sanmentolabs

If you've read Metal Hurlant or Heavy Metal, you know the name Enki Bilal, a superb artist who created memorable stories in those magazines such as Exterminator 17 and of course, the Nikopol trilogy which this movie is based upon. The year is 2095 and Eugenics have made a totalitarian style mess of the future. This is a subject that few cover and should be covered more as the idea of eugenics was popularized through people like Hitler and Margaret Saenger who created Planned Parenthood. It is very much with us in this high tech world today with people more than happy to usher in a "master race" by making their own children as genetically perfect as possible. It's coming, and very soon. But this is a small part of the concept. Horus is stirring up mischief on planet earth as well, and our lead character who was imprisoned for his activisim against eugenics is about have a life altering run-in with the Egyptian god. Great acting all around, very interesting cyberpunk style backdrop and story line. Too bad this didn't do better in the U. S.

Much like Enki Bilal's excellent 2004 film IMMORTAL, Marc Caro's (early Metal Hurlant artist and collaborator with Jeunet on a few films including Alien: Resurrection) DANTE 01 did not get much if any traction in the U. S. It's too bad because it's much better than most of the garbage being passed off for science fiction these days, including bloated big budget Hollywood tripe. After watching it I searched for the blu-ray but only found a DVD release by Dimension Extreme(?) so I bought it. If you're a Heavy Metal fan, you'll want this in your collection along with Immortal.

The premise is simple: A new prisoner and scientist are dropped off at a prison ship floating around the planet Dante. This prisoner is mysterious and has unusual powers and soon the entire prison ship including the staff and it's other prisoners are on a collision course with destiny. Solid science fiction, interesting religious overtones, good effects, good acting, etc.

If you love 1980s style action - sci-fi comic books and action figures, you will love Final Faction. Available through Dollar Tree, these figures are amazing for the price and the animated videos are quite good. A third episode should be released shortly according to the creators.

I first bought the comic book and was pretty impressed at 1.25 at dollar tree. It's only 20 pages but still better than any new Marvel/DC stuff I've read. I know that's not saying much but when you add in the impressive and very inexpensive action figure line along with these videos they are doing, Final Faction is a step ahead of the pack!