Mad God

Mad God is one of the most visually and audibly arresting films I have ever seen. To say that the technical craft on display is striking would be a criminal understatement. This is thoroughly the singular vision of a master artist, and I am so glad I got to experience it.

It is chock full of metaphorical depth related to man's relationship to both creation and destruction, and for those who are patient and are in love with the macabre, there will be so much for you to glean from it.

As for myself, I did glean a bit from the film's heavy messages, though the extremely sparse narrative left me wanting a LOT more.

We never stay with a character for longer than 20 minutes, and our journeys with them are always cut short right as they're getting interesting. The lack of any clear stakes, motivations, or goals makes it extremely hard to get invested in, and makes 83 minutes feel like two hours.

It's clear that Phil Tippett used the 30 years of production to really get his visual ideas to be made manifest in gorgeous glory, but I do so wish that he had spent more of that time writing instead.

You might not know Phil Tippett by name, but if you've watched science-fiction movies for the past 50 years, particularly those with effects courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic, you undoubtedly know of his contributions to cinema. From Roger Corman to George Lucas to Steven Spielberg, this man has done stop-motion and creature design for some of the absolute giants.

Ever since the production of Robocop 2 and Jurassic Park, there's another movie Tippett has been working on: a passion project that represents 30 years of toil that, in a sense, has been taking place "behind the scenes" of all these better-known productions. It spent a considerable amount of years on the shelf too, admittedly, but thanks to the magic of Kickstarter, the project has now seen the light of day -- as dark and dreary as it may be.

That film is Mad God, a seminally unsettling and transfixingly dreamlike journey into the depths of... I don't even know where. Combining stop-motion and puppetry (the stuff Tippett is best at) with a bit of live-action and seemingly some CGI during the scenes that were likely produced last, the movie is unrelenting in its barrage of deranged images and so feels longer than it is -- albeit not in a boring way, but rather in the sense that a mere 5 minutes of runtime will be so rich with new, disturbing sights and sounds that they seem like 20.

Indeed, these are some of the most memorable images of this entire movie year. No sequence is quite like the last. They recall the nightmare-inspired short films of David Firth -- with some splashes of SFX-heavy classics like Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, et al. -- and also made me think of Vernon Chatman (of The Shivering Truth and XAVIER: Renegade Angel), whose works I often claim have a method to the madness, as the saying goes. More precisely, I propose that "Rarely has this much madness represented this much of a method".

Yes, as bonkers as this movie is in terms of tone and presentation, I often felt like I "understood" much of what I saw; like there were parallels, symbols, and distorted metaphors for the cruelties inherent to human society (as seems natural for a work of dystopian sci-fi horror). Some images bring to mind the "faceless", disposable nature of human lives in a world of industry and war, while a closing sequence -- inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey -- indicates that this system will continue to be replicated so long as humans are replicated. Something like that, anyhow.

Even when I didn't really understand what I was seeing, I wanted to learn more. I wanted to explore this universe further; to see what other layers there might be and what other creatures might roam beneath the rubble or behind the 1984-esque monitors. I wanted to see just how much deeper into the bleak depths Phil Tippett's imagination could bring us. I mentioned before that each scene has enough content and visual imaginativeness to fill multiple. Yet, this feels like but a glimpse into the world of Mad God.

Between this and the new season of Love, Death & Robots, 2022 is shaping up to be a triumphant year for those who truly make our movies happen through their painstaking VFX work, knack for design, and whatever else. If you're easily upset by violence or disturbing imagery, you probably shouldn't watch this; the cruelty inflicted upon these puppets is more nauseating than most live-action gore I've seen. That being said, anyone who respects cinema and special effects should see it at least once, and those who have lost faith in the art form -- insisting that Hollywood, with its modern creative bankruptcy, represents the totality of film (while refusing to seek out wildly imaginative, impassioned pieces like this) -- should see it twice.

Long story short: I think it's fair to say this is the best movie Phil Tippett has directed since Starship Trooper 2. Log on to Shudder and search for it, you handsome devils. Bring a puke pail.

Well for once my wife and I are not agreeing about a movie. She gave it a four, I gave it a seven but since I write the reviews a seven it is. More than thirty years of work to create this mostly bizarre stop-motion movie. You gotta give it to Phil Tippett, he created something unique with a lot of patience. If I had to guess what Tippett likes to read I would say HP Lovecraft. If I had to guess what artist Tippett admires I would say HR Giger. If I had to guess what kind of music Tippett enjoyed listening to I would say Pink Floyd, especially The Wall. If I had to guess what kind of drugs Tippett takes, I would say I don't know but I want some. Mad Dog is weird, it's gross and grotesque, a combination of bio-mechanical and steampunk, it's apocalyptic and something you need to watch under influence especially if you like any of the things written above.

'Mad God' is equally weird and demented; a mergence of the nightmarish and the nonsensical into one wildly ambitious ride. Basically it feels like a glimpse into the mind of a madman; into a place both violated and broken without reprieve and without hope.

This is what you get when the imagination is pushed into warped overdrive - a fully realised vision of a hellish dystopia. And all of it is gorgeously (grotesquely) brought to life by stop-motion animation and detailed sets.

It's hard to rate this as I would a film with a story because this is more of an experience: a vignette-like tour through various strange environments and witnessing its even stranger denizens doing all manner of strange things... Top marks for effort, but it might have worked better as a series of 10-minute shorts, since even at 80 minutes my attention began to waver with nothing coherent to latch on to.

6.5/10.

Wow, work on this one began in 1987 and took over thirty years to complete! That alone marks this bit of stop-motion as a film worth considering. But is it worth viewing otherwise? I would have to say yes, but be under no illusions, this is not a film for everyone! There is no dialogue, so events onscreen are propelled by imagery and sound alone and its not honestly always easy to keep up with what is happening and why. On top of that, much of the imagery and events are of the grotesque variety, so viewers of a more sensitive bent should be warned. So, taking this into account, this tale of events in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world should best be approached by those with a taste for the bizarre and unpleasant. The imagery is extremely impressive, very often and this is one of those rare films which truly feels like an instant cult movie. Left-field animation fans should have a field day.