Dante 01 - Benvenuti all'inferno

Not a bad film, just not a good film. Started off strong, but ended poorly. A great first effort by the director - shows a lot of promise. The acting was pretty weak overall, but the material was thin. The production was pretty good for a cheap sci-fi.

The Christian symbolism was laid on so thick you could actually smell it. It wasn't even symbolism - it was iconography. Some christians and non-christians alike will find it offensive or tedious for that reason. It is hard to promote any given religion in a film without coming off lame.

Hope we see more sci-fi from France.

I really wanted to like this film, since I've had good luck with French flicks lately as well as being interested in the neat little cast assembled here. Among them are Lambert Wilson (the Merovingian himself) and Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen, Amelie, etc...). Mix in a little Cube, throw in a dash of Alien 3 and sprinkle in some Powder for good measure and you have the undercooked hodgepodge of Dante 01. Good sci-fi is hard to come by these days, mainly because I think it's the most high concept genre of film as well as the hardest to execute really well. Unfortunately, despite some very interesting ideas and good production values, it doesn't add up to much of anything when it was all over. Wilson's main character has almost zero lines in the film and isn't really even a main character. If you're going to have your main character remain essentially silent, that's fine, but for the love of Odin please make him interesting. I completely understood what was going on, but it just didn't register with me as much as I was hoping it would. There is a sequence just before the last shot of the film with Wilson outside in space that was just so agonizingly excessive that I was swearing at the screen for it to stop, which I hardly ever do. Maybe you'll have a different opinion, which is fine. But for me, no dice.

I used to be a fan of Caro, being french and grown up in the 90's, and being a visual effects artist. I can't believe how bad this film come back turned out to be! I watched it all as respect for the cast, which is good, but to no avail... Poor story line, vague plot, even vaguer religious connotations. The references to Solaris really made me angry, being a fan of that film (the original Russian version, Tarkosky's). What nerve using such a mater piece with such superficiality! It does look like a production butchered film... but to be honest I found the production design bad, that mix of retro and space technology simply doesn't work here. And the visual effects and artistic direction very poor and repetitive. OK it seems like money was scarce... but also seems like no real effort was made. What a shame...

Still, waiting for more Caro, this had to be an accident!

I'm usually a very 'nice' reviewer. The kind that usually overlooks some faults in movies because the 'experience' is truly what matters to him. So, 'tis with a heavy heart that I say; I have to agree with the majority of reviewers here.

This movie feels like it was obviously cut short because of money or deadline issues, so it is painfully frustrating in that sense. The story is interesting, and the visuals and sound are astounding, although very influenced by older sci-fi movies (Alien 3 and Resurrection come to mind), but the religious overtones are rendered abstract (at best) by end of the movie.

This is a beautifully well-made movie with awesome visuals, but it has to be taken as an experiment, just like inside the story. Or as an experience, if you prefer.

That's because essentially, the last part of the movie was completely lame. And by lame I mean obviously rushed, incomplete and unfinished. Similar to "The Objective" in that respect, but even worse.

So allow me to present this movie in another way - as an experimental movie. As an audiovisual spectacle for the senses. And as such, Dante 01 is a marvel.

Having said that, the average casual moviegoer will probably not appreciate it in that sense and thus ask for a refund.

Now... Let's be honest ... Caro has never been able to get his head round a narrative ... Delicatessen and City of Lost Children were both wonderful to look at, but were a complete mess when it came to pacing and narrative ... This is so typical today when most of these cinema directors come from Television ... And making ADVERTS ... What we get is loads of flash, but no real substance This film even manages to fail on that front ... It looks cheap ... The story is all over the place ... And in the end it just turns into 2010,only not as good ... Which, lets be honest, wasn't the greatest piece of cinema I'm reading a lot about financial problems with the production etc... But quite frankly, however much money you throw at something it is going to be crap if there isn't a decent idea in the first place... AND THERE WASN"T : )