imdb-20078 Reviews

Survivors (I) (2008–2010)

Average BBC production - A wasted opportunity.

[6/10 · 24 February 2010]

This modern retelling of "Survivors" seems to suffer from lazy writing. Episode after episode expects huge leaps of faith from the viewers over and over again, with our characters behaving unrealistically, and worst of all, truly outlandish and unbelievable coincidences happening far too often.

The writers seem to overlook the true story to tell here, a world where most people have died and which is now slowly crumbling with all the infrastructure gone. Instead they seem more concerned with introducing unnecessary nemesis after unnecessary nemesis for our survivors to overcome... The gem of the series goes to "evil coal mine owner" who captures fellow survivors in order to force them to mine coal. Here we see the true lengths the writers are willing to sink to in order to create yet another villain for the survivors to face. In reality every coal power station, every coal mine and coal depot would have huge mounds of coal, just lying there waiting to be taken, but instead the inept writers decide to ignore this obvious reality, in order to contrive another story.

Contrived plots, littered with outlandish coincidences, happens over and over and over such that it all becomes mushy, unbelievable and ultimately forgettable.

The Day of the Triffids (2009)

Over processed limp adaptation

[5/10 · 30 December 2009]

What we seem to have here is either an adaptation where too many 'cooks' have been involved such that the plot got lost somewhere, or simple a case of the writers not trying to keep the characters and situations in the realms of believability - Too many characters do daft unnecessary things, or events proposed are just daft or ill thought-out.

I'll try listing some example of moments where you roll your eyes due to silly weak/lazy writing (*spoilers*):-

1) Torrence (Eddie Izzard) waking up in a passenger plane careering thought the air. He doesn't ask a single question about why the plane is in trouble. Instead he just gets into a cubicle and fills it with inflatable vests. Wouldn't we all?

2) The plane then happens to crash land (in all the world) right next to/on top of the lead characters. Wow! What a coincidence!

3) In a crazy moment, equalling Indiana Jones surviving an a-bomb by jumping inside a fridge, Izzard comes out of a plane crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour, alive, with stupid looking comedy character with a blacked face, clothes in tatters and trouser legs ripped and missing. Were the writers drunk? Could this possibly happen? Really?

4) Jo (the news lady) comes out of the underground (which had collapsed because of Izzards plane), wonders around for a minute or two before bumping into our hero and proclaims, "I thought I was the only one"? What in the 2 minutes you've looked love?

5) Our hero and news lady go to the Triffid farms, and off they go into the middle of the farm for no reason other than to risk their lives.

6) At the triffid farm, where X hundreds/thousands of triffids were, they've escaped and killed everyone there. Not a SINGLE triffid is still there even just by random, or sitting by the person it had killed, feeding - in the end that's why the Triffids kill, they sit there feeding on the corpse for X days or weeks... But no, these new Triffids have other agendas, like getting out of the way of our heroes so they don't appear in the episode too soon.

7) We now have ninja tree climbing triffids attacking from the air and scooping folks up off the ground below. Why were they up in these particular trees? Nesting for the night?

8) Why cart Mason and Coker mile and mile away in the back of a truck to then kill them? What's wrong with a back alley? Other than to allow the Triffids to get involved?

9) When Coker throws a bunch of papers out of the plane he's in, they all fall X hundred feet down through the air and land at the feet of our heroes? Wow! Good shot! Laser guided paper!

10) At Bill Mason's father's house, why do Torrent's men all just stand by the fence waiting to be attacked one by one by the triffids. My guess is simply because the script says for them to do that because they're not longer needed.

11) Furthermore, surely driving out of the triffid surrounded house in a one and a half tonne vehicle might have been a good means to survive the triffids?

In short, the writers just seems to have no grasp on keeping their characters/plot/script anywhere within the bounds of believability, and as such you don't believe in the events, and then worse still, don't care about them. To me it just comes across as lazy unintelligent writing.

Why has Torrence's character been made such a major part of this new adaptation? Is the premise of most of the worlds population being blind and starving to death, society falling apart and an ever increasing number of flesh eating plants not enough for the writers to work with? Seemingly not, as they have to invent a big-baddie for us all to hate, and introduce some daft techno-gizmo for triffid communication and daft wooden voodoo masks!

So, even with its simpler/older production values, the depth and darkness shown in the 1981 BBC adaptation puts this modern day one to shame. Why? Because characters and events are handled in a simple and realistic manner so what is seen on screen rings true. I'm sure the writers of that version would have laughed at the thought of suggesting a scene where someone survived crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour in a jumbo jet, simply by wrapping themselves up in a dozen inflatable vests. Believable? No! So don't include it!

With a simpler more realistic script this could have been a fabulously gritty and dark survival drama. Instead we have some silly over processed hokum. The 1981 version is still a rewarding watch nearly 30 years. This version will be forgotten in 30 days - 5/10

G-Force (2009)

Probably the worse kids film I've ever seen at the cinema

[3/10 · 4 August 2009]

OK, technically it's brilliant. Obviously a lot of money and effort has been thrown at the visuals, but unfortunately the plot and writing has come a distant second to this. The story is just about adequate, but the writing/dialogue is generally just dull dull dull.

