Rogue Elements: A Ryan Drake Story

This Proof of Concept should have been something that showed that Mr Drinker could walk the walk he talks about. Instead, several things he constantly criticized other films for, those some things appear here. Most importantly, it's just boring and not engaging. I at one time considered myself a fan of the drinker , but as of late I stopped watching because all his videos were the same and he spoke about the same thing over and over, and it seems he didn't have the desire to change and talk about some of the more positive stuff, but when he released this idea upon the world , I was excited. I am glad I didn't put money towards this. I know the people who backed this are pissed. It's just like sci fi tv series level of execution.

Rarely has a crowdfunded project more comprehensively dunked on the mugs who gave it money. But Rouge Elephants goes all-out to subvert expectations by displaying all of the very same tropes that its creator mercilessly mocks when he observes them in others:

An anodyne, anonymous John Guyman lead with no character or presence. I've watched this twice and still couldn't name one trait of Nothing Dork.

Pacing that opens with a mild bang then immediately slips into flashbacks, tell-don't-show, and even as-you-know exposition to pad out the run-time.

Not one but two girlbosses who perform ridiculous feats of combat, when they would be laid flat by the first hand put on them.

Dialogue that's stilted, cheesy, clumsy, interchangeable, repetitive and rambling.

An utterly generic plot that's so genre-compliant that surely it must qualify as parody.

Bear in mint that all this comes from a writer / producer who can recognise all the traits of a great indie production, and yet chooses to use absolutely none of them himself.

It's telling that not one of the creator's circle of content creators has reviewed this short, because there is literally nothing in it to praise, either objectively, or in comparison to any contemporary production like Terminal List or Reacher.

A creator with courage would do a "The Drinker Fixes: Rogue Elements", but we still await that moment of humility and self awareness.

I was eagerly anticipating this production, being a fan of the Drinker and sharing most of his frustration of modern film making.

I've read a couple of Will Jordan's books and found them to be a bit paint by numbers, with the lead character "Drake" being a bit dull. I found this short film to be very similar. My main criticism is the casting of Ryan Drake, I'm sorry but I just don't see how anyone in their right mind would think casting of Moran as an experienced special forces operator was a good idea. Moran was a terrible casting choice and unfortunately, this completely ruined it for me.

Maybe I was expecting too much?! But I was left disappointed.

This 'proof of concept' short film/pilot is a bit of a mess.

First up, the dialogue is bad, and the pacing is inconsistent. The music choices and editing adds no subtlety or tension as it is too bombastic, calling attention to itself. The acting varies between formulaic and atrocious. There are some interesting shots, peppered amongst the majority of generic ones. The story is not that gripping, and the lead role has been miscast, with an actor whose varying accent is his most interesting characteristic.

This is a film based on books by, and co-written by a YouTuber of some renown, Will Jordan, a.k.a. The Critical Drinker, so I was surprised and disappointed at the cliche level of dialogue and plot, given his reviews of movies, and his series of videos "the Drinker fixes". Although a lot of the responsibility for these things must also lie with the Director/Co-writer/Editor Travis Grant, as those three roles also play a pivotal part of how a film is made. While some of the fight scenes are okay, most of the pacing is slow, and the blocking/staging boring. More tension could have been added by giving characters things to do, putting them in motion as they speak the exposition necessary to set up the world this story takes place. Things like have the character who is supposed to speak Russian/Estonian actually speak Russian or Estonian to the guards, and not badly accented English. But mainly establish the main character earlier, as well as make him the one the audience wants to watch.

This 40 minute film had a budget of over $300,000, and many clever, inventive, independent feature films have been made for this level of money or less like Clerks, Open Water, Once, Pi, She's Gotta Have It, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and one of my favourites - El Mariachi, which had action and gun play.

I found this effort disappointing, and a missed opportunity with a budget not well spent.

What stood out most was the overall tone and how cliche it was - I get nothing from this short film that I couldn't experience elsewhere. Slavic antagonists and NATO protagonists, obligatory mindless shootouts and interrogation scene, abandoned compound base, plot armor in the shootouts, etc.

My second biggest gripe would be that I don't know what the hell is really going on, which is a problem severely worsened by the very fast pace. I think the film should have been more accessible to people who aren't familiar with the universe, because I had to spend a substantial amount of time just trying to figure out what was meant to be what.

The world is not portrayed in an immersive or realistic way, which is unengaging. Everything is tailored to serve the plot, rather than to feel like a realistic location that the plot could transpire in. There's a lack of wide shots and slow moments to help you understand the vibes that the characters might be feeling. Instead, it's all just nonestop character-focused action moments or infodumping, without room to breathe.

Smaller details such as the amount of bullets in a magazine, girls having their hair tied back to avoid intrusion, the technical realism of how computers are used, and the amount of injuries sustained in a fight all add up to create a piece of media that just doesn't feel a) realistic and b) technically analyzed by the people who concieved it.

There's also a distinct lack of mystique to the world, and a spy-thriller without mystique is just mindless action in my opinion. Compared to something like John Wick, which builds a lot of mystique both around Wick himself as well as the organisation he worked for, everything in this short film just feels soulless and without deeper intrigue or purpose.

The acting is decidedly unimpressive. Everyone feels almost like they're playing a caricature of the stereotypical roles that they're playing. They all feel superficial, like they have no deeper meaning behind why they act the way they do, and nobody plays off of eachother in a way that appears charismatic or charming at all. I would believe you if you told me every character has their takes filmed in isolation, and were only ever put in the scene together in post. It all just feels very stiff, forced, and unnatural.

There is nothing that particularly stood out about any of the characters in terms of their unique world views or personalities.

Dialogue was flat and boring. It's like that scene in every Christopher Nolan movie where a character tries to explain an overly complicated concept and the majority of the audience just doesn't catch on or care, except in Rogue Elements that scene is 20% of the runtime. I don't care about the specifics of what the characters are trying to do; I care about the characters themselves. What do they value, what do they disagree on, what are their motives. There's just no nuance in this regard, and if they're is then its veiled behind knowledge that isn't conveyed to people who aren't already familiar with the source material.

The only line that stood out to me was when the antagonist replied with "Oh come on, how many 'good men' are dead because of Hastings, because of her?" as it made me actually think about where the morality of each faction was aligned for a moment, as opposed to just mindlessly follow along with "good guys" killing "bad guys". But maybe I only even questioned that because I know nothing about either side and what they're even standing for in the first place.

Lastly, the music is just overbearing, as was the intro sequence. The phrase self-indulgent comes to mind. Use a big crescendo for the climax of an important moment, sure, but I don't need stuff to be blaring 24/7. Let me soak in the atmosphere of the world instead - the sound of gunshots, footsteps and muffled voices, or the silence of a room filled with tension.

My biggest praise for the show would be that the action is visceral and crunchy, despite the fact that all fights are unrealistically one-sided, and the choreography was pretty good too.

I thought the visuals and set designs were nice, and although I thought the colour palette was very bland and uninspired, at least each scene had it's own vibe going on.

For Drinker - I really think you'd earn a huge amount of respect for making a video highlighting what exactly happened in this project, whether it's going to affect your perspective on anything moving forward, and what you've learned fron it. As it stands I think you've lost some sort of credibility as a critic if you're behind the production of something with such glaring amateur mistakes.