Subterano

Seriously!

Sometimes i just get the feeling that the whole movie industry is after my mental health. Someone could ask why? well the aswer is really simple > movies like SUBTERANO. When "wannabe" sci-fi flicks go bad this is a good sample what happens, totally lost script, bad acting, bad catch, bad cpu animations, bad sounds, and last, but not least bad atmosphere.

I do not recommend this movie nor will i ever say it is good, i will simply poke my eyes blind next time i even hear someone say "subterano", i mean HOW BAD CAN MOVIES GET REALLY?

SUBTERANO is one of those low-budget movies that is, unfortunately, too ambitious for its own good. The idea is there, along with a good premise, but the resources to carry it out isn't. So as a result we get a movie that uses the same color scheme and repetitive nature of the highly creative CUBE, which managed to sell its low-budget nature because the story dictates repetitiveness. With SUBETERANO, the repeating of garage levels is just, well, repeating garage levels.

Also, the screenplay is much too elaborate. There is a whole back story about revolution and the movie itself is supposed to take place in the future. I've always advised low-budget filmmakers to veer away from futuristic storylines for the simple reason that they don't have the resources to carry out the premise. And, as a result, their "future world" always ends up looking incredibly laughable.

SUBTERANO is not an entirely bad film. It has some good actors, but also some very irritating characters that, unfortunately, don't die off fast enough. There really is no surprise who will live or who will die, and who will end up being really irritating. In this respect, the screenplay fails.

5 out of 5

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie, including reviews of other films in this genre)

This has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust for months, so I figured I might as well watch it. I got it for $3 in a bargain bin, so I wasn't expecting much at all, but I got a rather pleasant surprise! Sure, it's not a great movie by any means, full of plot hole and continuity problems, but the actors were actually pretty good for a low budget flick like this. Same goes for the effects. The plot wasn't anything we haven't seen before, but it was handled well. I was pretty disappointed with the "Embo Man" villain in the end....looked like a bad Power Ranger villain. Oh well, it was still a lot better than expected for $3!

7/10

Just saw a Great Scifi movie..Its called Subterano.. This movie's plot was virtual reality in actual reality.. A wierd collection of people have been trapped in a underground car park. There is a killer/good guy, a sexy babe as his ex wife, a group of cyber punks, a security guard babe and a old computer nerd bum. These ppl are forced to play a game of Subterano.. Subterano is a virtual reality game, but the son of the inventor of the game snaps and forces theses people to play a real life game with him only in virtual reality.. This son has some weird devices he can control in virtual reality to hunt down these people in actual reality. If you have ever seen the movie The Cube this movie is up to that level in quality. Basicly these people have to movie from level to level in the game.. With out giving out too much information and ruining the plot

Eleven people are trapped in an underground parking lot, where they must battle their way through it against lethal toys in a real-life virtual-reality game. I rented "Subterano" for no reason in particular, having never read anything about it but passing it hundreds of times on the video store shelf (Lets just say I have a lot of free time on my hands), but upon checking IMDb after renting it I found predominately poor reviews. Perhaps it was because I didn't expect much, I thoroughly enjoyed "Subterano". It may owe one-too-many nods to 1997's brilliant "Cube", and the futuristic clothing may be pretty silly, but there's plenty to like here.

For a low-budget movie, writer/director Esben Storm has done a great job with the film visually. Despite being filmed almost exclusively in a parking lot, the lighting is interesting and attractive (Lots of filters are used in this film to good effect) and there's enough tense action that thing never get boring.

The acting is surprisingly good for the most part, John Clayton and Alex Dimitriades being the best here. Everyone else is good too, but some of the characters could be rather annoying at times (The baby-faced teen girl being a prime example).

The special effects are good. Most direct-to-video films resort to cartoony and unconvincing CG, but here the computer effects are actually quite good, and there are some fun, gruesome death scenes (I'm not going to give them away) here and there. Thankfully, the gore isn't CG.

It's not a perfect film by any means, the script can be thin in places and the music is terrible at times, but "Subterano" was a fun, fast-paced sci-fi thriller that's certainly a stones-throw ahead of the brainless, CGI-laden "sci-fi" films produced by Hollywood these days. Give it a chance and you might like it.

6.5/10.