Branded

It's several kinds of stories layered on top of each other including love story, spy story, critique of consumer culture, mystery, schizophrenic story, with an ending that is a bit magical realist. Keeps you wondering and guessing throughout. Great characters and story-telling draw you in and you care about them. Definitely worth seeing. I went into this film with no preconceptions other than a sci-fi take on consumer culture. Found the film very enjoyable and well told. Setting the film in post-Soviet Russia with an onslaught of American consumer capitalism was a nice angle to the "genre" of consumerism critique films. Frankly, I don't think the director quite knew what genre of the film it was but that's okay. Was a very fun ride.

I wanted to like this film more than I did. I admire its ambition, and I like the way it sets out to satirize the advertising industry and its effect on us. Unfortunately, it seems that the filmmakers had problems shaping their material into an elegant, effective film.

"Branded" is entertaining throughout -- and sporadically brilliant! -- but most viewers will probably feel, as I did, that this movie is wildly uneven. The tone of the film shifts in bizarre and disorienting ways; important plot-points are barely touched-upon; great chunks of time are skipped, often revealing that our main characters have changed in ways that are so profound that it seems some kind of further explanation is required; some very clunky narration attempts to tie everything together.

The problems lie mostly with the script, which can't seem to decide how seriously to take itself. In the film's earlier scenes, as the forces of evil begin shaping their bozo nightmare, the film often projects a winking, campy sort of vibe. Later, the film is solemn and reflective. Then, it's an angry political screed. Each of these pieces, individually, has its merits -- but they sit at odd angles to each other. Combine this with the film's fractured and episodic method of storytelling, and you end up with a film that plays like patchwork. It's entertaining, but I think there's a lot of unintended dissonance created by the film's cavalier approach.

The acting is actually pretty good; these actors were given some tough material to work with, given the script's shifty nature. All the actors do their best to provide their characters with strong through-lines, and they mostly succeed. That is to say that, even though the script and the tone are all over the place, the actors do a good job of providing solid and centered performances. I was frankly surprised that the acting worked as well as it did in this film.

The cinematography and effects are also worth a mention. The camera-work is top-notch, and the CGI "monsters" which appear in the film's final third are rather clever creations.

Overall, I got the impression that this was a wildly ambitious project undertaken by a crew that wasn't quite up to the task. And yet, they succeeded in creating a great-looking film of ramshackle construction. It entertains and provokes some thought, and there is a great sense of enthusiasm in the production.

This is a strange one folks, but just strange enough. On the surface it seems to be railing against the institute of advertising. From just that level, it is a bit flat.

On the level of sci-fi, one can see the suggestion that the brands are alien monsters bent upon domination of earth. We have been bought and sold to feed their needs.

Underneath this though, is a much deeper message - one of our own personal consumerism. In the West we believe that we are free, but this movie, using a surrealistic approach, questions that for us. It's been said that you can get addicted to anything, even your favorite soda. So, what are you addicted to? Where have you, moment by moment, given up your life?

Will you like this movie? Not if you just want to sit back and be entertained. It does have a decent plot, and good acting, as well as decent CGI. What it doesn't have is an easy to swallow, cookie-cutter script.

...but too painful to watch for me to care. Not because it's a bit B-movie cheap, or has poor VFX, or some of the actors sorta suck, or the overbearing made-for-SyFy movie music, but because it is just terrible.

The main key thing to me is the total lack of reasonable storytelling. Every time something should be getting on with the story, a character stops to explain something about the plot to another character, or a news story explains it for us, or a full on and unashamed voice-over does it!

Somewhere at the far edges of the absurd, the profound can be found. This movie can be enjoyed strictly as a comedy, it can be taken seriously by a few, but most should know this film reaches further than it could ever truly grasp. Branded is flawed, fun, and perhaps best enjoyed in an extremely tired, alternative state of mind.

A few reviews and reviewers note that this film does not live up to its own advertising. There is irony there, but what does live up to advertising? Advertising is amongst the biggest waist of resources in contemporary society. Not just in terms of illusory currency, but the waist of many of todays greatest artists, thinkers, and idea makers; professionals payed to spin lies and manipulate participants of mass media consumption.

Branded may only scratch the surface of many important current problems caused by modern media, but at least its creators and performers put themselves "out there" to ask some interesting questions. May more artists ask important questions, and help move us all to a better place.