Arctic Void

A movie should fulfill it's promise. The script, acting, direction, lighting, and photography are better than most foreign films, and even the sound holds together. Americans (myself included) prefer more closure than the ending provides. And I'm still unsure whether or not I understand the ending. But the truth is that for a Saturday afternoon on a cold winter day, it was beautiful to look at, held attention, better crafted, and far, far, better edited than much higher budget productions. The credits state that it was filmed with 16 people in 16 days and there are some interesting names in the 'Special Thanks' credits that are encouraging, and might explain that success. So IMO the movie fulfills its promise even if the crew didn't carry the story to a comforting end.

At the end of this movie it says This film was shot in 16 days by 16 people. That's pretty amazing considering it had an interesting plot, a very unique location for filming and the acting was just fine. The camera didn't bounce all over the place and the movie wasn't shot in the dark so you couldn't see what was going on. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and cared about the characters. Then, the ending. Or lack thereof. I don't know who thought up the ridiculous ending, but someone, anyone should have laughed and said, "No, really. How are we ending this story?"

Three writers and not one could come up with an actual ending? What's worse, is that this film could've so easily been epic. It had excellent directing, amazing cinematography, beautiful landscapes and settings, spot on score, and the cast and performances were great. For a low budget indie film, this can school even some experienced filmmakers on how to create the perfect suspense and environment for its genre. Even the writing was great until about the final act. There were no plot holes or technical issues, then the ending just got sloppy and boring. Seeing the little special effects with the animals brings the tension and suspense level right up, and you know it's building up to something huge, and then, boom!, a total let down. Budget can't be the excuse, because imagination is free. It's seems more like the writers got bored and/or lazy. Such an easy fix and what a shame. Sadly, it's only a 7/10 from me, all going to the first three-quarters of what was almost a perfect film, and it could've easily been more, if there was a little more effort.

My quick rating - 5,3/10. The scenery in this one was excellent. I have to assume filming in such a place has to be dirt cheap but the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere while watching this is like an additional character. The feel of this is very much like an episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. 3 guys shooting film for their travel show are on a ship to Svalbard, Norway when a mysterious power outage occurs and the rest of the people on board for the tour "vanish." This leaves the trio to try and figure out what has happened and venture off to the only town they can spot from the ship which also happens to be abandoned. The acting in this one is fairly bland since rarely do either of them actually attempt to show any emotions. It is hard to tell if it was just a lack of dialogue or just painting them out to basically be in shock. The bit players are given hardly any time to develop, which is a shame since Rune Temte as Jim, the tour head, was on the way to stealing the show here. This moved by rather briskly at 82 minutes and as I mentioned, could've been trimmed down a bit more if they were shooting for a TV show slot. It does lack any twist or surprise though which I was hoping for since my initial thought of what was going on happened to be correct. And I am not trying to say I was getting really creative with my guess either. #jackmeatsflix.

There are a couple decent actors here, the scenery is spectacular, and the concept has real potential. Unfortunately, the direction is film student amateur, one of the lead actors has a non-existent range of emotion, and the writer lost the plot after setting it up. The net result is a dry slog through an abandoned mining town while no one, either on screen or audience, knows or cares what is going on.

Three stars for the acting of two of the three survivors, for the plot setup, and for the engaging setting. No stars for what happens after the 'mystery' is introduced. You can turn the movie off at any point once they reach the island and you won't miss a thing.