Zona 414

This film had some amazing eye candy filler - especially for having a low 5m budget, but the story needed more substance and better pacing.

This is director Andrew Baird first full length feature film, and he did great. For an international (Irish) low budget indie film, it was better than some recent big budget Hollywood blockbusters I've seen lately. The cinematography by James Mather was outstanding, and even made basic inexpensive sets feel like that post-apocalyptic grungy future one would expect.

The 98 min runtime felt a little long with the slow pacing and progression of the story. The writing by Bryan Edward Hill had some plot and technical issues with some convoluted dialogue, and the screenplay could've used some tweaking by a seasoned writer. Had the film been cut down to about 85 mins with faster pacing, and/or had more grit and suspense with a little more character development, this could've been a cult classic.

The score I found to be excellent, especially for a B grade film. It was fitting, and certainly set the look and feel of the film appropriately. The performances were great by all, especially Fimmel, but I felt Pearce's character could've used more expression and energy.

Overall I did enjoy this better than I expected. I just wish that the story had some tweaking that could've made this great. It's a well deserved 7/10 from me.

Worth a watch for scifi fans. This one was not the right fit for Travis Fimmel (Ragnar Lothbrook in Vikings), whose makeup was even more distracting than the weird Viking accent which seemed fake and melodramatic here. Still, there were some redeeming aspects, including the "brother" played by Jonathan Aris, who stole the show as the most interesting character, and overall a high quality production with a cast of other excellent actors worth mentioning: Guy Pierce, Colin Salmon, Ned Dennehy and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, all of whom saving it from being a complete disaster.

This film has good potential but misses the mark frequently.

The major criticisms are: some average acting (from all actors), linear plot, no connection to the characters, and a desire to push victim mentality throughout the film.

The film is clearly influenced by Blade Runner, however, I would say that it's quite different to Blade Runner as this film focuses mostly on characters rather than creating a detailed world. In theory, this should work, however, the dialogue is mostly exposition rather than giving you a sense of the characters. This isn't helped by average acting.

It's borderline as to whether or not it's worth watching. If I cared about any of the characters, it may be different.

I found almost every element in this movie just slightly undercooked. The director has done well to hide an obvious low budget but where it suffers is in the story elements. Obvious comparisons to Blade Runner aside it is not a good detective story, they go here, they go there, they meet whacky weird characters, but no real sense of intrigue or suspense. The main character is a half baked unoriginal copy, the a.i. Character is done well but again, nothing original innovative or different, though very well acted. It was just so very MEH, when the bones were there for something surprising and different i am left knowing i will forget it very soon.

It's a fun Bladerunner knockoff, but that isn't a bad thing.

The villain wasn't good, across from Guy Pierce, who is a great actor.

It could have been more visceral, but it wasn't. It could have been great, but it wasn't.

Still worth the watch.