Ascension

It is interesting to see how dramatically people react to this movie. You've got to have an open-minded approach to be able to appreciate the slow, poetic vision of the director. If you don't like to think while watching a film, this is simply not for you.

I think this is a fantastic film. The young women have a talent for magic and poetry for this sort of surrealist artistic statement. It is impossible to take your eyes of them. That is probably also the thought of the camera zooms.

There are a lot of memorable lines. They are loaded with among the most cynicism and nihilism I have heard. Sometimes they are so extreme you have to laugh. It's like watching Evil Dead only you react to the dialouge instead of the gore.

Musicwise it is especially interesting. It reminds me of B-science fiction films set in a post-apocalyptic world, like Cyborg 3, but obviously with fingertip feeling. It merges with the soothing sound design similar to that in Blade Runner.

Overall, well worth watching if you are into Nietzsche-philosophies and Tarkovsky-symbolism.

Everything about this movie is HORRIBLE. I saw the advanced screening of "Ascension" and I was amazed at what I saw. I could not understand how a film like this could get made. Everything about it was awful. The acting was monochromatic, the scenes were atrociously edited and designed, the DIALOGUE was a wonderful effort put in by a third-grade child, the camera movements and shots were uninteresting. The film was bland and repetitive and served no purpose. The only good comments posted about this movie were made by the unimaginitive, banal director. DO ANYTHING TO AVOID SEEING THIS MOVIE, INCLUDING THE GOUGING OF YOUR OWN EYES.

I just saw an advance screening of this film and I barely even know what to write, save for saying that I think I've just found my newest favourite movie. This is the kind of discovery that all cineastes dream of crossing paths with. It will be classified as a fantastique or possibly horror film but it is not really possible to box this film into a specific genre. It is horrific, sardonic, poetic (while often sharply satirizing the very sort of poetry that it so eloquently achieves), hypnotic, provocative, grotesque, sumptuously beautiful and haunting in its caustic irony. So, what genre does that put it in? I think we'll need to create a new one, exclusively for Ascension. In an age where most films have lost the courage to take real narrative chances, here is a work where seemingly every line of dialogue takes a new, different kind of risk, and every gamble pays off. The film's pace is unconventional but absolutely perfect(many will probably liken it to Tarkovsky). It is brilliantly constructed. Work with it and you'll find yourself deep in its trance within minutes and from that point there's no going back until the credits begin to roll and you try to put your mind back together. I love the way this film is paced. The cinematography (shot by the writer / director himself) is breathtaking. It also features one of the greatest music scores I've ever heard. I simply cannot rave enough. This might very well be the best Canadian film in years. I want to see it ten more times. Right now. Tonight. DAMN!

My friend and I have always enjoyed watching all types of arthouse movies. So when we heard of this one we thought "ok cool, this seems like the kinda movie we'd like". We watched this movie in 2004, and now, 18 years later we still talk about "that horrible movie". Just last night my friend said "remember Ascension? I still can't get over that movie". We've recommended the movie to people as a cruel prank, which I'm now thinking no one deserves. We both agree that this is the worst film we've ever seen, and that's saying something.

I saw a screening of "Ascension" and I could not believe that producers actually funded this. I could not beleive how awful it was. Everything that makes film great: acting, dialogue, camera movements, sets etc were so bland and boring that the only thing that kept me in my seat was the faint hope that 1 thing, JUST ONE thing would be good about it. And you know what, there was not one frame of film in "Ascension" that I found redeeming. Do anything you can not to see this film. The only positive comments that are posted are made by the unimaginative director and his entourage of idiots.