Midnight Chronicles

Yesterday I tried to watch "Midnight Chronicles" along three hours. This film is so boring that I slept and was able to see less than forty minutes.

The pretentious story begins with a narrative, telling that the Dark God Izrador was cast out from heaven to Earth, raising a realm of shadows in the north. After the third war, Izrador defeats the people of south and begins his kingdom of darkness using legates and the beasts named orcs to control the populations.

Unfortunately the promising beginning of this low-budget film goes to nowhere and the awful screenplay does not develop characters and situations that are thrown in the screen.

Today I have finally finished watching "Midnight Chronicles" and this flick is lame. There is no action, there are ham actors and actresses, and the camera uses closes of the faces of actors and actress like in soap operas.

I have surprisingly found that there are good reviews in IMDb, but they are fake and if the reader pays attention, he or she will see that the foregoing reviews belong to authors with only one review published in IMDb to promote this film and lure the readers. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Crônicas da Meia-Noite" ("Midnight Chronicles")

Picture a world very similar to that of Tolkien's Middle Earth. You've got orcs, elves, a dark bad guy much like Sauron and everything but with one significant twist: 100 years ago, the bad guy won. This is the world of Midnight Chronicles.

Some context: this world first appear as a "Campaign setting" for the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game. A campaign setting, for the non-initiated simply being a world backdrop for your game adventures.

Christian T. Petersen is primarily known as the president of Fantasy Flight Games, a company that excels at making various board games, roleplaying games and also imports and translates several amazing board games from Europe. This is his first foray as a director and although I've seen worse, there really is a sense that he did not have the technical knowledge to pull this extremely ambitious project.

There are a few positives, though. Charles Hubbell is pretty good in the role of the main character, Mag Kiln. The character has a little bit of Shades of grey but essentially, is an envoy of "the bad guy". As such, it is fascinating because usually, protagonists in epic fantasy are clearly "good guys". The only other actor who is decent is Sam L. Landman who plays Kruce. He is Mag Kiln's sidekick and definitely has the best lines in the movie and injects a bit of wit in what is otherwise an overly dramatic affair. The rest of the cast ranges from decent to really bad. The writing doesn't help either. Many of the characters are bland stereotypes, while others do seem to have depth which is ruined by a confusing plot.

And this is what basically kills any hope this movie has: the story overfeeds us with awkward plot exposition. There are several characters to keep track of but few are given enough attention for us to care. It has been said Midnight Chronicles was to act as a calling card, a pilot for a potential TV series and this shows. After all these characters are presented and a plot that moves very slowly, the movie ends abruptly on a less than thrilling sequence. As if you had to put "DVD2" in your player.

It's a little heartbreaking for me to review this labor of love. The attempt at making a darker fantasy is laudable. And although the whole movie looks amateurish, it must have cost the producers (8 of them, including Petersen) an arm and a leg. The introduction sequence alone features tons of extras on a road. There are horse scene, several sets were build and the 3D is amateurish but still pretty.

It all comes down to writing, acting and direction. I can feel the love in this independent project but the skills are lacking. Here's hoping it's still picked for a TV series as there is much potential if additional writers tighten this up.

This movie was apparently supposed to be a television series based on a pretty good fantasy role playing game that I am vaguely familiar with. Considering that White Wolf had their short lived, but popular Vampire series, I suppose this wasn't a vain hope.

Midnight Chronicles does violate one huge tenant of all good fantasy literature: make one of the characters unfamiliar with the world, so it can be explained to the audience slowly and clearly. If Midnight Chronicles had a Richard Cypher from the non-magical country next door, or a hobbit from the shire, or a Harry Potter who grew up with Muggles or a Gen who comes from a small village on a remote island, or a Paul Atreides who must attend his lessons, or a Buck Rogers from the 20th century, etc. If there was one character who was as lost as me going into it, then it would be fixed.

It only got a 6 because it is a B grade fantasy adventure movie in the grand tradition of Hawk The Hunter, but Midnight Chronicles is better than most of the stuff that get's on TV. Sets and costumes and makeup were decent. Acting was kind of goth and pretentious for film, but better than a lot of TV shows. Even the orc masks were pretty good. Other than violating the "one character must be ignorant" rule, I can see no reason this wasn't picked up for a series. So I wish the best to everyone still pulling for this project.

For a low budget film I thought this was actually quite well done. It was 10x the film the Dungeon and Dragon movies were, and makes all the Uwe Boll films look pathetic in comparison *cough*Bloodrayne*cough*.

What I particularly liked was they didn't waste a red cent on horribly mediocre stunt work, and pointless fight scenes with silly explosions. They stuck to the story, and clearly knew their limitations. I'd put this film slightly above the much larger budgeted Eragon, and it left me wanting more, not wishing I had the last 2 hours of my life back.

I look forward to a sequel to this fanfilm'esquire first attempt, or at least get more substantial directorial work for Christian Petersen.

Coming into this film, I had no pretensions. I am only somewhat familiar with the Midnight RPG that this is based on, and I must admit, the setting is one of the best parts about this deathly slow film. At an hour and forty minutes, it certainly feels its length.

Set in a kingdom held under the weight of a near eternal darkness, the bulk of the story follows a 'Legate', a sort of warrior/mage that are the inquisitors of the world, doing the bidding of the godlike 'Darkness'. There is a lot of mythology in the story, way to much for its ambitions. I found the setting to be tantalizing and evocative. The filmmakers used most of their budget on moody VFX shots of cityscapes filled with towers and castles, but left little for the costumes and actors. I swear, most of the actors in the film were culled from the nearest community theater where the film was shot. With the exception of the darkly intriguing Charles Hubbel as the Legate Mag Kiln, none of the actors are interesting in the least.

In the end, the film really does try to tell an intrigue laden story, but it is constantly sabotaged by its own ambitions. This story and world may have worked in the hands of a better director, better actors and a more coherent, less busy script. If you're interested, check it out, otherwise skip it.