Dante 01

I used to be a fan of Caro, being french and grown up in the 90's, and being a visual effects artist. I can't believe how bad this film come back turned out to be! I watched it all as respect for the cast, which is good, but to no avail... Poor story line, vague plot, even vaguer religious connotations. The references to Solaris really made me angry, being a fan of that film (the original Russian version, Tarkosky's). What nerve using such a mater piece with such superficiality! It does look like a production butchered film... but to be honest I found the production design bad, that mix of retro and space technology simply doesn't work here. And the visual effects and artistic direction very poor and repetitive. OK it seems like money was scarce... but also seems like no real effort was made. What a shame...

Still, waiting for more Caro, this had to be an accident!

Not a bad film, just not a good film. Started off strong, but ended poorly. A great first effort by the director - shows a lot of promise. The acting was pretty weak overall, but the material was thin. The production was pretty good for a cheap sci-fi.

The Christian symbolism was laid on so thick you could actually smell it. It wasn't even symbolism - it was iconography. Some christians and non-christians alike will find it offensive or tedious for that reason. It is hard to promote any given religion in a film without coming off lame.

Hope we see more sci-fi from France.

Got the chance to see this at the Sci-Fi London last night in a packed cinema. As a big fan of City of Lost Children and Delicatessen I was suitably excited. The film establishes itself from the off with a very confident and distinct visual style and sense of (the deep, dark void of) space.

A man arrives at a colony circling the fiery planet Dante, his name and history unknown. The ship is a base for psychiatric research on a handful of criminals, held as guinea-pigs and cut off from outside contact. The new man is seen as a messiah by some of the convicts, a trouble-maker by others, as the psychiatrists carry out routine and risky genetic experiments with their DNA.

The film maintains a heightened feeling of tension and claustrophobia that is almost migraine inducing but transfixing. The editing is first rate and the film is well acted (Dominque Pinon, a Caro and Jeunet regular, appears). Unfortunately, the plot keeps promising to go somewhere but ends up disappearing down a black hole of messianic symbolism, and the dialogue is fairly bland and perfunctory. The violence is also almost sickening at times, though this may not bother some.

This is a very confidently directed film that is clearly the unique vision of one very creative visualist, I only hope Caro could have applied his touch to better material and not surrender to pretensions of the religious and philosophical. I'm not suggesting that no film should try to tackle these things, but this film doesn't deliver enough of anything else. Many will call the film deep but ask them what it's about before you believe them.

Worth seeing, though. Definitely deserves better marketing, but I wouldn't want to be the one to do it.

Now... Let's be honest ... Caro has never been able to get his head round a narrative ... Delicatessen and City of Lost Children were both wonderful to look at, but were a complete mess when it came to pacing and narrative ... This is so typical today when most of these cinema directors come from Television ... And making ADVERTS ... What we get is loads of flash, but no real substance This film even manages to fail on that front ... It looks cheap ... The story is all over the place ... And in the end it just turns into 2010,only not as good ... Which, lets be honest, wasn't the greatest piece of cinema I'm reading a lot about financial problems with the production etc... But quite frankly, however much money you throw at something it is going to be crap if there isn't a decent idea in the first place... AND THERE WASN"T : )

I'm usually a very 'nice' reviewer. The kind that usually overlooks some faults in movies because the 'experience' is truly what matters to him. So, 'tis with a heavy heart that I say; I have to agree with the majority of reviewers here.

This movie feels like it was obviously cut short because of money or deadline issues, so it is painfully frustrating in that sense. The story is interesting, and the visuals and sound are astounding, although very influenced by older sci-fi movies (Alien 3 and Resurrection come to mind), but the religious overtones are rendered abstract (at best) by end of the movie.

This is a beautifully well-made movie with awesome visuals, but it has to be taken as an experiment, just like inside the story. Or as an experience, if you prefer.

That's because essentially, the last part of the movie was completely lame. And by lame I mean obviously rushed, incomplete and unfinished. Similar to "The Objective" in that respect, but even worse.

So allow me to present this movie in another way - as an experimental movie. As an audiovisual spectacle for the senses. And as such, Dante 01 is a marvel.

Having said that, the average casual moviegoer will probably not appreciate it in that sense and thus ask for a refund.