Dark Asset

Dr. Cain (Robert Patrick) has been implanting experimental microchips into people's brains. They increase brain power and function and also allows him to manipulate and control his subjects. John (Byron Mann) is his next subject. He can't control John who turns on him. John tracks down Jane (Helena Mattsson) and starts recounting the history of the program with her.

The start is fine especially for a B-movie. It has a fine premise and a familiar face. It's going well... for a B-movie. And then John sits down with Jane and starts talking. As he talks, it leads to flashbacks. That story structure goes on for half of the movie. Essentially, it saps the energy out of the action and the story. I get the idea of that turn at the end of it. It needs to come sooner. In addition, there are some non-sense in the story which I'm not going to nitpick. It's a B-movie after all. The middle really drags with the sit down flashback construction.

The movie starts out with a fair amount of low budget action. The special effects are from Party City. Numerous security types machine gun a door and it has the same ten holes in it no matter how many shots are fired.

Byron Mann (Ryu in the Street Fighter movie of 1994) is the lead actor. He plays a guy who is picked by Robert Patrick (the evil scientist) to be implanted with a new super-chip that makes him super smart, fast, etc. It is also supposed to give Robert Patrick control over him.

When Patrick gives Mann a test run in front of a CIA op and some investors, Mann breaks out. In the process he shoots about 25 mall security types and never needs to reload his handgun. He also downloads all of Patrick's master files, and even re-writes the code for himself in about two minutes.

The rest of the movie is totally boring. Mann meets up with another chipped agent, and spends about an hour telling her his story, and the same clips of the same lab escape are played about five times.

Mann programming code is also replayed a few times. Watching a guy typing code was boring enough the first time. He also throws in memory clips of him talking to other chipped agents and getting them to kill targets. It is a lot more boring than reading this.

Eventually at the end of the movie, we get a fight scene that is pretty entertaining. We also get revenge from the tomb (or the brain dead), which was a nice touch.

Dark Assets takes about 15 minutes of action, and replays into a 90 minute movie with a lot of explaining of the same clips over and over again.

This is a bit of a shame. It could have been really good. It's got all the ingredients for an interesting movie. Modified humans used as weapons...count me in.

It's got a interesting cast of recognisable actors such as Terminator guy and The A- hole from the big short. The structure of the movie is well done flicking backwards and forwards in time to make an decent structure The problems are that the budget doesn't allow for any interesting sets and thus the film looks quite samey. The editing is also awful and kills any notion of coherence or pace in the action sequences which is a death sentence for an action movie.

I'll go ahead and blame the budget on this one.. and also some uneven direction. Ultimately, this movie has the ingredients to be something fun and interesting, but it would rely on better choreography and filming style, a more engaging script, a serious round of editing, and set pieces that are a grade above the cafeteria across from the movie set. The acting is pretty decent (at least for the mains) when they are bantering through kill machine discovery.

Unfortunately, it feels like a 3-hour movie, but it is watchable for some mild entertainment in parts if nothing better presents itself. Lower your expectations though.

Byron Mann has been growing on me since seeing him as the protégé in Steven Seagull films. Dark Asset is the perfect venue for him as he is in his element here, where he doesn't even take himself too seriously and does his mayhem with a casual aplomb. Add in provocatively supersensual femme fatales hotter than the sun and you've got the ideal popcorn fantasy action romp. The storytelling narration format with flashback presentations is well done and adds to both the intrigue and the fun of it all. Robert Patrick is typecast perfectly in the role he plays in all his efforts since his Terminator days. Not a blockbuster by any means yet still a strong candidate for the top favorites list. Enjoy and repent.