Very recently, I picked up a dusty DVD case sitting atop my printer, heavy with the dust of neglect, perched morosely . . . on top of . . . my printer. Whatever. It had been sitting there for almost a year by now without being touched, and when I picked it up again, I thought I had neglected something good for no reason. As I finished watching the DVD, I realised that the reason was probably because Dead Space: Downfall . . . isn't very good.
Having made my position clear, I'd better qualify myself. Downfall is by no means horrible, but as MovieBob put it so well, I'm not the sort of person for whom 'not bad' means 'good enough'. The problems start with the animation, closely followed by a confusing story, and terrible voice acting. This is pretty much the trinity of bad animated movie mistakes.
First off, the animation is simply horrendous. It has the terrible stop-start jerky feel that many animes have, except that in some scenes it is just unforgivable. Just to make sure everybody understands, it has that jerky quality of animation in which still frames switch suddenly to another still, giving the illusion of movement. The problem is that in Downfall the still frames are so obvious that I'm not sure if it even qualifies as animation. it would not be an exaggeration to say that a flick-book has smoother movement. In and of itself, it wouldn't be such a problem if the entire scene was like that, but for the most part, the backgrounds are 3D models, rendered well and animated smoothly, making the character animation even more jarring.
Another major problem is a confusing and poorly-written script. Let me put it clearly. The STORY is fine, but the SCRIPT is the problem. The STORY is interesting, giving background details to EA's game that make a lot of sense (although they are sometimes guilty of barefacedly TELLING the viewer key plot details from the game) and make for a more interesting experience in the game, but the SCRIPT, the way that the story is told, is not very good, and very confusing. For one, the early secions focus on situations happening in a mining colony on a planet's surface, and a mining ship in orbit, without any visual, and very little dialogue indication about which is where. Also, things trade places without any reference to timeframes or when it happened, making the whole experience quite confusing. Also, character development is a joke. Most of the time, the characters' names are only revealed after they've died, which is just pathetic story-telling. Additionally, the writers have the usual problem of mistaking swearing for 'edgy' with a lot of unnecessary 'fuck's being thrown around. It's not like I'm a prude who cringes at the mention of the word 'bum' or anything (I'm 18, go figure) but even I found the swearing too frequent and jarring.
On a related note, the whole film is littered with bad voice actors. There are only a handfull of decent voice talents, and they are mainly concentrated on the bridge of the spaceship with only a handfull of lines to say. A lot of the dialogue is strained, and most of it bears very little relationship to the implied emotional state of the characters and the situation. This is another reason why the swearing is so bad. The actors seem to emphasise it hugely, probably because they aren't used to using it in the rhythm of a conversation. Quite a few lines are delivered poorly, and a mixture of this poor voice acting and badly-written lines makes any kind of empathy with the characters impossible.
Also, this film also fails at the most basic level of a horror film. Films such as 'Alien' or other classics should have told people by now that it's what is unknown that is scary. The monsters in Downfall are introduced in an inappropriate way, far too early in the film. The early 'teaser' style of shots are poorly directed, revealing too much of the monsters and removing any vestige of mystery, turning it from a horror film into an excuse for gory zombicide. And even the gore is ridiculously overdone. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that a punch to the nose releases about half a litre of blood, and it only scales up from there, to the point where all pretenses to reality and horror are left pathetically in the dust. Again, I'm no prude, but when the film is obviously trying so hard to take itself seriously, it unintentionally makes a mockery of itself in the worst possible way.
Overall, Downfall is not a very good movie. For all the nasty things I've said about it, it does have an interesting concept, as poorly executed as it was, and a couple of BUCKETS of polish could have really made a good movie. As it is, if you happen to be able to pick it up for free (like I did when I bought the game) you should probably check it out. I will definitely say, though, that you will never miss it if you give it away immedately.
Bottom line, if you have the opportunity to rent it, or borrow it, check it out, but don't expect much. Not worth $35.
