Contrato Mortal

While Encrypt was watchable due to its ok production quality, the feeling this left me with was just how low quality the plot was and that this production was just made for the sake of making a sci-fi production.

The challenges faced by the protagonists during the show seemed like they were inserted just to pad out its length. In addition they weren't generally very interesting or convincing as actually being much of a challenge except to serve as an excuse to remove cast members. While the ending and direction of the storyline were moderately interesting, what role various cast members were going to play was pretty predictable given their shallow dialog and tacky names.

How on earth dreck written as badly as this actually gets made I have to wonder.

As the "other writer" on this project, let me give a few of you an eduction on the wonderful world of TV production. While the original screenplay Encrypt, written by Richard Taylor, was solid, it was written as a big movie. At a studio level, it would have been budgeted between $60-80 million. On an independent level, it probably would have cost around $10 million. The original movies for the Sci-fi channel are budgeted at $2 million, which after above the line costs (actors, directors, writers, producers), it's actually considerably less. Obviously, for this kind of money, the production quality on every level is going to be less than your standard Fox movie of the week. Secondly, this is a TV MOVIE, which means it has to fit into a formula predetermined by the network by past successes (i.e. commercial breaks every twenty minutes, and a structure that leaves cliff hangers before every break). It has an "episodic feel" because it is episodic TV. And for this genre, that means action beats with a body count. That means adding a team. Now, while the character development for the team members clearly didn't work, some of that was due to casting (Torontonian actors don't seem to "get" the American commando stuff), and a last minute order to "cut one character" riddled the piece with lost lines and lost moments. Lastly, (and we go back to the budget for this one), everything has to take place in one or two locations (moving around is costly), which means you usually end up forcing your set-pieces into whatever rooms are available at your primary location. As a result, things feel less organic than they should. That being said, Encrypt was better received than the few readers here have commented. The director did tremendous things within the limitations given him and both Grant and Vivian grounded the film with strong, emotional performances. Could the movie have been better? Sure. But given the time, budgetary and other constraints, the efforts put forth by many deserves a little more respect, especially given all of their good intentions.

Guys,

As the author of the EnCrypt screenplay that was the basis for the Sci Fi Channel movie of the same name, I must point out that writers receive no credit when a film is good (because it's the result of the 'director's vision'), and often all of the blame when it's bad ("Man, this was a piece of crap! What was that writer thinking?")

The EnCrypt film is not the spec screenplay I wrote, which, after all, was shiny enough to sell to strangers at the Sci Fi Channel. Another writer was brought in behind me and extensive changes were made resulting in the film you saw. If anyone is interested I'll email them the original spec screenplay. Judge for yourself what EnCrypt would have been in a perfect world.

The world is not perfect.

-- Richard Taylor

What is left of Planet Earth is populated by a few poor and starving rag-tag survivors. They must eat bugs and insects, or whatever, after a poison war, or something, has nearly wiped out all human civilization. In these dark times, one of the few people on Earth still able to live in comfort, we will call him the All Knowing Big Boss, has a great quest to prevent some secret spore seeds from being released into the air. It seems that the All Knowing Big Boss is the last person on Earth that knows that these spores even exist. The spores are located far away from any living soul, and they are highly protected by many layers of deadly defense systems.

The All Knowing Big Boss wants the secret spores to remain in their secret protected containers. So, he makes a plan to send in a macho action team to remove the spore containers from all of the protective systems and secret location. Sending people to the location of secret spores makes them no longer a secret. Sending people to disable all of the protective systems makes it possible for the spores to be easily released into the air. How about letting sleeping dogs lie?!

The one pleasant feature of ENCRYPT is the radiant and elegant Vivian Wu. As the unremarkable macho action team members drop off with mechanically paced predictable timing, engaging Vivian Wu's charm makes acceptable the plot idea of her old employer wanting her so much. She is an object of love, an object of desire -- a very believable concept!

Fans of Vivian Wu may want to check out an outstanding B-movie she is in from a couple years back called DINNER RUSH. DINNER RUSH is highly recommended. ENCRYPT is not.

I have definitely seen worse movies than Encrypt. From the premise it seemed intriguing, but for some reason(maybe it was the fact that it was a low-budget TV movie) I was also dubious as to if it would be as good. It isn't quite, but it is not a complete waste of a good concept either. For instance, for a low-budget TV movie it actually looks quite good. The editing is crisper than I was expecting, the settings do at least have some atmosphere and the special effects are above average, not outstanding but not crude or artificial. There is only one exception, which was the robot that looked as though it would be more at home in the 30s, even then it was nowhere near as bad as special effects for other low-budget TV movies I've seen recently. The music has a suitably haunting quality, not over-bearing or sluggish-sounding. The acting is also above average, especially from Vivian Wu who is radiant and has a certain command, nobody's absolutely outstanding but again there is nobody terrible at the same time. The story also has points of interest, the psychological games between Wu and the hero are very intriguing especially. On the other hand, there are other scenes that do feel as though they were there for padding, consequently the pace drags at times. The ending also underwhelms, not in a rushed or abrupt sort of way but it did seem a little too easy and contrived for my liking. The dialogue is not as cheesy or as stilted as I feared, but it is rather talky with too-episodic a structure which drags Encrypt further. The characters are less stereotypical than you'd think but underdeveloped, and I really didn't see the need for a villain. All in all, not bad but at the same time I didn't care for it. 5/10 Bethany Cox