Dropa

It's a nice sci-fi, with occasional good cgi (and occasional not so good), the story is believable, in an alternative earth. The dialogue and acting can be a bit shoddy; the dialogue a bit too ambitious in places, the actors struggling to justify it. It's a B movie sci-fi, if you gonna be pedantic then probably not for you, if you just wanna waste time with a good yarn then give it a go.

Ok, here's the deal on low budget scifi/horror -- fans bend over backwards to praise them as they ignore factors they would not in any other genre which they weren't particular fans of.

This is a low budget scifi horror flick. That means mostly closeup shots, because all the other shots cost money. It means substandard actors. It means clunky dialogue and clumsy dialogue delivery and plot pacing. It usually means heavy amounts of ripping off better-known movies. Dropa has all the above.

Yes, this HEAVILY rips off Bladerunner. A fanboi would say it "pays homage." Ok, it does that. And not badly, either. But it does it, a lot. It's also a James Cameron homage, or ripoff, namely the Alien series. That's ok. It does it decently.

But the lead actor? Ugh. Acts like he came from porn. He substitutes intensity for a furrowed brow that almost never lets up. As if he has a 100-minute, uninterrupted headache. That's just not real. And worse-- it's just not necessary. And we have to watch him in almost every minute of this film. He's pretty and hardbodied, but since this is constant-close-up territory, we have to watch his face a lot, and that face isn't up to the task.

This movie's best feature? The plot writing. It does an above-average job of creating an alternate earth world (again, too much like Bladerunner), but it does it with thought. I can tell the best parts of this movie were left in the discarded script notes. It's nothing revelatory, but it's as good and occasionally better than many big-name tv series, especially standards like TWD franchise and similar.

I wanted to like this movie, as I'm a fan of the genre, but all of the actors are SO BAD, it makes it impossible to enjoy the movie. Jason Douglas was ok, but the rest of the actors are insufferably wooden and insincere.

Yes it was a great movie if you want background noise while you clean fish or cut up onions. I kept expecting better acting or maybe special effects.

This is the exact type of movie we all need to be rejoicing. Most Indy films are talking-head types that try to tug on emotional heart strands to make a name for themselves, Dropa throws caution to the wind and takes on the most expensive genre in great fashion. Sure it's not a 100 million dollar film, but would that money have really mattered in the long run? What Wayne Slaten and his team did was next to impossible today. To have the production value they had, not to mention any visual effects at all, in an Indy film of this budget it so rare, and yet they have managed to pull off a film that has the production value of a much more expensive picture.

Cheers to the Indy filmmakers! Cherish them. Without them, then we would all just be subjected to what a few suits in Hollywood want us to see. I gave this feature a weighted 10 because it has heart and was very entertaining to me. The people behind this film are super-talented and passionate and I can't wait to see what they do next, hopefully with a bigger production budget!

jb