Paradox Alice

Dr. Bender · 10-15-2013

Finally bought, watched and reviewed the movie on iTunes. 4/5 stars.

The Good:
This is a solid sci-fi thriller. Definitely not a comedy. The cast gives a great performance with the occasional flat delivery. The visual effects are generally good quality. The story is engaging and had me on the edge of my seat. Seriously emotional, there's a definite pervading sense of how alone they are throughout the whole movie. And if you don't want to reach through the screen and strangle the villain about 20 minutes before the end of the movie, you're not human. Which is a good thing.

The Bad:
Ok, I'm sorry Mako, the movie is brilliant in general and the sort of thing this community will dig. But I've got to be fair and balanced. It's not going to be for everyone and there are occasional flubs.

Certain plot points brought me out of the movie, like near the beginning the Captain makes a certain decision that seems nonsensical considering that they really did need a certain piece of equipment to land when they got back to Earth. There's also one scene where the two guys are at each other's throats then are suddenly sitting back together like nothing happened. It's small imperfections throughout the movie, none of them bad enough to condemn the entire thing but enough that I doubt you'll be getting a great score on Rotten Tomatos.

Also, visual effects. I absolutely understand that this is a low budget movie and, considering that, the visual effects are damn good. Heck, in places they're great. But they really do dip down in quality at various points. For example, the destroyed Earth looks like someone took some bites out of a cookie. Europa looks freekin' wonderful, though.

Ok, guys, if you're thinking about watching this movie, and you should, be aware: if you can't handle rape this movie's going to push your buttons hard.

The Ugly:
Ok, this is the part where I air some personal peeves and opinions that shouldn't affect your viewing experience. Feel free to skip to the summary, I'm going to keep it spoilers light though so don't worry about that.

The script reminds me of an Angel-era Joss Whedon script. I.E. it's of the 'anything can happen, anyone can die' school of writing, which isn't my cup of tea. The villain has some serious karmic backlash coming his way and his well deserved retribution left me unfulfilled. I really wanted to hear him scream.

One thing I don't think Joss Whedon would have done either is put Alice in a weakened role. This is, like, stealth misogyny going on here. The biblical stuff doesn't help but reinforce the feeling for me either but then I, as I said in the beginning, this is a personal peeve of mine.

Without spoiling, personally the ending also left me cold and unsatisfied. I can't get spoiler tags to work so I can't go into detail but I will say that there's a point where 'realism' should give way to audience expectation and Paradox Alice crosses the line into warped Aesop territory.

Summary:
Watch the movie! I know I've ripped into it a bit but it's still awesome. Challenging to watch due to some of the content but worth watching, particularly for TG transformation fans and fans of Mako.

MsMako · 10-15-2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Bender

Summary:
Watch the movie! I know I've ripped into it a bit but it's still awesome. Challenging to watch due to some of the content but worth watching, particularly for TG transformation fans and fans of Mako.

Thanks for the review, Bender

And also thank you for helping support us and the effort it took all these years to finally get the movie out there!!!

Cheers

Miss Mako

10-15-2013	#1
Dr. Bender Shapeshifter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Skirting the edge Posts: 18	Re: Paradox Alice Finally bought, watched and reviewed the movie on iTunes. 4/5 stars. The Good: This is a solid sci-fi thriller. Definitely not a comedy. The cast gives a great performance with the occasional flat delivery. The visual effects are generally good quality. The story is engaging and had me on the edge of my seat. Seriously emotional, there's a definite pervading sense of how alone they are throughout the whole movie. And if you don't want to reach through the screen and strangle the villain about 20 minutes before the end of the movie, you're not human. Which is a good thing. The Bad: Ok, I'm sorry Mako, the movie is brilliant in general and the sort of thing this community will dig. But I've got to be fair and balanced. It's not going to be for everyone and there are occasional flubs. Certain plot points brought me out of the movie, like near the beginning the Captain makes a certain decision that seems nonsensical considering that they really did need a certain piece of equipment to land when they got back to Earth. There's also one scene where the two guys are at each other's throats then are suddenly sitting back together like nothing happened. It's small imperfections throughout the movie, none of them bad enough to condemn the entire thing but enough that I doubt you'll be getting a great score on Rotten Tomatos. Also, visual effects. I absolutely understand that this is a low budget movie and, considering that, the visual effects are damn good. Heck, in places they're great. But they really do dip down in quality at various points. For example, the destroyed Earth looks like someone took some bites out of a cookie. Europa looks freekin' wonderful, though. Ok, guys, if you're thinking about watching this movie, and you should, be aware: if you can't handle rape this movie's going to push your buttons hard. The Ugly: Ok, this is the part where I air some personal peeves and opinions that shouldn't affect your viewing experience. Feel free to skip to the summary, I'm going to keep it spoilers light though so don't worry about that. The script reminds me of an Angel-era Joss Whedon script. I.E. it's of the 'anything can happen, anyone can die' school of writing, which isn't my cup of tea. The villain has some serious karmic backlash coming his way and his well deserved retribution left me unfulfilled. I really wanted to hear him scream. One thing I don't think Joss Whedon would have done either is put Alice in a weakened role. This is, like, stealth misogyny going on here. The biblical stuff doesn't help but reinforce the feeling for me either but then I, as I said in the beginning, this is a personal peeve of mine. Without spoiling, personally the ending also left me cold and unsatisfied. I can't get spoiler tags to work so I can't go into detail but I will say that there's a point where 'realism' should give way to audience expectation and Paradox Alice crosses the line into warped Aesop territory. Summary: Watch the movie! I know I've ripped into it a bit but it's still awesome. Challenging to watch due to some of the content but worth watching, particularly for TG transformation fans and fans of Mako. Last edited by Dr. Bender; 10-15-2013 at 03:35 AM.

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