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Reviews
Alone in the Dark (2024)
Greedy in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (2024) developed by a Swedish studio Pieces Interactive can't even be called a virtual game. De facto, this is an advertising product that at the end of the action tells you that you will learn all the secrets of Alone in the Dark in the next game. And what you've already gone through is a visual prologue. The scariest thing about AiD was not the dead and monsters, but soulless commerce.
AiD was frankly disappointing. New Orleans is not like itself. An unremarkable location can be attributed to any city in the South of the United States in the first half of the 20th century. The psychiatric hospital does not shine with plausibility and aesthetics, only the bathroom and bar elegantly made by the game designer occasionally remind that the action takes place in the 1920s. Because of the monotony of the environment, the Spirit of that time is not felt. The mission on the vintage steamer was the weakest and most shameful moment of the game. Players expected something remotely resembling BioShock Infinite from the horror world, but got a meaningless run from point «A» to point «B» with a dull shooting range consisting of stupid monsters controlled by artificial intelligence. I was pleased with the moment of transition from the American house to Egypt. The entrance in front of the tomb evoked flashbacks from the movie Mummy (1999) and the animated series Mummies Alive (1997), which amused nostalgia. But the tomb of the Pharaoh itself turned out to be another disappointment, made more primitive than the arenas from the game Unreal Tournament, which the brain memorized by heart.
The plot is interesting for the first 50% of the time, then it is flooded with garbage from other timelines, as a result of which the story turns into a farce, and the players get a scenario mess. The gameplay is dull and monotonous. Riddles are primitive and boring. Cheap casual games from the «Searching» genre, even despite the scarcity of two-dimensional graphics, can surprise and impress the player more than their expensive counterpart - Alone in the Dark.
93% of the characters are not charismatic, expressionless and quickly forgotten. Emily Hardwood which was copied from actress Jodie Comer fit well into the atmosphere of the 1920s, her image corresponds to that time. Emily Hartwood is a gumption, inquisitive, moderately brave (not a feminist caricature of a «Strong and Independent» woman), tactful, unopened Coquette a slight touch of pleasant (not too vulgar, but not feigned) sexuality. The character of Ruth Tallant is the opposite of Emily Hartwood, depicted grotesquely cliched with hypertrophied infantilism - a fake image of a «Starlet from the 1920s» created by an ignorant screenwriter. Ruth cannot be called a «Woman-Riddle» («Mystery Woman»), she does not have natural charm, but she has a naturalness, a weak realism, a trail of mystery stretches behind her. Ruth is an unfinished but interesting character.
Computer graphics have proven themselves well in the drawing of faces, facial expressions, clothes and in scenes related to the ignition of fire. Very realistic. Buildings, cars, interior, nature, are made on 3 out of 5 points and do not strike the mind with aesthetic beauty or subtlety of the image. AiD has in settings wide category of debugging the game of light and shadow, but the end result is not impressive. After playing with the sliders, the player gets a shadow depth weaker than in Deadfall Adventures from back in 2013. It would seem that a game with a difference of 11 years, with more technologically imperfect graphics, should be inferior to Alone in the Dark in everything... but the scene with the awakening of the mummy in a dark corner of the ruins of the temple looks more beautiful and realistic than that of his colleague from 2024.
Summing up, I was already going to give Alone in the Dark 3.5 points, but an unnecessarily naturalistic scene with a child forced me to deduct 1 point. I am not a prude and I perfectly understand the fashion for immoral realism imposed by HBO. But everything has its limits. In the game Outlast 2, the topic of victims of pedophilia was touched upon tangentially. But the developers were smart enough to show the evil of the lawlessness indirectly, without a naturalistic scene. In AiD, for the sake of HYPE, a cruel scene was shown, softening it only with a third-person view. The laurels of the scandalous bear from Baldur's Gate 3 are haunting the Swedes.
The result is 2.5 points out of 5. I do not recommend Alone in the Dark (2024). Will I wait for the release of the second part? It depends on which one. If it is made as mainstream by the Swedes as the first one, then NO. If the developers take the plot and atmosphere seriously, without chasing a large infantile audience, then commercial and artistic success awaits the sequel, and the gaming industry will be able to get another cult masterpiece into the hall of fame.
