DVD
REVIEW: THE GENE GENERATION
01/25/09
SYNOPSIS:
In the futuristic world of Olympia, a city on the brink of
destruction, a team of scientists discovered a way to
instantly reconfigure human DNA so that all disease would
come to an end. However, even miracles come at a cost and
soon all will find out if this new technology is actually a
blessing or a curse. The DNA reconfiguration can save lives,
but could also potentially end them as well. Now, as the
city is overtaken by gangsters and DNA hackers, the only
promise to a better life is with the right DNA. Michelle
(Ling), a seductive assassin whose mission is to take-out
these so called hackers, is determined to use the new
technology for good instead of evil. When her brother Jackie
(Shen) steals a genetic device from their next-door neighbor
Christian (Newman), a vigilante scientist, he gets dragged
into the immoral cyber-underworld. Banded together, Michelle
must fight not just for her own skin and blood, but also for
the survival of mankind.
REVIEW: For a
straight to DVD Movie I have to say that the movie meets
expectations. It has some kind of originality that set it
apart from other Sci-fi movies. I could not help to think of
Alex Proya’s sci-fi masterpiece The Dark City. It is very
similar in style, photography and acting, I could say, in my
opinion, that this movie, with a little more thought and
money had the potential to become a cult movie, nonetheless,
for fans of the DNA Hackers Chronicles, Sci-fi, action
movies, and Punk music the movie would be quite enjoyable.
The movie moves in a futuristic dystopia, which is very well
depicted by the used of computer graphics and lightning.
Everything is dark in this movie which makes the audience
get in the mood. Also the characters are masterfully design
and depicted, each character have been worked skillfully to
introduced their own personalities in the story, and each
actor did a great job depicting their character, it looks
like each one of them felt knew what the director wanted to
approach. Bai Ling (Southland Tales) surprised me with her
performance after her discrete performance in Southland
Tales. But what really impressed me the most was the music,
this is the most impressive quality, it just go with this
world, it sets the atmosphere, and each musical piece just
make you want to bob your head. Special FX wise, the movie
get its point across, the action is well coordinated and
enjoyable to the eye, thanks to Michelle’s abilities and
stunts, and although many of the CGI FX look fake and cheap
they have some of them that leave you speechless like the
city, its design is awesome, it is almost as good as the
music, it has a gothic kind of look where art meets
functionality. Regardless, of all what is happening in the
story is more important than the visual, and the visuals are
clear enough to make the audience understand what they are
trying to accomplished.
Pearry Teo did a great job portraying the world of DNA
Hackers, its visuals sets an atmosphere that makes the
audience be alert, nonetheless, the story is not delivered
properly, something in the script sometimes make the
audience to lose interest, or looked away. There are some
parts on the movie where it just jump from scene to scene
leaving the audience questioning about what had happened.
The description of characters are poorly shown, little
background is shown making the audience being impressed for
the way the look, but at the same time it insert a sense of
indifference toward them. The resolution of the movie could
have been improved, it is one of those type of endings that
result predictable and surprising at the time, it was like I
knew what was coming, but when it happened I could not
believe that was it. It let me waiting for something
unexpected and made me question if it was all worth it. I
recommend this movie to fans of the comic book, they might
enjoy it more since they know the mythology of the series,
and fans of the Sci-fi genre might have mixed reactions
comparing it with other post apocalyptic movies. In
conclusion The Gene Generation kept me entertained for most
of the time, it is a movie that I see people watching it
only once, it was enjoyable, original and fun, but it will
stand a long time on my DVD shelf.
VIDEO:
Widescreen (1.78:1)
AUDIO:
English 5.1 Dolby
Digital
Subtitles - English Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES: This DVD is loaded with a vast
amount of special features, Most of these options are to my
opinion just waste of space since I am not a features fan,
but for people who are into this kind of stuff, they might
actually enjoy it since it has more material than what I was
expecting, I got to congratulate the production for putting
an effort in pleasing the audience in this matter. To me the
features did not add nothing of value to the DVD. It as
usual has the usual featurettes like: the making of,
interviews, deleted scenes and theatrical trailer. The only
featurette that caught my attention was the 1st edition
digital comic book which expands the story a bit more.
Comentary with Director Pearry Teo. Actor Bai Ling and
Pearry Shen.
Comentary with Director Pearry Teo. Producer Keith Collea
Deleted Scenes: a Total of eight deleted
scenes that did not make it, in my opinion at least 3
(Focus, putting the pieces together, finding Jackie and
maybe Stealing Transcoder Extended Scenes) The other scenes
might have been useful but were not missed.
Story board to Scene Comparison: a total of 9 scenes where
the acting is compare with the story boards, in some of them
you could actually seem that they got exactly what they want
it.
Cast and Crew Interview: This are the typical
Director, actors and composer’s interviews found in DVDs
asking about their thoughts on the movie. (Approximately 33
minutes)
Combicrhist Music Video: “Get Your Body Beat”:
A Punk video with scenes from the movie it is the second
best feature of the DVD (4:36)
Visual Effects and Concept Art: a total of 6
menus talking about how the 2D and 3D effects, and the
concept art were achieved, also follow the director to get a
tattoo as a reminder of this movie. (Approximately 15
Minutes)
DNA Hackers Chronicles First Edition: This is
the best feature of the whole DVD, it introduces a very
promising and elaborate story, with great art, and original
concepts based on the movie, I hope this series succeed in
the comic world since it is different that the
commercialized labels. The only complain is that you have to
zoom a lot to read the dialogue(21 Pages).
Theatrical trailer: a Trailer that puts the
audience in the mood for a great story (1:44)
Review
By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
| FILM REVIEW |
|
|
VIDEO |
|
|
AUDIO |
|
| BONUS
FEATURES |
 |
Submit Your Movie Review
MORE MOVIE REVIEWS
>>>
