I'm going to have to make it clear from the start that I cannot do this film justice in my review. I am not skilled enough as a writer to be able to describe it and it deserves better words than I can throw together in my ham-fisted way, so what I'll try and do is explain why I like this movie so much and why and if that sounds like something that appeals to you then please go see it yourself.
The reason it's so hard to describe is because the film makers have made their own world and that world is unfamiliar. It has a diesel punk aesthetic with ecchos of Fritz Lang's Metropolis or Dark City but it's not clear how it all works - there is no dialogue and it doesn't have exposition for the sake of understanding the film. What it has are characters - the people in the movie know what's going on and they are totally relatable.
They have hopes, fears, they go on a journey. We see them navaigate their world, try to change it, try to change each other and it's magical and I have never been so engrossed in a story in my life at a cinema.
We were lucky enough to have some time at the end for a Q&A with the film makers and lead actors and it felt like we could have been sat around a camp fire with them telling the story and they'd have begun as the light fades then we find ourselves cold, damp, the fire gone out and the sun rising at they finish theri tale but nobody would have noticed any of those things... the story is just so captivating.
Will you like it? I don't know. I think people who are used to graphic novels will connect with it easier (I'm not a comic fan myself, but I appreciate how emotionally connecting an artform it is). Check out the trailer. Take a risk - it may be one of the most captivating films you ever see.
