unbalanced film that does a lot of things well, but ruins it by doing so many things so unbelievably poorly, it's literally laughable. Had it been more consistent, it would have really been something special. But a low budget does not excuse such an unbalanced end result.

With more time, a better script, a more talented cast, and a better SFX budget, this film would have been a classic. As it stands, it's just another entertaining side dish to meatier and better made films. A solid C effort, especially considering the subject matter.

The Subjects is the type of movie that utilizes "strangers trapped on predicament" scheme, with added superpower twist. This is not the caliber of X-Men nor does it deliver a cerebral psychology commentary of the powers' repercussion. What it does decently is producing satire of sci-fi which seems bizarre at first, but might just be odd enough for a realistic display of men given extreme powers with barely any supervision.

Story revolves around this group of men and women who are willing participants in a medical experiment. Most of the narrative is presented in mock commercial and brief tapes, and the rest moves along with the group's banter. The movie, like the characters, is confined to the room, so this is not the adventure fantasy type where fireballs are thrown at constant rate.

A lot of the plot hinges on chemistry of the cast, and admittedly these are colorful characters, almost too lively in fact. Sometimes they appear far too comical or predictably mysterious. These personalities are ludicrous versions of nerd, suave gentleman and thug instigator. The movie plays around with their oddities, resulting in a mixed bag of silly antics and actual violence.

Most of the banters are rather too strange, even for satirical purpose, although this does serendipitously produce humor. Its clash between serious tone and campy delivery can be too jarring for some. Furthermore, those who are not too familiar with sci-fi might not appreciate the cumbersome amount of fictional expositions.

This movie doesn't possess narrative depth or grand special effect, although it's presentably wacky enough for a simple entertainment.

There's some fun dialogue at times. There's an interesting idea. Good casting. The basic story is, conceptually, good.

But the problem I had watching it was that I was thrown every 30 seconds between hating the script and all illogical stuff, and getting back to that it was actually quite fun and entertaining.

There's plenty of illogical stuff going on in this movie, and in that I don't even include the stuff that were meant to be illogical, or the sci-fi element.

I think my problem with The Subjects boils down to that this movie could have been good if it had focused more on one of the genres/themes it contained: comedy, a group of people stuck together, superpowers, or the clinical trial experiment. Choose one and tone the other three down. But now, the comedy comes sporadically, the group of people stuck together had to be compressed in between everything else that went down, the superpowers were too over the top, and the clinical trial was just a means for transportation to get to the scenario set up (from a scientific standpoint it was cringe worthy).

I switched back and fourth between enjoying The Subjects and finding it ridiculous.

Today I gave it 4/6 Any other day I could have given it a 6/10 depending on the mood

There are those who make movies and those who watch movies.

In the former group, there is a mission, a Holy Grail of moviedom if you like, to attempt to make the best movie you can with the least resources.

Imagine a movie done in on a single set with a half dozen or so unknown actors ... minimal resources ... could you make it work? Director/Writer Mond gave it a try with THE SUBJECTS and this reviewer thinks he succeeded.

The gold standard for these sorts of films -- there have been dozens -- is THE CUBE, a Canadian film done in 1999.

To make these films work you need good acting, yes, but above all you need a killer script, a script that just keeps the attention of the viewer. Keeps you glued.

I think THE SUBJECTS has such a script. I recommend the film and hope it gets the following it deserves.

And for those sincere reviewers who keep insisting this is some sort of "anti-superhero" flick, a riff off our modern obsession with superpowers, some kind of "message movie," you are missing the point entirely,