So after this creators of this movie spammed several message boards with the trailer for the sequel to "Clank Nemesis" I decided to go ahead and give the prequels a shot. This is where the positive aspect of my review ends and the negative part begins.
Our main actor or "Clank" always appears to have an idiotic smirk on his face throughout the "Clank" movies, but in this one it is especially evident. This film actually had some okay actors and they certainly could of saved the main character in this film. His fight scenes are also coordinated poorly, but our other fight scenes, such as the one that takes place in the elevator are actually okay and appear realistic, a little slow, but realistic. I feel that this actor would of made a much better clank then the original actor. This is why I cannot be so lenient on this films rating, I understand that this is an independent film, but a ton of better actor choices were available for the main character and they were not utilized.
Now lets go into the special effects, camera work, editing, audio, and cinematography. I will start with the positive first. The camera work is actually okay, not shaky like in the new clank recruit trailer. The quality is pretty good considering the budget and type of camera, and the cinematography was okay, not awful, not amazing. My biggest gripe in this section of the review is the audio, it's just awful. I don't understand how it was messed up so badly. It almost sound as if the microphone was inserted into a can of soup and used to pick up the audio. Most of the time during the movie I can barely make out what the actors are saying, it all sounds so mumbled. When the weapons are firing, the sounds don't match the effects. I hear the sound of weapons being cocked and readied, yet none of the actors are doing those actions. It's just a random sound being played. I can also hear the sound of the toy's when the trigger is pulled after the weapon firing audio has ended. Not to mention the actors don't make the weapons appear to have recoil either. The flash from the muzzles is okay for an independent film, same goes for the blood. Although I believe if the film's directors had invested in a little bit of on camera blood versus cgi, this would of made the movie more interesting to watch.
The editing is okay, not really a ton of angles to work with, so many of the scenes are just a 1 shot deal. Some of the fade in's and out's look like transitions from a PowerPoint presentation, those could've been polished up a little, but the video editing wasn't to shabby, the audio however was a complete and utter failure.
Now I did really enjoy the locations they used for this film. You can tell they were scouted ahead of time and fit the scenes nicely, but I am afraid I noticed the same scenes over again in the new "Clank Recruit" trailer. This can be a downfall for the new sequel, but this review is about "Clank Nemesis" so I must give the film a positive grade as far as locations go.
Now for me to pick apart certain scenes and explain why I gave the film the rating I did. I will admit, I did not watch the film completely, I had to forward past some parts, but I did finish it from start to beginning. I don't understand why all the enemies or henchmen have all these silly masks on, it makes them hard to understand and takes away from the seriousness of the film. I couldn't understand a word the henchmen in the gas mask was saying nor could I understand the captured enemy that clank was interrogating. I mean why would clank not remove his mask? The beginning fight scene kills the movie from the start. Clank just keeps this silly grin on his face and the fighting just appears to be terribly choreographed. Your opening scene should set the tone for your movie and this one just kills the movie right from the start, which is terrible because some of the other fight scenes in the movie are actually okay. Then we get to the ending fight scene with clank and I just had to shut the movie off due to my frustration. Why is he crouching down in a ducking stance and then stands right back up? Why is he smiling? I'm just so confused. I also don't understand why one of the henchmen would yell "it's a flash bang" then walk up to it and look at it, while clank is just down the hall. Then he charges towards the enemies who don't even open fire and just decide to have a cheesy fight scene. So many missed opportunities here.
I really wanted to give this movie a better rating, but I just cant. I noticed on the directors IMDb that he is working on a ton of films and the practice will make better, but he needs some help with his choice of actors. Also a change of locations for the next film would really help. As well as investing in some audio equipment. Overall I wanted to rate the film 1/10 just out of pure anger towards the clank character that ruined an otherwise okay film production. This in addition to the poor audio, really bad fight scenes, and some errors in editing, justify a 3/10 rating.
Hopefully we see some improvements in the upcoming sequel.
