Reviewed by Sean McNulty

Hmmn, this movie isn't good. I enjoyed looking at it, but I didn't enjoy watching it. That's the main problem with this movie, it lures you in with its effective use of the expansion and awesome camera angles, but then when you actually bite into it, your mouth gets all icky and sad, kind of like eating a Twinkie with no filling. It's just not worth it.

I'll start with what I like, the appearance. This movie, as I mentioned, takes the expansion and uses it wisely. I've seen some overkill expansion scenes, but the ones in this movie were handled exceptionally well and looked very good. There are a lot of nifty camera angles too. Not too crazy and not too boring. Of course, that's all in the sense of scenery. There is a lot about the appearance I didn't like.

First on the list are the extremely overused white flashes. Normally, you see such scene transition in cases like somebody remembering something, and it's a flash of images to signify the rush of memories. But in this, it's just how it is. There's a lot of flashes and fades, and a bit too many for me. Next we come to the alteration of non-hand made characters' facial expressions using 3D text. This looked just plain bad. At the end, when Patrick comes out of prison and gets all angry faced, it just looks laughable. That was supposed to be such an expressive and emotional scene, but it was turned into a joke. My suggestion, either use flesh toned props (it looks better than flat shaded text) or take use of the expansion like you did with the scenery. I know there's a flesh texture, though I don't know if it matched Patrick. Either way, that just didn't work at all. I didn't like his long hair either. Did he decide to grow it long while in prison? I guess so. I think it makes him look more like a murderer. I understand what Anders was trying to go for, but he failed at doing so.

Next I'm going to complain about the plot. First off, wha? This movie seems like a really long trailer, or a commercial of some sort, or perhaps the bit of a movie you see right before the opening credits. This movie doesn't work alone at all. We don't get any names, any motives (except for the revenge) and well, it's just stupid. There isn't enough here to make anything out of anything! Like I said, it's an opening for something, it has to be. This can not be a stand alone movie, but from what I can tell, it is. I'll go through it, step by step. First off, we have a man at work. He's going his job, finished, and heads home. Good, that's nice. Looks good, nothing it said yet as the movie is just getting going. Then we see men with guns, and another ugly hand made face. Okay, this one isn't that bad, in fact in kind of works. Moving on, they open the door and shoot a woman. From what I can tell, they live in an apartment building? That's what it looks like to me. So, these gunmen kill this woman and make a fast get away. That doesn't make sense, but who cares, the movie is just picking up, this will all be explained later. Next we have a witness to this crime, a girl in another apartment (I think). At this moment, we go back in time to see what the girl saw. This I understand, as it would be hard to show all that at once (the movie is going fast enough as it is). So we see her watching TV, she hears the shot, runs to the sound, and sees a shot woman. At this point I'm starting to think this girl is her daughter, or relation in some form. Anyways, I'm starting to get worried. My scene slider is half way through and nothing has been explained. I still got hope though! Man is on a subway train, going home (he must commute), and he gets home, at this point I'm confused. I thought it was an apartment building, yet he seems so freaked by the fact that the door was left open. Okay, it must be his home. Odd looking house in an odd looking city district, but whatever. He goes in, up the stairs, and sees his dead wife. He collapses on his knees and cries. I liked the tears, it actually made him look really sad, probably because it narrowed his eyes a bit, and the camera was angle up his chin. But yeah, that was done fine and I didn't look stupid. So now I'm freaking out as there's only ¼ of the movie left and I still don't have any answers. I don't think the girl was his daughter anymore, and she wasn't there when the man got home. Fuck, we never even see or hear of her again! Then something crazy happens, the man gets thrown in jail. Not the gunmen, the husband. Okay, fine, I can understand that perhaps by some twist of fate he got set up or framed or wrong accused, etc. It's a far stretch, but I'm willing to make that. I just want some answers.

But none. Seven years later he comes out looking all freaky and ready for "retaliation." Huh? Oh man. I actually got angry at this movie. Maybe I'm an idiot and I'm missing some key ingredient to this blur of events. I've watched the movie three times and it still doesn't make sense. I decided to do some hardcore pondering. Perhaps Anders was trying something new, he wanted to simply show motif, and glimpse of a background story for this man of revenge. Maybe he made it up as he went. Perhaps he was lying in bed listening to the Silent Hill soundtrack or his Moby CD and started imagining events to go with the music. I do that lots, it's fun! But it usually doesn't make a good movie.

Speaking of the music, there's something positive I can say! I loved how this movie had no voices and used music to tell a story. Sure, the story sucks, but it felt good, musically, if that makes sense. With better direction, patience, and writing this could have been a stellar movie with the music portraying the emotions of the people on screen and recent events. It could have been wonderful, but it wasn't.

I like Anders, he has some fine skills, but he needs to work with better scripts. This was just....just awful. Who knows, maybe it's brilliant and I'm too blind to appreciate it, but I can't find much else to praise in this movie besides what I already listed. Too bad. You get points for appearance and a nice use of music as a replacement for voices.

4/10