Abigail e a Cidade Proibida

The plot itself lacked ingenuity ,, the script looked all over the place ,, really hard to follow at some scenes and the story just disconnected .. add to that I watched it with some weird voice-over ,, so even they were speaking english their lips movement looked like they were speaking russian or something... so that piled up on my misery.

The acting was another disaster !! I mean goodness me !! with all the money spent on the visual effects (which were really good) you'd think they would spare a few grands for at least a B list actors !! ... The only actor I knew was Eddie Marsan who was there for like 10 minutes ,,and that says A LOT ...

I think this was a nice try by the young russian lad, Aleksandr Boguslavskiy, he had a great opportunity but he totally missed... But I personally believe if the movie was all Russian movie, like script, cast and all it would have looked much better.

Good film, liked the over all look and style. BUT everyone in the film is clearly speaking english as speech matches mouth movements yet everyone is dubbed in annoyingly unrealistic voices that don't match their character at all. I don't understand why they do this I would much rather someone speaking English with their native accent than the weird disembodied voices they have, made the film difficult to watch and take seriously and spoiled it massively. Would have given up and switched off if kid didn't seem to be enjoying it.

The story telling is falling into pieces and all the points are hardly connected. Story progress are so confusing and so hard to catch up. I personally thinks that there is something wrong with the storyboard that makes the movie losing their main focus in almost every scene. Character dialogues are so clear without sufficient environment noise, makes them sound like a voice-over. The created music are good but the volume are so constant throughout the movie. However, kudos to the VFX team who tries their best to work on the film. The effects are actually quite good, but it cannot save this movie with other elements fall so behind.

"Abigail" is a Russian fantasy-adventure film with a good story and magnificent special effects. The director Aleksandr Boguslavskiy is absolutelly unknown for Western audiences and uses the surrealistic style of French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet on "La cité des enfants perdus" (1995), a.k.a. "The City of Lost Children". The huge buildings are typical in Eastern Europe and the city recalls a guetto in World War II. The authorities look like nazi officers and the epidemic that closes the borders of the city recalls most of the societies with the COVID-19 pandemic in the present days. The magic is a twist in the storyline and the flying machine is original. In the end, "Abigail" is neither a masterpiece nor what the IMDb reviews describe, but an entertaining movie for fans of the genre. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Abigail e a Cidade Proibida" ("Abigail and the Forbidden City")

The acting is terrible and so awkward. Chemistry between Abigail and Bale seems so forced. Love the Father's acting though. The rest just gives a really bad voice over vibe. Great effects, really thought that was beautiful. Plot flow could have been a lot better.