Gauntlet

This film is proof that if you have a dream, a solid work ethic, a willingness to learn new skills, patience, a positive attitude, and a supportive community around you, that you can create worlds out of thin air. You don't need a budget or Hollywood connections. You can make it happen. Jeff Loehrke proves that one man can write, direct, shoot, act in, edit, and create stunning visual effects to make a dream a reality. Gauntlet is a spectacle to see. It goes above and beyond what independent filmmaking can do. And it's so much fun! Make some popcorn, turn down the lights, and enjoy this cinematic feast!

Knowing the context of how this movie was made, almost no budget, shot mostly in the directors garage and all VFX was done by one person on one computer over a 10 year period, makes you marvel at the accomplishment even if at times it shows that it's a no budget film. Suriv is my favorite, his performance was excellent. Story was fun to watch and I enjoyed the fight scenes! For sure worth the time to watch this film and appreciate the talent and discipline of a VFX artist/director. Is it as polished as a marvel high budget movie? Obviously not, but it doesn't matter, it's awesome for what it is, excellent film!

This movie has a plot very similar to both tron films including the games, I do appreciate the effort the crew and director did for 10 years in development since 2011 when tron legacy was made in 2010. I watched this movie in Tubi and a little bit in Plex and I had and great time with it, I also noticed almost the film is filmed in green screen but I got a fact for this film that the parts with green screen are filmed in the director's garage. It's pretty impressive to see that the director avoided problems with filming the movie in the garage and made great visual effects. But my little problem with this film is the costumes, the costumes are like made from a high school student or nerd. Thanks for reading this review :)

The story behind this movie is amazing: a one man show writing, directing, and editing over the course of a decade. Gauntlet is an incredible showing of VFX and visually beautiful. Many scenes really brought the viewer in due to the amount of detail. I really liked a lot of the character play and interaction throughout. The story was fun and an easy, entertaining watch. Some of the character wardrobe could've been improved, and some of the acting felt amateur at times. But this was a low budget film taken on by essentially one man, so some shortcomings are expected. But Gauntlet is a great watch and a good time.

This is by far the best low-budget & self produced I've ever seen. And trust me...I've seen some BAD ONES.

But to give a more detailed review here are my highs & lows.

Highs: The VFX are great for the film. And for the most part are utilized really well in conjunction with film's storyline. Also the plot itself was intriguing as it played off Tron & Tron Legacy only a bit. At first I was a bit concerned that it may seem like a Tron rip off, but I was pleasantly surprised that there was much more to plot than just retelling a 40 year old story. It also made me want to revisit some video games from my childhood, but that's just an added bonus. Finally, assuming that the actors are not professionals, their dedication to the roles & plot was very clear.

Lows: It's hard to be too critical of the talent within the film, but a few characters did leave a something to be desired. As various lines were delivered or battle scenes carried out it felt a bit awkward. The only other low was some of the costumes. There were holes on the sides of the masks that were distracting in scenes & the overall fit of some costumes remind of the budget of the film.

All-in-all, this movie was really good. The story drew me in & the production quality for such a project was very surprising. This project took a handful of people 10+years to complete, with the vast majority of it done by one person. All things considered, it was BRILLIANTLY DONE!