Broken Darkness

A very slow post apocalyptic film with a good premise but full of plot holes and bad direction. Acting and cinematography are good even though the main character is annoying as hell, and the film fails to go anywhere.

Seems like imdb has suddenly decided they want longer reviews. Well tough luck. I have nothing else to say. No one needs a full on point by point review of a film usually full of spoilers. Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

The obligatory bad copy elements from The Last Of Us video game is unnerving. And the purpose of the Rose character was lost when Santos didn't follow up with some deeper connection with the Sam character. Sam's story arc needs dynamic conflict with Rose which was almost nowhere to be seen as Rose became an ornament, as if she was a background character. Technically, the weapons display was too much hip shooting with little aiming down sites. Something which is going to annoy some viewers.

Santos has some direction style which leads to a moody apocalypse film. There is a visual style with the soundtrack. If he got a writing team and didn't cast what seems like his girlfriend or sister he might air on the side of a better piece. Most of the other actors were pulling their weight. But Brendan Sean Murray was on screen for just 60 seconds before I noticed he exuded a high caliber of acting.

I dare Santos to try again. But to take notes from a scriptwriters guild pool of mentors and film makers to put Quality Assurance to the script and storyboards before expensing the budget forward. And to find out what the difference is between a bad copy and an actual film homage is like with his own spin on a directorial signature.

Clearly based/or ripping off the Metro books by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, this low budget sci-fi has a lot of charm. For those who like post-apocalyptic action, this is a good option for a night in. Acting is very solid. Storytelling is also good quality. Lack of CGI can be a blessing in disguise for cheaper films.

The movie has a decent concept and the cinematography is good enough. The acting is passable and the the crew used decent cameras and lenses,

The real issue here is the pacing. The movie suffers from a massive editing problem. You could easily pull about 20 minutes out of the movie, and with some creative editing make it a little bit better.

Like others have said in their reviews, the movie doesn't really know what it wants to be, and at times its trying to be too much all at once.

Overall, if you're like me and enjoy watching low budget films with unknown talent, you could do a whole lot worse.

In the first few minutes of the film there are some short clips of people driving through a forest fire. At least one of the clips is from the Valley Fire in Lake County, California in 2015. If you look closely you can see a sign over the road that says "Anderson Springs". If you go look at Google maps and put in 19500 Hwy 175, Middletown, California, you can see the sign and how much of the area has not grown back yet. There is the possibility that those videos have become a part of the public domain, so there is nothing illegal about them using them, but I still don't like it. There is also the possibility that they used those videos illegally.