Bloodshot (2020)
Bloodshot shoots blanks
5 points out of 10, the film is below average quality. A fresh idea and a good plot, spoiled by annoying cliches and mediocre directing.
The game of the actors: 8 points - Mark Sinclair (Vin Diesel), surprised with a good game, which sharply contrasts with the same type and caricatured face from the «Fast and Furious» film series, the level of the game is not Riddick, but it looks plausible;
6 points - Johannes Johannesson, a typical unremarkable villain;
1 point - Eiza Gonzalez, de facto did not even play in the film, just read the text with her mouth and took the right poses as a model, 0% acting and charisma;
5 points - Sam Heughan, overplayed, looked implausible; the same with Toby Kebbell;
5 points - Talulah Riley, did not finish playing, looked weak and not convincing on the screen;
10 points - Guy Pearce, after all, the English classical acting school and a lot of creative experience make themselves felt;
10 points - Morris Lamorne, the best acting in terms of facial expressions and natural emotional reactions, even Guy Pearce was sometimes fake, BUT there is a huge minus - the character was chosen unsuccessfully, outraged and irritated the audience for most of the film.
The plot was interesting for the first 30% of the film, it even kept the viewer in suspense in places and, most importantly, caused sympathy for the main character. From the beginning of the scene of the hunt for the last victim to the final battle with the villain, the plot has deteriorated very much, has become stupid, banal, crooked, cliched and incredibly boring. So much so that I had to first increase the viewing speed by 25%, and then by 50%. Jeff Wadlow and Eric Heisserer claim that the script was made in the same style, without a sharp author's gap, but something suggests that this is trick. Whoever was involved in the plot after Raymond Garrison's meeting with Nick Baris was clearly doing a soulless, unprofessional hack.
Poor special effects, most of which are low-quality computer graphics, sending us «greetings» from the first half of the 2000s. Because of them, what is happening on the screen quickly turns into a «soap dish»
The hand-to-hand combat scenes are set up disgustingly. To hide the lack of professionalism, the operator uses the LONG-TIRED «shaking camera» technique. Although, a well-staged martial arts scene that could provide the film with 30% success.
In the category «The stupidest moment of the film», the pool scene won, where, due to the incompetent camerawork of Jacques Jouffret, the hero performed by Mark Sinclair «spellbound» looked at the underwater gymnastics of K. T. The absurdity was that the actress was much higher than the visual level of the protagonist, Mark Sinclair was given a stupid task to look «in the center and below», which made it turn out that the hero was «spiritually» looking at the swimmeress feet and the bottom of the swimming pool. The scene looked ridiculous and laughable.
Verdict: despite the box office failure of the film and negative reviews from viewers (and film critics), the film Bloodshot is entitled to a Second Chance. Mark Sinclair, Sam Heughan and Morris Lamorn should be present in the second part, all the others can and should be replaced. The sequel clearly needs a DIFFERENT director and more talented screenwriters. Bloodshot 2 is unlikely to surpass Iron Man 1 (2008), but it has EVERY chance to overtake any film with Tom Holland, Aquaman, Venom and even finish with Deadpool and the Thor series of films according to critics and/or box office. It would be foolish to abandon such a project; with professional work, this film can become a Gold Vein.
Uncharted (2022)
Motto: «Dementia and Courage!»
Uncharted turned out to be Unsatisfied. Dissatisfied with the historical complexes of Anglo-American inferiority. 500 years have passed, and the oatmealians and their rebellious colonists still ButtHurt from the mere thought that the Spaniards could pocket the gold of the Philippine principalities, and send only one ship with spices from the squadron to the Pyrenees, putting their «hairy paws» on the noble metal, instead of the «more worthy» owners of horse teeth. But that's why the nasty Englishmen were left with a nose, because they had no mind either then or now when writing this DELUSIONAL script and a mediocre film adaptation based on it.
The main character Nathan Drake is the living embodiment of the motto «Dementia and Courage!». The young man, who allegedly honed the skills of a pickpocket for the last 10 years, is so STUPID at the whim of the screenwriter that he robs his client in a public place, among the witnesses coming towards him, risking getting caught, and does not gallantly accompany the girl to a taxi to imperceptibly remove the jewel and leave the young lady in a false sense of loss of jewelry. The victim of the theft herself, according to a prepared cinematic cliche, holding a cigarette in one hand, and next to a glass with a drink at a small black table, does not guess to pay attention to the loss of a sparkling object under her very nose and does not think to approach the administrator of the cafe-bar and at least ask a question.
