Dead Space: Downfall

Very pleased with this setup flick to the game Dead Space. Gives a concrete premise to the game and watching this movie has really peaked my interest. Downfall reminded me slightly of Heavy Metal 2000 in the manner is was drawn, which is a good thing IMO. Character development is short but not needed in this scenario. The monsters are well drawn, believable, spread really fast which keeps the movie going at break-neck at speed.

This flick was very heavy on the GORE, which I love, and set an atmosphere of dread and eeriness till the end. A most excellent animated feature which I recommend you watch, preferably at home, alone, and in the dark.

Once you finish with this you'll definitely being going to buy the game. I'll be doing the same very soon...........

Apparently this was supposed to "redefine animation for adults", but there is nothing groundbreaking here, or even adult for that matter. Violence is obviously not something for the kids, but the way it's handled in this movie is incredibly immature, so the only people who could get the most enjoyment out of it are kids. I'm all for gratuitous violence, but blood and guts are only entertaining for so long, it would be nice to have some suspense to go with it, after the first few disembowelments and decapitations I started to lose interest. There are times where the movie seems to be touching on themes that might elevate it above your typical sci-fi gore fest, but those are quickly ignored in favor of more bloodshed. Although we've seen it all before, Dead Space: Downfall is still reasonably entertaining and it's gotten me more interested in the game, so I guess it accomplished what it set out to do. It's just a shame that the people behind it decided to take the easy route by throwing as many body parts across the screen as possible, instead of trying to create a "real" adult animated horror film.

Upon buying the game on release day, the guy behind the counter lovingly threw in a copy of the blu-ray for an extra £10.

I'll be honest, having read Luke-warm reviews on other sites, I wasn't particularly looking forward to watching the feature, but when taking a breather from the game (it gets to your nerves after a while...) I was pleasantly surprised at what the flick had to offer.

The script and voice acting are competent, and the story will definitely appeal to enthusiasts of the property. And whilst the animation isn't stellar, as a companion piece to the video game and animated comic, it serves its adequate purpose of adding another layer to this intriguing universe, a universe that I can only hope will develop into a successful franchise.

A hint to those who may be in my position though, finish the game before you watch this, there's a slight spoiler at the end of the movie.

I haven't played the video game yet, because the movie is a prequel story to the game. I liked what I saw! It wasn't the best animated movie I ever saw, but it is really well made and seems to fit nicely into a history. Can't wait for what is going to happen in the game (have seen stills of the movie, which suggests, that the game has a different "cartoon" style than the movie).

As the game is supposed to be, the movie is very violent. The game is supposed to have more scares though. It's graphic (no pun intended), but the horror factor might be low for some people. Characters are very well drawn (again sorry for the pun) and hopefully you'll like this and enjoy it as much as most did here

While I'm writing this review the current IMDb rating is 6.2 and I find it quite fare.

First of all let me say - I have no idea about the DEAD SPACE game and I'm not a fan of the game, but I am a hardcore animation fan and I follow pretty much everything that comes out. So when I got my hands on this one I was pretty excited - a brand new mature oriented animated feature!! And when I say mature oriented I mean that it has some swear words plus animated violence and blood, which we don't see every day, especially when it comes to western animation (cause if you're into anime you can't complain from the lack of these elements) "Dead Space: Downfall" is above average, but far from brilliant. And the reason for this is mainly the screenplay. The characters lack depth and emotional charge and the story itself is somehow ripping off key elements from John Carpenter's "The Thing" (the designs of the creatures...), Ridley Scott's "Alien" (the intro on the distant planet, the strong female lead, the ship sent by some corrupt institution we never really see...). There's nothing wrong in borrowing already tested classic elements, some fan-service is always welcome. The problem is that the story itself just fails to grab you. There's no background of the characters, too little information about the aim of their trip and the institution that sent them (some kind of a new religious organization... maybe it's the dystopian future when Scienthology rules the Earth?!? OMG!! I can hear Charlton Heston screaming "Damn you all to hell!", we'd prefer the rule of the Apes). The story lacks drama and suspense.

The voice cast is doing more or less OK, I guess that you can't expect them to put into their characters something that's not really there in the script and make them more interesting, so...

The music - during the movie I hardly noticed any music, but the ending credits were quite good I can say. And the use of "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star" is creepy for sure! The character design is very well done, nothing that will totally amaze you, but it fits perfectly well into the atmosphere of the movie. Everything from faces and expressions to clothes and hairstyles is neatly done.

The backgrounds are detailed and not in contrast with the coloring of the characters and the animated objects (unlyke some other animations where you can "feel" what moves and what doesn't just because the animated objects are colored differently). Even the CGI doesn't break the unity and doesn't feel out of place when it's there (mainly for the 3D models of the spaceships) The animation and the directing itself are quite good, well done boys! The perspectives and the camera angles are nice, the movements as well. It's a mixture of traditional western animation with some elements taken from the Japanese school (when it comes to the blood being splattered or the shrinking of the eye-irises for example).

I enjoyed the film, but I Felt disappointed by the story. The animation is stylish enough to accomplish more than that and with better writing it could be something of the class of "Heavy Metal" or "Titan A.E.". STill worth watching, though! Check it out if you have the chance.