The Division: Agent Origins

There only few quirks in the movie that seem unrealistic. However with such minimal budget, this is very well made. I know you have seen movies when a man standing in the middle of the gun fight and he wins, killed all 300 bad guys. This is not so in the movie. The fight seen, especially the last one is very precise. They always take cover, which you do in a real tactical gun fight. Movies always forget to do this just because they wanted a better camera angle.

There are some quirks in the movie that I didn't like. When the Mia the girl was trying to take the gun from the guy, she was having a hard time. She already have a grip of the gun but couldn't take it. If she is very trained(which they portrayed), she would know how to easily flip the wrist and take the gun in a matter of seconds. I Also do not know where and why a shooter just busting up a door and start attacking, just because of Pizza?

It also needed more story on how the prisoners got out? and How the smallpox cause them to be able to escape. Why is it that they didn't get affected by the virus?

Anyway, still a great to watch, and I'm forgiving it since the budget is little. It did keep me interested the whole time which is the most important thing and reason why I am giving it an 8.

TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION: AGENT ORIGINS - now there's a title to contend with! - is a short, 31 minute action film that seems to have been made purely to sell a video game series made by Ubisoft. I'm no gamer, so I don't know anything about that, but what I can confirm is that this short film is very well made and much better than a lot of full-length action thrillers.

First, the bad stuff: there's no real story here, just a collection of action sequences. The setting is an anarchic New York, where a viral pandemic has laid most of the population low and the streets are filled with murderers and looters. The heroes are a group of 'sleeper' agents who must come together to combat lawlessness.

I have to say that the action sequences in this film are very well achieved. There are hand to hand fight scenes here alongside free running and some violent shoot-outs. The camera-work is very nicely achieved and although the characterisation is nil you still end up admiring the athleticism of the participants. Although in essence this film is little more than a lengthy advert, it's a really entertaining one!

The scenario is very poor, in many cases it is not logical. Modern action movie (already classic) American: excellent effects, poor scenario, no logical thread. I suspect positive reviews - from the producer. The first part of this was much better done. But this is very badly done. Hardly I can find 5 rows to describe this time loss called short film.

The 2 previous reviewers obviously don't get the aim of these Live Action episodes for Tom Clancy's The Division: Agent Origins, a video game made by Ubisoft Massive.

The characters in these episodes are not represented in the game, they are based on hypothetical back stories for characters that 'could' exist in the game universe. The game is highly customisable and you play the game as a protagonist that you create. There are set characters within The Division game universe but none which are seen in any of these Agent Origins episodes.

To add to that these are promotional story trailers for a video game. I repeat - a video game. They are not part of a main feature length movie. So besides already spending thousands if not millions of dollars on already actually making the game, Ubisoft has a marketing/promotional department who probably have a finite amounted budget to use on promotional material such as back story trailers/episodes. If you have actually followed the game's development there has been a vast wealth of promotional videos covering various aspects of the game's features, development, story, community events.

Back to the Agent Origins short film, there most likely never would be too much fleshing out of characters, a huge production budget or development of a feature length story - that's what the game is for.

If you're a fan of the game you most likely have already seen the Agent Origins shirt film/episodes, and appreciate the production, mini-stories, characters, gadgets/gear, weapons, action sequences, easter eggs, and setting that they're shot in.

The Agent Origins live action film series is supposed to be short & sweet, and it hits the nail on the head in regards to The Division's atmosphere, setting, and main game points. The action sequences are exciting to watch with great audio and SFX keeping you in the moment, and the action is not too heavy, with equal snippets of humor, drama, and character and story development thrown in between. There also multiple perspectives shown, such as from the bad guys (Factions), civilians caught in the conflict, and of course the Agents themselves.

If you are a fan of the game, or curious about the game, I would recommend this to you to watch.

I would also recommend watching Ghost Recon Alphas - another short film made by Ubisoft.

As a fan of the game series, I was a little disappointed that this series did not expand further on the already very rich narrative of The Division. However, I can appreciate the cinematography and well framed action shooting it took to put all this together. Taken as a whole, this is a pretty decent addition, even if it is short on narrative.