Forgotten Experiment

I'm really surprised by all the poor reviews in here. Right up front, this is not a "great" movie. I had doubts when I started it. Dubbing is, meh? Ok. Russian is hard to overdub to. I almost turned it off after 15 minutes or so, but it drew me in. Finally! A movie with a new storyline. One I hadn't come across before. It jumps back and forth in timelines, but in a very different way. It isn't the easiest movie to "follow", but that's OK. Think "Primer" or "Time Crimes". It's made on a smaller budget so don't expect HUGE CGI scenes. I found it quite entertaining. Others might not. But it is fresh, and worth a watch..

With due respect, enough with the 'give everything you don't like a 1-star rating' ... it does not do this movie justice. Did they even watch the movie? I've given my share of 1's ... this movie is FAR from that. OK, not a theater-level film, but it is closer to that than a 1!

So, credit where due. The first thing is the camera and scenery work: the crew obviously really knew what they were doing. Pretty good direction too; some of the shot setups were creative and kept the audience focused. The acting was spot on, to a cooky kind of script.

So it is a cooky story, but did not have any big holes. It is SciFi so a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required, but nothing this movie doesn't handle very well. In fact if I were into the genre I would likely have rated this higher.

This one is well worth the time.

I have no idea why all the hate. I enjoyed this movie a lot and was very interested right up until the satisfying end. I watch a ridiculous amount of sci-fi and half of it is indie. I would normally give this a 6.5 but due to all the unfounded hate, I gave it a 7.

The Plot: It starts with a Tony Stark-type person and crew on a plane when it crash lands on an island. The unique power source of the plane is stolen. From here it gets interesting as this fog rolls in and basically, it is like the holodeck projecting a period from the past but also the future.

The mystery unravels as to what is causing the time projections, who stole their power source, what happened to their dad so many years ago and so on. There are unlikely alliances, betrayal, romance and sacrifice.

I won't ruin anything but the story seemed to wrap-up like all to many indie flicks with a moral message and a bad ending. But then the movie carried on for another 15 minutes and I found all of it very satisfying and wrapped up neatly. Overall a solid plot that stayed true to its own set of sci-fi rules.

Effects: For an indie sci-fi I thought the effects were adequate. It was enough to suspend my disbelief and I was pleased with the quality compared to other shows.

Why the low rating?

My guess is that it is a Russian film and they often get low ratings to start. The main actors were good but a couple of the supporting actors were cartoony.

But the biggest issue I had was with the dubbing. Often, the voice actors who dub go overboard and 'ham it up' which takes away from the believability. I am not sure who to fault with that but would like a 2nd opinion from someone who speaks Russian and watched it without dubbing.

I wonder if the plot got a bit complex for some. Movies with time-travel themes often get confusing. Tenet got that way in spots.

This is one I will probably watch again. I would love to see what someone like Nolan would do with it.

Granted, the film suffers from a lack of budget and the voice dubbing (at least the French version) is of mediocre quality (but you get used to that in the end). The script often lacks credibility (for example, when a character is hit from behind, and gets up without trying to find out who hit him...). The background to the story isn't entirely original, and some of the plot elements are hackneyed. OK, OK. But if you make the effort to follow the first 45 minutes (i.e. With your smartphone switched off - this isn't a Facebook-compatible flick), the film gradually gains in depth and interest grows exponentially. It's an atypical science fiction film, or rather a typically Eastern European one, in the vein of the Polish or Russian science fiction writers of the 50s and 60s. Cerebral writing tinged with poetry, lyricism and romanticism.

Despite all its faults, which I don't dispute, I had a much more enjoyable and satisfying time watching it than I did watching The Rise of Skywalker. Not difficult, you might say. True, but ...

I rarely do these, but I saw someone say this is better than MCU movies. It's really not. Tommy Wiseau makes better movies than these people. Mediocre effects, silly writing and the acting? There isn't any. This is why you shouldn't start the movie, because god knows I couldn't finish it. I'm pretty sure the entire movie was redubbed, badly, in ADR too. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but if some gives a glowing review to a movie with 3 stars, you have to wonder if they were involved somehow. Imagine having to face loved ones involved in this movie and smile and nod while trying not to lie and compliment at the same time. Find a food you hate and spend 1 hour and 44 minutes eating that instead.