Cycle

I can't help but wonder about the dark, political references the director might be making to the situation in his homeland in this disturbing tale, which is a cross between Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece and the epic doom and gloom of Hungarian director Bela Tarr. Although the effects aren't as high tech as other high budget sci-fi flicks, they are definitely visually rich, surreal at times, and very effective in telling the story. The only question is what is the real story? The film's title clearly alludes to the seemingly endless circular narrative that offers no escape for the protagonist Jack, as a dark 'fog' – a metaphor for all those uncontrollable forces in our lives – comes creeping closer and closer by the minute. Thankfully, Jack has the courage to venture off the beaten path into some potentially dangerous territory (beautiful and bizarre computer generated spaces) rather than give in, in hopes that he might be able to break the cycle. Despite the somewhat unconventional narrative structure, which actually helps move the story along, Cycle is mesmerising both visually and aurally and has enough stamina to draw you into Jack's world as he tries desperately to escape his nightmarish situation with very little help from the base station or those strange masked men who keep on popping up throughout the course of the film. Suitable for those who like their sci-fi dark and gritty.

I saw this movie at the Sci-Fi London festival. I went with a friend and we had no idea about what we're going to see. We went to see a Hungarian 'arthouse' sci-fi but ended up seeing the most strange and unlikely movie we've ever been to. It was advertised as a computer generated movie but for a couple minutes I thought the shots were actually live action. The hand-held camera simulation certainly adds to the illusion. There are of course a couple of shots where that illusion of reality disappears but for about half an hour you really have to wonder if the movie is "real" or computer generated. It certainly adds to the theme which develops around the concept of a multi-level or multi-verse virtual reality. It is not like like 'Matrix' however. The story revolves around an astronaut trying to find his way out of a messy virtual reality game but there is no way I can describe the story properly because the structure of the storytelling is truly weird. I can only compare it to films like 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Primer' but I can also tell you that it's a lot more complicated than anything that comes to my mind. For me was really hard puzzle to solve. And it is not just a puzzle where you can put the parts together and come up with the one and only solution because the movie has an open ending. This I think makes it only suitable for those who can live without a big moment or a final resolution. But if you're really into finding solutions for nearly unsolvable problems then this movie is for you. I guess knowing a bit about the Church-Turing thesis also helps understanding what's going on. I liked the zen-like soundscapes and the Commodore 64 generated music which reminded me of the '80s. The movie also also operates with references to a number of famous science fiction movies so if you're a film fan I'm sure you'll like this one.

This movie has a few problems.

1. The graphics. It's made fully digitally, and very cheaply too. It can be seen in design, unnatural or mostly repetetive movements (forest run isna good example), face mimic animation, use of masks to avoid animating them, use of assets that look like freebies downloaded from the internet. I can see a massive amount of work put in here, but it hadn't gone well.

2. Camera work. Constant usenof a shaky "disturbing" camera. Why the actual f..k would someone decide to do that? It's horrible and as far as I get that it was meant to be uneasy, worrying, etc. It's only making you want to vomit.

3. Plot. It's basically non existent. Only thenfog, and the sense of entrapment is like taken from UBIK by P. K. Dick, but that is all. Rest is like a scrapbook made by a person with too much glue to sniff, trying to tell to many stories at once, hiping that together they make sense.

4. Clichés. Yes, you can find here few references to well known SF movies, but that scraps cannot make this a good movie.

5. No hope. Not in the story though. From the first few minutes you know that you are wasting your time, and if you stick thru the movie to watch, you will understand how right you was.

One good thing - warp sequence is simply nice to look at.

Imagine a few people doing a sort of radio play and then putting on some generic low quality 3D animation where some characters need to have a mask because there is no budget for different and moving human faces. Nothing is explained or makes any sense, everything is chaotic and dreamlike. Maybe there is some smart idea coming out of this mess later in the film, but I couldn't watch more than 15 minutes before I decided I can't continue.

Overall this is 4.3, strange when there are only 3 other reviews giving it a 10.

A strange mind bending homage to so many films and games, the multiverse version to Primer's time travel. Also seems a bit Lovecraftian.

Totally bonkers and I quite liked it. The CGI wasn't as convincing for me, looked like like a generic decade old sci if video game.