If you liked this review, please let me know what you liked, what you didn't, and how I can improve. I actually like making these reviews, and genuinely want people to read them, so if I'm doing something wrong, please let me know
. Thanks.
Having made my position clear, I'd better qualify myself. Downfall is by no means horrible, but as MovieBob put it so well, I'm not the sort of person for whom 'not bad' means 'good enough'. The problems start with the animation, closely followed by a confusing story, and terrible voice acting. This is pretty much the trinity of bad animated movie mistakes.
First off, the animation is simply horrendous. It has the terrible stop-start jerky feel that many animes have, except that in some scenes it is just unforgivable. Just to make sure everybody understands, it has that jerky quality of animation in which still frames switch suddenly to another still, giving the illusion of movement. The problem is that in Downfall the still frames are so obvious that I'm not sure if it even qualifies as animation. it would not be an exaggeration to say that a flick-book has smoother movement. In and of itself, it wouldn't be such a problem if the entire scene was like that, but for the most part, the backgrounds are 3D models, rendered well and animated smoothly, making the character animation even more jarring.
Another major problem is a confusing and poorly-written script. Let me put it clearly. The STORY is fine, but the SCRIPT is the problem. The STORY is interesting, giving background details to EA's game that make a lot of sense (although they are sometimes guilty of barefacedly TELLING the viewer key plot details from the game) and make for a more interesting experience in the game, but the SCRIPT, the way that the story is told, is not very good, and very confusing. For one, the early secions focus on situations happening in a mining colony on a planet's surface, and a mining ship in orbit, without any visual, and very little dialogue indication about which is where. Also, things trade places without any reference to timeframes or when it happened, making the whole experience quite confusing. Also, character development is a joke. Most of the time, the characters' names are only revealed after they've died, which is just pathetic story-telling. Additionally, the writers have the usual problem of mistaking swearing for 'edgy' with a lot of unnecessary 'fuck's being thrown around. It's not like I'm a prude who cringes at the mention of the word 'bum' or anything (I'm 18, go figure) but even I found the swearing too frequent and jarring.
On a related note, the whole film is littered with bad voice actors. There are only a handfull of decent voice talents, and they are mainly concentrated on the bridge of the spaceship with only a handfull of lines to say. A lot of the dialogue is strained, and most of it bears very little relationship to the implied emotional state of the characters and the situation. This is another reason why the swearing is so bad. The actors seem to emphasise it hugely, probably because they aren't used to using it in the rhythm of a conversation. Quite a few lines are delivered poorly, and a mixture of this poor voice acting and badly-written lines makes any kind of empathy with the characters impossible.
Also, this film also fails at the most basic level of a horror film. Films such as 'Alien' or other classics should have told people by now that it's what is unknown that is scary. The monsters in Downfall are introduced in an inappropriate way, far too early in the film. The early 'teaser' style of shots are poorly directed, revealing too much of the monsters and removing any vestige of mystery, turning it from a horror film into an excuse for gory zombicide. And even the gore is ridiculously overdone. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that a punch to the nose releases about half a litre of blood, and it only scales up from there, to the point where all pretenses to reality and horror are left pathetically in the dust. Again, I'm no prude, but when the film is obviously trying so hard to take itself seriously, it unintentionally makes a mockery of itself in the worst possible way.
Overall, Downfall is not a very good movie. For all the nasty things I've said about it, it does have an interesting concept, as poorly executed as it was, and a couple of BUCKETS of polish could have really made a good movie. As it is, if you happen to be able to pick it up for free (like I did when I bought the game) you should probably check it out. I will definitely say, though, that you will never miss it if you give it away immedately.
Bottom line, if you have the opportunity to rent it, or borrow it, check it out, but don't expect much. Not worth $35.
If you liked this review, please let me know what you liked, what you didn't, and how I can improve. I actually like making these reviews, and genuinely want people to read them, so if I'm doing something wrong, please let me know
. Thanks.