Post by blg on Aug 19, 2009 17:01:22 GMT -5
Jomo's first script concerns a video game geek who discovers a code hidden inside his new game that tells him the world is going to end. Slavishly devoted to electronic entertainment, he takes it at face value and begins panicing. Soon, the whole town is preparing for the apocalypse.
Wait a minute. What?
The problem isn't the premise; it's actually pretty original, a sort of Chicken Little story that you don't see very often. The issue is the plot device. Nobody would take Toberts seriously at all if he'd discovered his prophecy in a video game. Now, maybe if the main character had come to this realisation through mathematical equations or discovering the planets are aligned in such a way that an asteroid will collide with Earth, then I can see why everybody would lose their shit. Obviously films can be as realistic or unrealistic as they like, but the characters have to be plausible, and in this respect the script fails.
The tone and feel, however, are very fresh, and it's good to see creativity such as this at work on the site. It didn't make me laugh much - the dialogue felt stilted and overwritten, and the abundant references could have elicited more laughs if they were parodies of pop culture icons rather than brands name dropped in the script - but I did care for the characters, Sanders and Tammy at least. Toberts' motives were just too inconsistent for me to keep up with; first he was genuinely scared for the well-being of humanity, then he seemed to be using it as an excuse to prove his own superiority, then he didn't believe the world was ending at all. It wasn't so much character development as it was shifts in character.
For the most part, however, this is a solid piece of work; an ok script. I hate to use such non-descript words, but this isn't a film that'll provoke much of a reaction. I'm definitely looking forward to whatever Jomo may have in store in the future.
3/5
Wait a minute. What?
The problem isn't the premise; it's actually pretty original, a sort of Chicken Little story that you don't see very often. The issue is the plot device. Nobody would take Toberts seriously at all if he'd discovered his prophecy in a video game. Now, maybe if the main character had come to this realisation through mathematical equations or discovering the planets are aligned in such a way that an asteroid will collide with Earth, then I can see why everybody would lose their shit. Obviously films can be as realistic or unrealistic as they like, but the characters have to be plausible, and in this respect the script fails.
The tone and feel, however, are very fresh, and it's good to see creativity such as this at work on the site. It didn't make me laugh much - the dialogue felt stilted and overwritten, and the abundant references could have elicited more laughs if they were parodies of pop culture icons rather than brands name dropped in the script - but I did care for the characters, Sanders and Tammy at least. Toberts' motives were just too inconsistent for me to keep up with; first he was genuinely scared for the well-being of humanity, then he seemed to be using it as an excuse to prove his own superiority, then he didn't believe the world was ending at all. It wasn't so much character development as it was shifts in character.
For the most part, however, this is a solid piece of work; an ok script. I hate to use such non-descript words, but this isn't a film that'll provoke much of a reaction. I'm definitely looking forward to whatever Jomo may have in store in the future.
3/5
