I caught a preview of this movie from Apple's Trailer site and was intrigued. I find myself drawn to clashes between "light" and "dark" forces set in sci-fi settings. The ideas behind Babylon5 were awesome!
Anyway, I did not know much about this movie at all. When I walked in to pay for the ticket, the lady behind me asked a couple questions:
"Is it subtitled or dubbed?"
"Is the 3rd part of the trilogy out yet?"
Hmm... dubbed from what? This was not an English-speaking movie? This is the 2nd part? What was the first part?
So, I walked in to the movie quite clueless. I do not think this movie ever played in the big cinemas; I made sure I saw it at the Boardman Art Theatre, where the proprietor prides himself in having the best audio/visual equipment. I was able to enjoy this movie in all its excellent glory alone, sitting in the front row seat. Wow!
The movie was filmed somewhere in Russia (so I am told) and the language was Russian. The subtitles were ingenious; they were not merely blocks of high-contrast text. They would follow people, change colors to emphasize a mood, fade when whispered. In one shot, there were many people shouting and murmuring, each with his own subtitle near his head. Very well done!
I liked the presentation of the movie a lot. The special effects were solid, the plot very new and well-crafted, the acting superb (what do I know? but I liked it). The movie had grit, which made it more real for me. Rather dark for the most part, but tastefully so. A little gory here and there, but far from a bloodfest (ie 300). And Zoar was great! =)
I did notice some graininess, sitting so close to the screen. I wonder about that. Is it because the projector cannot show "black" brightly? Or was it shot in digital? Or both? Who knows.
A great film, and now I am looking forward to the third installment ("Deathwatch"). I hear FOX is picking it up, and I hope they do not ruin it. I am going to look for the book.
