Prisioneiros do Poder

... for the movie cooked from all possible clichés. Let's call it "a movie of the future": no interesting dialogues, no interesting character dynamics, sexually decent, a product. Not only lacking a point, but totally chaotic at the end. Much like a ruined orgasm. Actually, there were lots of completely confusing moments all along. Main character was so artificially angelic beautiful - in a nonsense commercial-romantic way, that it was almost disgusting to watch.

The only positive things was a vision of the perverse futuristic world, dark, totalitarian, rainy, muddy, technocratic, but also kind of futuristic baroque. A bit reminding me of 5th element, or Chronicles of Riddick. (Or just today.) So much more interesting plots, events, interaction could have been set in this environment.

It's 2011 ... and you want a science-fiction? Watch Aliens, Avatar, Abyss, Terminator or at least Matrix.

In fact neither I nor my company had expected to be strongly impressed by the movie, when we joined to watch it on Saturday night. But having read the Strugatsky's plot-book, I was amazed that the director had followed the story so precisely. The only evident mistake was the premature assassination of one of the characters. Still the impression on the film is partial due to its halves shown with a 4 month break.

As to fighting scenes, I estimate them as dead. There was almost NO real action. The usage of Bullet Time technology of matrix all fight long turned the action into slow and boring trash. The martial arts instructors should really be ashamed of this.

There is a Russian proverb: "The first pancake is laid shapeless". It is just about the film. The spectator expected to see a miracle, because a $40million worth Russian film is considered like a $400million Hollywood movie. This expectations of a common viewer were ruined. I do hope that next attempts of Russian directors and producers to catch up with Hollywood will be more successful.

This attempt at bringing a Strugatski brothers novel to the modern Russian screen is without a doubt a success.

A little about the plot: young explorer Maksim Kammerer crash lands on Sarakhsh, a world enveloped by nebula gasses where people have never seen the stars. The Unknown Fathers, a group of local oligarchs, brainwash the population to fear and despise surrounding nations. Kammerer, aloof in his assumed superiority, sets out to free the people of Sarahksh of oppression and paranoia.

I wont ramble on - suffice to say that Bondarchuk has done well considering the scale of the novel. Vasiliy Stepanov (as Maksim Kammerer) is sexy, cool and a blond head taller than his alien companions (a fine nod to the novel and a detail I did not expect). He was also most excellent in the action scenes.

Bondarchuk shines in his portrayal of Umnik (The Clever One). I really enjoyed the scenes of him writhing in agony in the bath. A great performance. I am compelled after reading some of the other comments to say that the novel, like this movie, is quite comical...

Direction-wise there are some minor continuity errors and a few places where pace slows, but the film sticks quite closely to the novel and this may not have been avoidable.

Compared with the contemporary adaptation of the Strugatskis Ugly Swans by Konstantin Lopushansky the film is of course rather crude and soulless. But it's good fun done right.

I recommend it to everyone and will be waiting for film two.

Can't understand all this negative hysteria. Most of which is actually about nothing ("crap! oh, such a crap! totally crap!" often mentioning that Bondarchuk is a bad director). Well, I can partly understand those who admired the original book (which is really worth reading) as they may have imagined everything in different manner (this is particularly true for sci-fi adaptations). But very often I read comments of people who seemed to be negatively oriented even before they really watched the film.

The movie is not piece of art. It really takes a lot from classic sci-fi movies (from costumes designs to city views). And directing sometimes is confusing. But the film has one strong point - the plot, original story that authors reflected rather well. Special effects are good (they were performed by American specialists), acting is not bad (dramatic acting usually is not required in sci-fi action movies). In essence, the movie is good and worth seeing. Don't take negative comments for granted.

BTW as far as I know Boris Strugaztsky (the one of two brothers who is still alive) liked the adaptation.

Bondarchuk's last motion picture "The Inhabited Island" is very colorful and vivid piece of film. Visual material is stunning, top notch. Characters and environment are interesting and story too, for me as a die hard sci-fi fan seemed great. Yes, the main character is blond... So what? He comes from the Earth that lives in the golden age, having defeated all the illnesses and wars. People there are beautiful and they are smiling as it can be seen in the movie. On the contrary, on Saraksh people do not understand why he is smiling because there they are stricken with diseases and constant wars, radiation levels etc. Film suffers a bit from cheesiness in the end, some already seen things in other movies but it still has some good qualities. The scenes with Guards and their song are stunning.

Great visuals, great environment but still it lacks top notch acting and some things have already been seen.