The film begins with an info-dump about the history of the world, not always the best sign, but the exposition is done reasonably stylishly and quickly. The story is set in a world where man created superior, genetically engineered humans, called the Ghen. They fought. The Ghen won, and then retreated to build a civilisation beneath the Earth. I wasn't entirely clear about why they did this, presumably it was some after effect of the war? But I missed it. Standard humans meanwhile are left on the surface of the planet in poverty.
The film looks good, with a cool visually stylish feel running through it. It's the sort of style that emerges from constraints, with the makers squeezing every last drop out of the (presumably) cheap sets, and consequently I liked the look of it a lot. It's sark and moody below the Earth and bright and blasted on the surface. My only irritation on the design front was that the Ghen have black eye make-up, probably as a device to show which people are Ghen, but it looked a bit cheap, and as if the Ghen were all goths (which has got to be unlikely!).
The acting throughout the film is fine, some of it good, and the music throughout is atmospheric and spooky.
The ingredient of the film that reveals the low budget nature is unfortunately the plot. It's a reasonable set-up, and the initial plot course of a powerfully political Ghen espouses annihilation of the humans has potential. It seems like the film is headed towards being a dark political thriller. However, from nowhere the humans are seen as a threat, which doesn't feel at all realistic, and that entire plot strand seems unnecessary. There's a reasonable twist too, although the logical mechanics of it seem a bit dodgy. The twist tries to be at the core of the film, but from that point on everything felt rushed. When the film ended it felt like it was just about to get going. In fact it felt like the dreaded part one of a trilogy, where surely it would be best to make the as single film as good as it could be?
In summary, a visually interesting film, let down by a story that doesn't fully realise the idea. But the team that made it obviously know how to make a film look good, so I'd be interested to see what they could do with a stronger plot.
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