There seems to be no intelligence or flair to it at all, leaving children at best just entertained by cuddly animals talking, and at worse adults wondering why they're having to endure such boredom.

I've seen a number of 'kids films' at the cinema and this has got to be the only one I've watch feeling so un-entertained by. Quite simply kids, and definitely parents, deserve better than this!

Outpost (2008)

Surprisingly well shot and acted, but the script has serious problems...

[5/10 · 4 June 2008]

This film has become famous due to the relatively small budget it was produced on. The result is actually a well produced and shot film.

However, what is unforgivable are some terrible areas of the script. Any sense of some simple rules which the audience can follow are thrown away and instead we see absolutely random rules and behaviour by the 'creatures'.

Early in the film the 'creatures' just appear and disappear purely to scare (the audience), but doing thing more. Later they appear and disappear from thin air to then kill. Later they then seemingly lose this ability and instead have to move from (A) to (B) by walking, purely to provide some action sequences for the script.

When will writers realise that a good simple set of rules are mandatory for these sorts of films. Without them, the audience soon realises that anything can happen, so why care? In short, the audience soon realises the 'creatures' could have just appeared straight away (out of thin air) standing next to the 'heroes' and just killed them instantly... So anything else is just convoluted writing purely for the sake of 'staging' action.

Shame such poor writing spoils what could have been a good film.

The Omega Man (1971)

Great 70s scifi flick!

[8/10 · 10 March 2008]

This is a very clever adaptation of the novel 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson. Even the film's title shows some of the thought that has gone in to it - Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, so the 'Omega' Man is a clever way of saying The 'Last' Man.

Many comparisons are now being made between Will Smith's 'I Am Legend' and 'The Omega Man'. For me 'The Omega Man', even with its faults and the fact it is now nearly 40 years old, still stands above Will Smith's new version. Why? (1) The plot - The Omega Man to me is a far better more rounded and believable story. Especially the ending. (2) Acting - Charlton Heston seems far more viable in the role. (3) The creatures/infected - In Will Smith's version, they are obviously just over the top CGI and behave very unrealistically.

Of course there are problems with the film, but putting these aside we have what I believe is a great 70s cult scifi film, which the more recent 'I Am Legend' fails to match in most ways. When will Hollywood learn just throwing money at a project (and its effects) is less important than the script and its portrayal. Or more importantly, when will the ticket buying audience...

I Am Omega (2007 Video)

They had the tools, but couldn't use them...

[2/10 · 7 January 2008]

The production values on this title, given the obvious low budget, were surprisingly good. But what lets this film down is the completely run-of-the-mill paint-by-numbers script. The individuals behind it had all the tools they needed to make a somewhat interesting film, but just didn't bother with an imaginative/solid story.

Worse still, the outcome is actually generally dull as well as unimaginative... So what we end up with is not a mediocre, poorly written film, but a boring and dull, mediocre, poorly written film.

It's frustrating to think that a chance was lost here to make a watchable film because of the lack of some decent forethought at the scripting stage. One has to wonder if the producers were too busy calculating projected cash-in revenue (in making a film on the coat-tail of 'I Am Legend') instead of actually thinking what it should be about.

I Am Legend (2007)

Nice try, but doesn't quite work.

[6/10 · 7 January 2008]

Here we have more of a re-envisagement of the 1971 'The Omega Man' than the book 'I Am Legend'.

The film sets up the scene nicely but alas quickly falls into typical Hollywood habits resulting in somewhat of a dumbed down script/film.

*SPOILERS*

1) Why are the infected made mindless monsters by the disease? The virus reduces their brain power but for some reason gives them superhuman strength, realigns their jaw bones (so they have bigger mouths & can shriek like Godzilla) and generally makes them just look rather unappealing. The over-the-top CGI rendering of them looks just like that, CGI rendering, which really does not help the audience 'bind' with the film.

2) Why does Neville see fit to try and remove his scent from the stairs to his house? Surely if the infected follow his trail to the path at the bottom of the stairs they might just by sheer chance try the door at the top of the stairs?

3) Why is it necessary to charge after deer in a sports car (other for some product placement)? Surely just a good shot (or machine gun) would suffice?

4) Given all the (explosive) preparations Neville has made to defend his house, why not just use plenty of nice big UV lamps?

5) Given the clear intelligence of the 'lead infected' – who sets up a VERY elaborate/complicated trap, why doesn't he just pelt Neville with rocks while Neville attempts to crawl away from the trap? Or better still just find an old gun and shoot Neville?

6) His wife shows 'positive' on the infection test, and then on a second attempt proves 'clear'. And the other survivors turn up just in time to (somehow) save him. Oh common writers! Why sink to this sort of stuff!

In short, the film just bends too far away from 'common sense' and 'believability' for the sake of contrived sequences and effects. I would have preferred to spend far more time with Neville and discover more about the creatures, but unfortunately the second half/third of the film seems to rush through not leaving much time for this.

Worse of all, we lose the entire (clever) premise of the book (which the film names itself after) - Neville is now the odd-one-out. He is the bogeyman, the monster which comes out in the day, hunts them down, and kills them…

With a better, more sensible script, this could have been a great film, but instead we end up with basically average Hollywood action fare.

6/10 - Shame it wasn't more like 'The Omega Man' film, or the 'I Am Legend' book.