Expired

Started watching this tonight, I've been playing with my phone for the last forty mins. The films nearly finished. Not really got a clue what its about. Don't really care!

Immensely annoying start, the lead characters voice over is barely audible. They should have used subtitles. This film really wants to be blade runner, shame they couldn't afford the constant rain (they should have shot it in England).

I've given it three stars cause the lady was attractive.. if the lead guy could have spoke properly i might have gone to four.

Really though, this film is a waste of time. Mine anyway.

Saw this at the wonderful Sun Theatre in Yarraville. The highlight was the movie being introduced by Ivan and Hugo. I really wanted to like it because they were both great but... I didn't.

I enjoyed the Hong Kong backdrop and most of the visuals and sound but really didn't dig the story (or lack of).

Ivan indicated that he did everything when he made this movie, maybe he should get some outside input in his next project.

I left the movie confused.

The pacing is excruciatingly slow. The movie has very little dialog, plot or action. Kwanten talks in a half whisper both in his voice-over and dialog. It's really quite a boring movie. It shares a lot of characteristics with Lost in Translation.

My verdict - pass

If you decide to watch it and you happen to play it on VLC video player on Windows then run it at 108% speed.

This film tries to be deep and meaningful with a distinct Blade Runner skyline interspersed with real, busy street scenes. It just fails to ignite, the story isn't clear, Weaving is under used and the male lead has to be the most scruffy, miserable SOB i've ever come across.

His mumbling frustrates as do the extended scenes where nothing happens, without even minimal (poor) dialogue to break it up.

The girl has the sort of face that'll get work and , no doubt she can act.

Hugo was doing his bit for Oz, that's fair enough, the other two leads need to dust themselves off and try again.

It's an ambitious task producing a science fiction movie on an obviously low budget, especially if the content focuses on condition rather than plot.

The movie's cinematography is well worth watching, also editing is well made, but without a straight plot, scripting has to carry a heavy load because every scene has to stand for itself. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up to the task. Though the dialogues seek philosophical depth, they lack refinement, constantly throwing me out of the suspension of disbelief.

Acting is just fine, including that of Ryan Kwanten who plays the lead role of Jack. However, his sloppy diction is hard to take. Eager to be as authentic as possible, he sacrifices his control over speech which makes him simply hard to understand.

Also, there are too many references to "Blade Runner": A lonesome killer seeking love, voiceover narration, androids, the lifespan issue, an Asian future city, even the soundtrack that sounds like Vangelis at times - there are just too many parallels.

Great Hong Kong footage, good editing, but overall an overambitious undertaking.