Post by Dale on Aug 3, 2009 14:56:28 GMT -5
Re-Possessed
Gonna start by saying I am a fan of Martage’s work. His film Renegade Justice is still listed as one of my top five favourite MR Films of ’09 so far. So I was kind of looking forward to seeing re-Possessed. The premise sounded very good, and I couldn’t wait to get started. What I got wasn’t quite what I expected.
I don’t know if it’s just my expectations of what I thought this film was going to be, or what. But in my opinion, the premise for this film doesn’t work well as a comedy. It’d be more suited in a more dramatic setting. I don't know if it was just the general tone or the writing style, but the film comes off as comedic to me, and it makes the times when dramatic elements are present harder to take seriously.
I will grant you, re-Possessed is a short script, so character development is limited. However the development there is, does not present these characters as likeable or particularly interesting individuals. With nothing about them to latch onto or root for, re-Possessed comes across as un-engaging and somewhat boring.
Technically the movie is sound. It’s well written and the dialogue is Ok (although a step down from Martage’s previous film) however it does suffer from being to direct (as Casa put it). It’s like constant exposition, hammering away at us, telling us the information we need to know instead of letting it unfold naturally through the films events. One could argue this was necessary because of the shortness of the film.
And the ending left me unsatisfied. Dan is not a sympathetic character not even a likeable one. He’s the kind of person, we all hated in high school because they thought they were better than us. He causes the deaths of over a 100 kids, royally screws up his brother’s life, costing him his business, 300 million dollars and his home. And he does it with a smile on his face; and gets away with it cleanly.
It just left me coming away with a dark cloud hanging over my head, at least if the bad guy is going to win let it have a purpose, let it come at some high moral cost or at some kind of price. Here, there’s nothing learnt, he just does his dirty deed with a smile on his face and that’s it.
Overall it’s a film of missed opportunity, a film with a very nice premise, dealing with a current day situation that many people throughout the world are going through. What we get is a mediocre short film that needs room to breathe, a reason to care and maybe one or two re-writes.
*3/4 out of ****
Gonna start by saying I am a fan of Martage’s work. His film Renegade Justice is still listed as one of my top five favourite MR Films of ’09 so far. So I was kind of looking forward to seeing re-Possessed. The premise sounded very good, and I couldn’t wait to get started. What I got wasn’t quite what I expected.
I don’t know if it’s just my expectations of what I thought this film was going to be, or what. But in my opinion, the premise for this film doesn’t work well as a comedy. It’d be more suited in a more dramatic setting. I don't know if it was just the general tone or the writing style, but the film comes off as comedic to me, and it makes the times when dramatic elements are present harder to take seriously.
I will grant you, re-Possessed is a short script, so character development is limited. However the development there is, does not present these characters as likeable or particularly interesting individuals. With nothing about them to latch onto or root for, re-Possessed comes across as un-engaging and somewhat boring.
Technically the movie is sound. It’s well written and the dialogue is Ok (although a step down from Martage’s previous film) however it does suffer from being to direct (as Casa put it). It’s like constant exposition, hammering away at us, telling us the information we need to know instead of letting it unfold naturally through the films events. One could argue this was necessary because of the shortness of the film.
And the ending left me unsatisfied. Dan is not a sympathetic character not even a likeable one. He’s the kind of person, we all hated in high school because they thought they were better than us. He causes the deaths of over a 100 kids, royally screws up his brother’s life, costing him his business, 300 million dollars and his home. And he does it with a smile on his face; and gets away with it cleanly.
It just left me coming away with a dark cloud hanging over my head, at least if the bad guy is going to win let it have a purpose, let it come at some high moral cost or at some kind of price. Here, there’s nothing learnt, he just does his dirty deed with a smile on his face and that’s it.
Overall it’s a film of missed opportunity, a film with a very nice premise, dealing with a current day situation that many people throughout the world are going through. What we get is a mediocre short film that needs room to breathe, a reason to care and maybe one or two re-writes.
*3/4 out of ****
