2307: Winter's Dream

The film is set 300 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic world that has completely frozen over. It begins in an underground city, which is the world's last remaining population centre. Noids (or Mules), which are genetically modified humans, are bred to work. A number of the Mules have "gone rouge", and one Mule, involved in one particular event, leads to a military team of four people being sent on a mission across the frozen wasteland to eliminate him.

This film has some problems. Some of the acting is a little poor. There are plot holes. It sometimes seems that essential dialogue is edited out of scenes. I get the impression that the film has been cut down a great deal. It moves far too quickly. At the beginning of a scene, long shots and positioning shots, instead of being lingered on, flash before us for an instant. There is also some fairly untidy camera work. It also seems that the whole film has been dubbed and everyone sounds like they are speaking in a small room, which I think might actually be the reason you get the impression of poor acting.

That said, this is a credible movie. The story moves on at such a fast pace that the film's 101 minutes could easily stretch to 130. The film certainly has its foundations in good, solid sci-fi. The Mules could be straight out of Brave New World. There are some great plot twists. There are some decent sets. The effects are, with some exceptions, quite good as well. I got the impression that towards the end, the film seemed to sharpen up a little. The plot, especially the ending, was very good.

If you can forgive this film its failings, and it has many, you have a pretty good sci-fi yarn. Very similar to, but not quite like, anything that has gone before.

I enjoy watching smaller budget and/or independent films, because when I find a gem, like this one, it is so exciting. It is amazing what can be accomplished with so little monies when "Hollywood" spends billions and still produces crap. No big name stars in this film, and the acting isn't perfect, but good enough to still get into the mood. The story is voiced over, so you get to know the main character, and some facts and back story about this time and world. The special affects believable, but the "laser" from their guns looks a little dated, the settings, however ,uniforms and equipment look futuristic. I loved the score! The music was VERY good! Unique in some places, and appropriate in all places. The movie is set at a good pace. The camera work excellent, showing creativity and having a variety of close ups/long shots. The editing was a bit sloppy in a few places but hardly noticeable. The story had a good foundation,and was interesting and full but did have a few holes. On the whole, I DO recommend this movie especially if you like posse type, action movies, with a futuristic post apocalyptic flavor. A very well done, quality small budgeted movie!!

After reading some of the reviews for this film then watching it myself, my immediate thoughts went to how sometimes we go into films with too many expectations, especially when watching genre fare. But I tend to give ambitious Indy films the benefit of the doubt because I know from experience that they have tremendous financial obstacles to overcome. This "little Indy" is kind of epic though, and I was immediately impressed as to what was accomplished visually on such a low budget, which I've heard was around $750K. That's not even the catering budget of a studio film folks. Like most films, this one is definitely flawed -- some of the acting is mediocre and the story is heavily influenced by Sci-Fi predecessors such as BLADE RUNNER, PREDATOR, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, but it has this unmistakable Western pace, mood, and atmosphere, that is especially heightened by a fresh Sci-Fi Western soundtrack. It's a filmmakers film most likely created by a cinefile, for cinefiles like me, with lots of cool references and homages to the classics, but to its credit, it also has some unexpected twists especially at the end. It is a film with a message, a spiritual message to be exact, which is rare in these days of empty thrill ride $180M blockbusters selling plastic heroes and paper tigers. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to have a cinematic experience and be immersed in a future reality that is not so far off from our present.

300 years in the future, after the whole planet is frozen over, Bishop (Paul Sidhu) is asked to hunt the renegade android ASH 393 (Branden Coles). The high intelligence and supeerhuman strength of his opponent makes that an extremely hard task in a hostile environment. Besides, Bishop's general hasn't told him the whole story before he sent him on that mission...

Produced for less than a million dollars, the movie is quite ambitious for its low budget. Its frozen future world reminds me a little bit of Robert Altman's 'Quintet', but unfortunately '2307' enjoys its gun battles in trash movie style too much and has only actors with limited capabilities while suffering a bit from pretentiousness. The best supporting actors are Timothy Lee DePriest as Ishmael, whose harmonica playing is another reference to western movies, and Arielle Holmes as Kix, the most fanatical member of Bishop's team. What we finally get is a movie that fits into the 'Cyborg' subgenre of the 80s/90s Terminator rip-offs, but with a modern design and a better story that most of them.

The story is not unique, but actually a good one. However when you combine that good story with bad acting, poor CG, terrible dialogues and immense plot holes, the output is inevitably below par.

I say bad acting because any mimic, gesture and voice acting are so exaggerated that you feel an urge to slap their faces to help them back to their senses. Other than a few main roles, every character is either shouting hysterically or acting overly self-confident.

Poor CG is acceptable in consideration of the lower budget.

Terrible dialogues are everywhere. Either there are lots of cut scenes or several writers authored the script individually and than shuffled the pages to make a scrambled innovation. The result stinks like a bowl of deteriorated and uncooked scrambled eggs.

Plot holes. Oh my! Countless. Self detonating non-explosive things, inverted hands with absurd axis shifts in camera view, unexplained relationships, and most importantly climate defying "everything"... In a movie of which the plot is about extreme climate change, some clothing freezes in water, which is surprisingly present in extreme low temperatures and some organic tissues survive in the same water source.

All in all, it would have been a masterpiece, toppling "Oblivion" of Cruise in many ways.

If you really have a two-hour spare time and the movie is free, watch till the end, against all odds. The ending is satisfactory. But the journey may get really boring and your thumb would reach out for the stand-by button any time.