Deadland

As my summary states, the beginning of this film creates a lot of expectation. OK, I am a fan of nuclear holocausts and post-apocalypse (or, well, used to be, since the latest releases -the book of eli, the road, deadland...- have been quite disappointing). This said, a quarter of an hour into the movie I found myself looking through the window instead of at the screen. The search of the man's woman becomes tedious, slow, boring and lacking action or direction. I like the Asian looking character who befriends him, although his weird attitude doesn't really save the film. Then I decided to watch it at double or triple the speed since I had a bad feeling of wasting my time. I set the speed back to normal towards the end, however the "climax" was nothing of sorts and the overall feeling when the end credits started to roll was that of what have I done with my life for the past hour. Considerable attempt that stayed in failure.

Most of the action of the film takes place 5 years after apocalypse in the forest. The main character who before the apocalypse was a cubicle worker survives 5 years in the forest and looks like just left the gym after heaving his hair trimmed. Neither his body or spirit are affected by the catastrophe. So maybe he is a superhero? Surprisingly all of the people are like that. As a result we have a fully nourished individuals chasing each other in the forest. Pretty much happy time? No, because there are a bad guys, paramilitary groups who supposedly rule the area, rape the women, take prisoners and have the cruel labor camps. Again the women kept by a the militants and gang raped multiple times look in the film like they just left the shopping mall on Saturday afternoon. The whole scenery as well as the plot make the film into something in between of Christian preachy film (with obvious not complicated characters) and porn (where people seem to be detached from the background they are put on). What could save the film? Probably more acting. It would be nice to watch a person trying to survive in the forest instead of a dude who just went for a walk to the park. Also women should have feelings, if not crying then with the mask of angry lesbian... anything.

Alright so while it is lacking in some things we've grown accustomed to in a story as expansive as Post-apacolyptic worlds, ie., BIG CGI, extravagant fight scenes, etc., I do think they had a pretty decent story going, if not the budget. I thought the acting was pretty good for the most part. Probably most impressive was the cinematography, some beautifully panned scenes. I would definitely agree with one of the other reviewers and say this is more of a sci-fi drama than action flic. A lot of the scenes were meant to take you into a post apacolyptic world full of despair and angst, this however feels a bit staged since many of the people interacting in the film are in good shape, clean/new clothes, etc. All in all, not a terrible movie for a rainy day and some popcorn on your couch.

The relatively low rating (4.5, as of my review) led me to lower my expectations on this low budget, independent movie. I thought it could do with a little more editing and a tighter script, maybe with a bigger payoff at the end. After watching for nearly two hours, the subdued climax wasn't very filling.

Anyways, the meat of the movie concerns a muscle guy looking for his estranged wife, who left him just before World War III broke out. Strangely enough, the muscle guy is supposed to be cubicle worker, I think, and he never really does much hand-to-hand fighting. That leaves me wondering exactly how to classify this movie. I was expecting a scifi/martial arts/adventure movie, like JCVD's Cyborg or Universal Soldier, but this seems to have some pretensions toward being a scifi drama. Unfortunately, the story never really goes anywhere very exciting or interesting, though it kept my attention. If there had been more fight scenes and better stunt work, it would have been a good, poor man's JCVD movie. With a more intelligent script and better direction, it could have been a good, poor man's John Carpenter movie. In the end, we're left with what it is -- entertaining, yet not quite fulfilling. I was admittedly a bit generous in giving it a 7/10, but I think it was good attempt, even if it doesn't quite live up to the potential.

This is one of those films you'll either love or hate. I obviously thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a certain B movie quality to it, but I have always been a fan of films of that level. B movie or not, it has been put together very well, and only suffered a few weak performances from very minor characters.

The performances of the key characters was faultless, in my opinion, and made me see the character and not the actor. Some of the lesser characters could have done with a little coaching to make them more believable, and stop me from viewing them from the actor's perspective rather than the character's.

All effects, scenery, and props were also without fault, and nothing looked out of place, taking the film subject into consideration.