Chrysalis

Finally got to see Chrysalis on demand this week and I have to say I was really pleased. I was hoping they wouldn't go and turn Bradbury's story about human evolution into another piece of post apocalyptic violent junk. I'm glad to report that wasn't the case. I didn't recognize any of the actors but Bradbury's dialogue and story keeps things very interesting. The movie features a series of Emergency broadcasts all throughout which are used to fill the characters (and the audience) in on what's happening in the rest of the world during this ecological crisis the movie presents. I think that's one of the most clever storytelling techniques in the film. I really enjoy how the story is told on two different fronts -- the main characters inside the research facility with their dilemma about the Chrysalis and the rest of the world suffering through the eco-crisis which we get to discover through the emergency broadcasts. Highly recommend it for fans of true hard sci-fi. Can't wait to get it on DVD. Would love to see some footage from the film festivals and Comic Con panels that Bradbury has participated on to promote the film.

I'm getting the feeling that this was a pretty faithful adaptation of Bradbury's story. I haven't read that story, so I don't know how close, but Bradbury (who amazingly, is still alive) had unprecedented control over his work. (As opposed to Richard Matheson, whose work is pretty much put through a blender.) The thing is, this was a movie made on the cheap, and I'm not sure it really translates well to screen. Okay, I wasn't expecting a CGI shoot-em-up, but an hour and a half of guys arguing about whether a prop in the middle of the room is a danger or not gets boring after a while, too.

Worth watching? Maybe to hardcore Bradbury fans looking for faithful adaptations.

Ran across this in the video store, and picked it up on a whim. Boy am I pleased that I did that. Definitely going to find a copy of my own.

If you have a chance to see this on DVD, please watch the film FIRST, then watch the extras (mini-featurettes on various aspects of the making of the film), then go back and listen to the commentary (which I have a gripe about, more later!) Basically, this film is a faithful adaptation of the 1946 short story that originally appeared in Amazing Stories, and finally made it into book form in the 1966 collection "S is for Space." Contrary to modern film-making, in the bulk of the footage of the film, there are NO green screens, NO CGI, just good, authentic looking sets, giving the entire film a gritty, realistic feel. It's obvious the actors were getting "into their roles" just from the atmosphere they had to work in. (FYI, the only green screen filming was used during production of some of those news reports on TV.)

Character development is exactly as one would expect from Ray Bradbury, who was, in fact, consulted frequently during the production, and gave his personal endorsement of the film at film festivals. Note: this means that this film is about CHARACTERS, not special effects.

The special effects, also (such as they are) are handled old-school as well, and mostly VERY effectively. >>Watch those mini-features to figure out what was a live person, and what wasn't! I failed!<< But this was the intention of the film makers, who wanted this to feel like a 1950's film, not a modern-day computer-generated effectaganza. It even features a couple of 1950's-style cheesy-bits... but even those are done so low key, and you're so absorbed into the interpersonal drama, that you probably won't get distracted by them.

Now for the gripe: The audio editing (especially volume) for the commentary track was awful. Period. No contest.

At some points, the film volume was so high, you could barely hear the comments. The bits of the conversation with Roger Lay (I think it was... but not sure!) and Ray Bradbury were obviously prerecorded, and spliced in, though content-wise, it was such a pleasure to hear from the inestimable RB himself, you almost don't care -- until the film volume drowns them both out. Also, during that separate recording session, you can tell that RB is talking LOUDLY and CLEARLY (as clear as a 90+ yo gentleman can be, anyway) into the mike, making the conversation a little jarring. The content is good -- mostly -- if you can get past the volume level mismatches.

Final note, and no it's not really a spoiler... If you expect this film to go out with a bang (explosions, gaudy spectacles, lots of death-and-dismemberment), you're not much of a Ray Bradbury fan, are you?

All in all, this is a keeper, not a renter. Highly recommended!

Really super bad acting, boring dragged out.... Has a cheap TV movie feel to it.. Did I mention that acting is horrendous .....I am truly grateful I didn't pay any money to see this turkey. This thing belongs on rotten tomatoes. How can you take an excellent story from Bradbury and ruin it like this. These people should be shot. The movie has all the good post apocalyptic trappings but falls really short of quality. I think this would have made a better play. The acting is so bad that the movie truly suffers, I would expect something like this for the homemade movies you see at the video store every once in a while. I am sure the budget was less than $10,000 (if it wasn't ...some one got ripped off)

Any word on more release dates? I did see the Los Angeles Shriekfest screening listed on the website. I saw it's also playing in Phoenix later this month. Any word on when this will be released wide? Please show it in Chicago soon. My friend's went to Comic Con this past summer and during the Ray Bradbury panel they said that the movie was coming out near the end of the year. I'm surprised to see it's already playing in film festivals. We need more info please... I thought there was an episode of Ray Bradbury theater based on this story too. I just ordered the DVD set of that show and noticed how I was wrong about that. Now I want to see this movie even more since it's actually an untapped piece of Bradbury material.