Tuesday 5 August 2014

Alive (2002)

[Post #6 of the Blaugust Challenge.]

The maker and some of the cast of Versus are back in yet another manga-like production, again dealing with prison and prisoners. The main character, a man who violently killed a bunch of rapists, actually begins the movie on the electrocution chair but after a strange turn of events finds himself trapped in a different environment (a large room) with a convicted serial rapist. The two are free to do whatever they like (except leave) and can order from the supervisors monitoring this "experiment" almost anything they like.

Up to there it's a pretty good premise, but then they add a third female prisoner - one possessed by an evil alien spirit and things get a bit wonky when she starts messing with their heads. Then comes the last third of the movie where I think the script writers went "Yeah, that's enough intrigue. Let's just start everyone getting killed!" Usually I enjoy when the crazy violence starts but here it's almost out of place, especially when they bring in another genetically modified alien spirit fighter thing for a showdown. What? Wouldn't they be better off trying to placate the overly powerful being instead of surrounding it with automatic weapons that are ludicrously within arms reach?

Mysterious for all of two seconds.

While the story is more cohesive than the last outing alas all the good fighting done in Versus is missing here, switched out mostly for special effects. This brings its score down for me to another two bullets out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: Some of you might be wondering whats with my scoring system, and why I don't just leave it as simple as 2/5 in this case. Basically it is Tom Vasel's fault! For those who don't know, Tom Vasel is one of the board game reviewers for the Dice Tower and when I started getting into board games it was his clear and passionate reviews on Youtube I would turn to first to get a feel of what I should and shouldn't buy. In his later stuff he gives everything a numbered score followed by something relevant to the game which I obviously found cool hence I am trying to emulate it here.

2 comments:

  1. I am one of those that don't think a score is necessary in a review but if you are going to do it might as well do in style. So, yeah, I agree that if you are going to it might as well make it interesting and with something relative to the subject being reviewed.

    As for the movie, the premise hooked me until the part about the third prisoner possessed by an alien spirit. Then my mind went "What the hell?". Still, I might hunt it down to watch this for myself just to see how crazy things get.

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    1. Hehe, thanks Rakuno. I have a feeling your mind will do the same thing at that exact point in the movie. :P

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