This is a confusing movie and difficult to review. Not because I didn’t understand what was going on but because it was such a hotchpotch of different films, different styles tonally and different views or ideas. Some people would say that this is great but for me none of it meshed.
Which is a real shame because there is great film here hindered by too many different influences and too much corner cutting in the story department.
Being set in Johannesburg, like District 9, I found the different accents and scenery refreshing but nothing radically so. We start off in pure RoboCop territory with the Scouts supplementing the police in their tough work, tasks that look like a hard day during World War Three but this is effective and sets up the story well – even though I Robot, RoboCop and The Terminator are peaking from behind the scenery throughout.
The film then goes a bit ‘wobbly’ as we expect one man, on his own, being able to perfect Artificial Intelligence, in his living room and we meet what appears to be ruthless criminals.
Therein lies the quandary. What is the tone? Are the South African criminals lovely rogues or hard-skinned killers, is Yo-Landi as soft as marshmallow or a hardened gunslinger? The film makers don’t seem to know themselves veering from one to the other and for me at least this was jarring.
Likewise, the action at times you think that it’s the time of film were no one really gets hurt, then a man gets ruthlessly shot and later on ripped in half. To me it is like someone else edited the film without the director and writers input and got it wrong a bit.
The big question about consciousness and the meaning of being alive are asked in an interesting way. Only for the answer to be given definitively at the end, which is silly and a cop out.
The acting throughout is good, in particular the mo-capped Sharlto Copley, who always gives value, although rappers Ninja and Yo-Landi, playing characters with the same names, bounce between ‘good’ to ‘you aren’t an actor’ moments. In fact, their characters are definitely the most poorly written with them being either rather horrible to actually quite nice but at the flip of a coin. This made them unrealistic and confusing throughout.
All in all, I think this was a good story, I particular liked the very end that could lead onto another film with much bigger questions, but some plot devices and holes were just too big and too coincidental to really work. I know it is a film made to entertain but when an event occurs that could destroy the whole story with one simple action perhaps the makers should concentrate on these little moments in the script. I mean Tetravaal really need to up their security as it was far too easy to drive in and out of the premises with nicked stuff.
, There’s a great film in here somewhere but some poor choices and editing definitely subtracted something from the finished product.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2016-06-26T15:05:08Z
This is a confusing movie and difficult to review. Not because I didn’t understand what was going on but because it was such a hotchpotch of different films, different styles tonally and different views or ideas. Some people would say that this is great but for me none of it meshed.
Which is a real shame because there is great film here hindered by too many different influences and too much corner cutting in the story department.
Being set in Johannesburg, like District 9, I found the different accents and scenery refreshing but nothing radically so. We start off in pure RoboCop territory with the Scouts supplementing the police in their tough work, tasks that look like a hard day during World War Three but this is effective and sets up the story well – even though I Robot, RoboCop and The Terminator are peaking from behind the scenery throughout.
The film then goes a bit ‘wobbly’ as we expect one man, on his own, being able to perfect Artificial Intelligence, in his living room and we meet what appears to be ruthless criminals.
Therein lies the quandary. What is the tone? Are the South African criminals lovely rogues or hard-skinned killers, is Yo-Landi as soft as marshmallow or a hardened gunslinger? The film makers don’t seem to know themselves veering from one to the other and for me at least this was jarring.
Likewise, the action at times you think that it’s the time of film were no one really gets hurt, then a man gets ruthlessly shot and later on ripped in half. To me it is like someone else edited the film without the director and writers input and got it wrong a bit.
The big question about consciousness and the meaning of being alive are asked in an interesting way. Only for the answer to be given definitively at the end, which is silly and a cop out.
The acting throughout is good, in particular the mo-capped Sharlto Copley, who always gives value, although rappers Ninja and Yo-Landi, playing characters with the same names, bounce between ‘good’ to ‘you aren’t an actor’ moments. In fact, their characters are definitely the most poorly written with them being either rather horrible to actually quite nice but at the flip of a coin. This made them unrealistic and confusing throughout.
All in all, I think this was a good story, I particular liked the very end that could lead onto another film with much bigger questions, but some plot devices and holes were just too big and too coincidental to really work. I know it is a film made to entertain but when an event occurs that could destroy the whole story with one simple action perhaps the makers should concentrate on these little moments in the script. I mean Tetravaal really need to up their security as it was far too easy to drive in and out of the premises with nicked stuff.
, There’s a great film in here somewhere but some poor choices and editing definitely subtracted something from the finished product.