2307: Winter's Dream

Formulaic pseudo-post apocalyptic film, with terrible action scenes and the flimsiest excuse of a plot, carelessly patched together by common myths infesting actual movies.

There's really little to none redeeming value in this.

1)As sci-fi it doesn't even compete; it raises no questions, introduces no new ideas, creates not even a shadow of an actual futuristic setting.

2)As a thriller it has no tension; nobody can summon the willpower to care for "characters" who systematically act out the most inane choices and the amateurish direction doesn't help.

3)The backbone of the plot is so.. safe, it feels like a sham. I'll occasionally stomach the pseudo-intellectual doctrine that passes for liberalism in Hollywood these days as long as it is attached to a 100M production. But in an independent production - and a sci-fi to boot - I expect to be presented with the unpopular opinion, the 'truth' that lacks recognition or exposure, not to be spoon-fed the mainstream dogma!

In any case there were a couple of decent lines - maybe even competent - so I'll give it a 2.

The film is set 300 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic world that has completely frozen over. It begins in an underground city, which is the world's last remaining population centre. Noids (or Mules), which are genetically modified humans, are bred to work. A number of the Mules have "gone rouge", and one Mule, involved in one particular event, leads to a military team of four people being sent on a mission across the frozen wasteland to eliminate him.

This film has some problems. Some of the acting is a little poor. There are plot holes. It sometimes seems that essential dialogue is edited out of scenes. I get the impression that the film has been cut down a great deal. It moves far too quickly. At the beginning of a scene, long shots and positioning shots, instead of being lingered on, flash before us for an instant. There is also some fairly untidy camera work. It also seems that the whole film has been dubbed and everyone sounds like they are speaking in a small room, which I think might actually be the reason you get the impression of poor acting.

That said, this is a credible movie. The story moves on at such a fast pace that the film's 101 minutes could easily stretch to 130. The film certainly has its foundations in good, solid sci-fi. The Mules could be straight out of Brave New World. There are some great plot twists. There are some decent sets. The effects are, with some exceptions, quite good as well. I got the impression that towards the end, the film seemed to sharpen up a little. The plot, especially the ending, was very good.

If you can forgive this film its failings, and it has many, you have a pretty good sci-fi yarn. Very similar to, but not quite like, anything that has gone before.

The story is not unique, but actually a good one. However when you combine that good story with bad acting, poor CG, terrible dialogues and immense plot holes, the output is inevitably below par.

I say bad acting because any mimic, gesture and voice acting are so exaggerated that you feel an urge to slap their faces to help them back to their senses. Other than a few main roles, every character is either shouting hysterically or acting overly self-confident.

Poor CG is acceptable in consideration of the lower budget.

Terrible dialogues are everywhere. Either there are lots of cut scenes or several writers authored the script individually and than shuffled the pages to make a scrambled innovation. The result stinks like a bowl of deteriorated and uncooked scrambled eggs.

Plot holes. Oh my! Countless. Self detonating non-explosive things, inverted hands with absurd axis shifts in camera view, unexplained relationships, and most importantly climate defying "everything"... In a movie of which the plot is about extreme climate change, some clothing freezes in water, which is surprisingly present in extreme low temperatures and some organic tissues survive in the same water source.

All in all, it would have been a masterpiece, toppling "Oblivion" of Cruise in many ways.

If you really have a two-hour spare time and the movie is free, watch till the end, against all odds. The ending is satisfactory. But the journey may get really boring and your thumb would reach out for the stand-by button any time.

After reading some of the reviews for this film then watching it myself, my immediate thoughts went to how sometimes we go into films with too many expectations, especially when watching genre fare. But I tend to give ambitious Indy films the benefit of the doubt because I know from experience that they have tremendous financial obstacles to overcome. This "little Indy" is kind of epic though, and I was immediately impressed as to what was accomplished visually on such a low budget, which I've heard was around $750K. That's not even the catering budget of a studio film folks. Like most films, this one is definitely flawed -- some of the acting is mediocre and the story is heavily influenced by Sci-Fi predecessors such as BLADE RUNNER, PREDATOR, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, but it has this unmistakable Western pace, mood, and atmosphere, that is especially heightened by a fresh Sci-Fi Western soundtrack. It's a filmmakers film most likely created by a cinefile, for cinefiles like me, with lots of cool references and homages to the classics, but to its credit, it also has some unexpected twists especially at the end. It is a film with a message, a spiritual message to be exact, which is rare in these days of empty thrill ride $180M blockbusters selling plastic heroes and paper tigers. I recommend this film to anyone who wants to have a cinematic experience and be immersed in a future reality that is not so far off from our present.

From the very beginning, you can already see how the acting is, simply, horrible. The chemistry they tried to create between the squad members is so so so painful to watch that I had to turn off the tv. Could not get past 20 minutes.

It seemed like a good plot/concept but the execution makes it unwatchable.