The next scene of the acquaintance of the two main characters should have been written by the screenwriter only after he cowboy-like bent the edge of his hat and grabbed himself by the crotch shouting: Yahoo! Otherwise, it is unclear why senseless machismo and showing off of two men in front of each other was added. Some brat humiliates and escorts Victor Sullivan out of the institution, when was enough to scare Drake with the police. At the end of the cliche, «The Thief stole from the Thief» breaks THE LAWS OF PHYSICS as the bracelet lying in Drake's BACK pocket turns out to be stolen by Sullivan, who passed WITHOUT touching Nathan, walking face to face. Apparently Victor's hand is the same rubber as Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four.
Antonio Banderes as Santiago Moncada is such a cliched «VILLAINOUS VILLAIN» that his aristocratic family financed expensive Crusades in DISTANT Palestine (despite the fact that the Moncada surname first occurs in the 16th century 200 years after the end of the last crusade), instead of paying for the Reconquista against the NEIGHBORING Cordoba caliphate, which was considered For all the time of the Middle Ages, the RICHEST Islamic state in the Mediterranean; and he helped the militaristic Franco regime in the Civil War (1936-1939) being of Catalan origin, thereby strengthening the centralization of power and the fight against the criminal world to which HE HIMSELF belongs. Well, what can say? «Evil Catholics-Anglophobes and sadomasachists». Smart enough in the plot to hire two treasure hunters at once, but when necessary, according to the script, stupid enough to order the killing of a man in the car who is interfering with him, right at the cathedral around which crowds of people are scurrying, and also thought out to equip the expedition, but did not bother to take care of security.
The cliche «A thief stole from Thieves» is repeated when the main characters meet with an accomplice. The key hidden in the INNER compartment of Drake's bag pressed against his back manages to be stolen while the «BLIND» Mark Wahlberg in the role of Victor looks DIRECTLY at the main character. The adventureress, instead of jumping off the Boardwalk and quickly leaving, arranges Parkour in the best traditions of the Office series and tries to escape from Nathan through the park and the fountain cascade to a parked SUV, instead of using a high-speed motorcycle or a female convertible.
Here we come to the DUMBEST moment of the film. The heroes find a 500-year-old church in which the cherished altar is hidden. Naturally, for half a millennium, the building was not destroyed by fires, wars or perestroika, but was waiting for a personal visit from the Americans. Naturally, for 10 past repairs carried out once every 50 years, no one began to move the altar leading to the secret hall. The death trap amazes with the «GENIUS» of its constructor! Two people must get down on at least one knee to start the opening mechanism and in case of turning in the wrong direction, darts fly out of the holes of the altar in order to kill uninvited guests. How «wonderful» that they fly OVER the heads of treasure hunters, thereby initially shooting PAST the target.
The Villainous Villains get hold of the treasure map and rush to the Philippines. Having ruined World History, the screenwriters transgress to mock Geography and the laws of Physics. The plane flies to the southernmost island - Mindanao, the map shows the central island - Negros, and the bay in which the antagonists will land, according to the main character, is located on the northern island - Luzon. Nathan Drake, falling from an airplane, manages to OVERTAKE heavy boxes and a multi-ton car with a streamlined body, contrary to aerodynamics and the rule that objects with different masses fall the same way.
The hero discovers a Grotto that leads to a cave where there are Spanish galleons loaded with gold. Naturally, the giant entrance to the Cavern, which is visible from the sea, has not attracted ANYONE's attention for 500 years. Naturally, wooden vessels did NOT rot from high humidity and the proximity of water. Naturally, a GIANT fault above the cave from which tropical rains pour did not turn the ships into a pile of rotted wood, and local pilots did not notice the ship masts sticking out of it for 100 years.
The finale of this sugary and snotty soap opera, because the language does not turn to call cinematography, was clearly written by screenwriters under the influence of psychotropic substances. Ships on helicopters shooting at each other from guns, led by a tongue-tied Scottish bully with an untranslatable accent, this is NO longer humor, no banter, no cliche, no hack, no trash, this is INSANITY!