To Your Last Death

Definitely not any of the award-hype it promised. If you've seen any of the motion comics that came on the web 15 years ago, this is the same thing, but in a 90-minute movie form instead of broken down into 5-10 minute TV shorts, which was the old format. The story itself is reminiscent of a low-grade '80s B-movie, in that it's a bit out there and convoluted, which is why I would say this is not a modern B-movie. Basically, it's a whacky '80s time-travel B-movie for 12-yr-olds with elements of Saw, so, the two genres don't really work together. The writer should have picked one or the other and stuck with it. Like, if the writer would have cut out the Robocop or Tron, evil corporation, sophomoric cheese, and stuck with the evil-rich-dad thing, kept it standard horror, and been more inventive than ripping Saw, maybe Blumhouse or someone would have ponied up a few mill to produce the script. And with that version of the script tightened, and live-action, maybe I would have enjoyed it well enough.

I was at least willing to give the story a shot, since after the first painful 10 minutes, it started to peak my interest. It's just very hard to get into the After Effects puppet animation, especially when you know it's going to be for 90 minutes, rather than what it's typically used for, which is small doses. Whatever budget they had would have been better spent on a live-action short. I get the sense the writer or director was trying to show what they could do with a budget. The storyboard sequencing, expressed in comic book form was pretty good. I could picture it, and the music was good enough. The voice acting was good or bad, depending on the actor. The writing was mediocre...but, like I said, if some of the other elements are there, I can be perfectly entertained by a B-movie, since my expectations are generally low. So, a silly, mediocre script can work, just not with stiff, puppet animation.

To make this work, the story either needed to be excellent, or the animation had to be a lot better, or good live-action. As a whole, it didn't work for a full movie. I do appreciate the effort. I am a fan of animation, comics, and B-movies, it just didn't work for me. I would say for the director to keep at it, just maybe work harder at the basics before going the full movie route.

I hope everyone enjoys To Your Last Death as much as I do! well if your not into horror movies or dark humor this probably isn't the film for you. However if you enjoy those types of things as much as I do then I would love to recommend it for a watch! I mean you have Morena Baccarin, William Shatner, and Bill Mosley and Ray Wise many names that I grew up being fans of and imo make a killer combination of talented folks. Anyhow won't go any deeper as I don't want to give spoilers, but will say it's like a mashup of Saw + Groundhog Day! One of my personal highlights of the film is Ray Wise as Cyrus DeKalb, love the way he portrayed that character!

Found this by happy accident. and it is a pretty bonkers little movie. Not perfect but I really enjoyed it. I think the coolest thing is that the story kept changing. I thought things would go one way but boy was I wrong. I really enjoyed that aspect of the film.

I thought the fasmily members was pretty well done and I really felt for the lead girl being put through this crazyness. Now you got to give it up for Ray Wise who is just diabolical in the role of the father with a serious grudge against his kids. Not to be too spoilery but let's just say that they wrecked his polticial ambitions and now he's dyeing and well, he's got scores to settle. All the voice talent was great and hearing Captain Kirk narrate the story was damn cool, I had a Star Trek flashback for sure. Oh and I should mention the score which sounds like it could have been a Terminator sequel,but I mean that in the best way the score is really good.

What didn't I like. Well one character dies kind of early that I really wanted to see more of. You expect that character will come back given the time-travel nature of this film but no. Felt like a cheat. maybe the writers did that deliberately just because people would expect that. I wanted a bit more understanding of who the gambler's are. I think they were like gods or maybe devils. I thought act 3 was pretty cool with a ton of violence and lunacy which I actually laughed at loud because it got so over the top. but I was a bit disappointed by the very end of the film and I cannot say more because spoilers but let's just say I felt that the lead girl's reward would have been a bit less bleak. There were also a couple sequences I felt seemed maybe a bit repetitive but the movie does center around the idea of time travel and do-overs like Happy Death Day.

I should also mention the animation which was really cool. The best part is that it felt like a graphic novel come to life like a motion comic but way way better. The movie was made to look like a comic book even with seeing panel lines in places. I thought this was clever and also it made the handdrawn art look really cool which I really appreciate because this movie would have sucked if it was CGI.

Overall I have to say I really enjoyed this but I would caution not for kids! This movie is bloody and has some serious adult theme's in it. Adult Swim or Netflix I can def see this as a series in fact it seems to lend itself to that because it''s pretty clear this story can continue.

I would've thought this was really cool back when I was 14 years old, but alas now I expect more of a plot and a point. Think the violent contraptions of Saw (2004-2017) animated like Heavy Metal (1981) in an intergalactic contest like Rick and Morty ("Get Schwifty" 2015). The voice cast is great but the animation is mediocre, like the first episodes of Archer (2009). The convoluted Groundhog Day (1993) storyline is a good excuse for tons of over-the-top violence, some sex, and adult themes. This movie will do well on late night cable TV and niche streaming.

It's not terrible, it's not good either. It could have been a lot better than it turned out though. The story was sloppy and the voice acting was good for some characters but poor for others. It seemed like the film was attempting to tell some sort of life lesson with the story and how it had different possible outcomes but it just doesn't work. The animation style isn't exactly enjoyable to watch either.