a.scanner.darkly.
Tonight I saw the much anticipated fim A Scanner Darkly. I think I need to see it again to truly rationalize my final decision, but I'll give it a 6.8/10
for the time being. Unfortunately as one would expect, Keanu
Reeves' acting is as one dimensional as the flat colors that align to
form his face in his animated form. The story is interesting both as a science fiction
tale and as a metaphor for the domestic effect of experimental drug use, however I rarely felt like I was firmly on
the same page with the characters or the plot. Perhaps this was
the overarching intention, but in that case it didn't translate as
clear as I would have wanted.
The animation however is pretty fantastic for the first hour or
so. One becomes a little adjusted to the style á la Waking Life
after a period of time, but I think they did a fantastic job taking
advantage of the animated style, truly evoking a wonderfully
disorienting mediated world. Robert Downey Jr. plays his part almost too
well. He was wildly entertaining, and his performance was the
only thing that really kept me on my feet. Officially, his
character, Baris, is my new favorite
substance-d-drug-addict-of-the-near-future to date!
Edit: I saw it again yesterday evening and while Keanu Reeves still fails to perform, the movie in general was more enjoyable. Maybe it was because I wasn't being so critical while I was watching the second time around, but I also tried to take it in at its face value and became more captivated, particularly by the conversation scenes between the men. So, while I personally don't think it's an entirely stellar movie all together, it is a good watch. Just don't expect anything profound (as one may have encountered in Waking Life)
Comments
I've only seen the first 24 minutes myself (as provided so righteously by IGN.com), and I have to say I'm digging what I'm seeing. That's a complete turnaround on the opinion I had after seeing the trailer a few months ago, so I guess that's something. The expressions that Rory Cochrane (who, for the record, is gloriously glorious in his gloriousness) pulls off with his face can surely only be enhanced by the rotoscoping, and so I've elected to let the rotoscoping slide. All in all, despite it being a freaking irritating approach to filmmaking, it does lend itself quite well to the hyper-paranoia in this fairly likely image of the future.
You know, stuff.
That movie looks insanely cool.
It also looks like it would be quite a lot to take in. But I still want to see it nonetheless.
Van - Rory Cochrane also does a phenomenal performance and I do think that the rotoscoping effect provides an effective additional performance to the movie's quality. The movie's not like 'omg omg my mind was totally piZ0wned!', but its entertaining and an interesting piece regardless.
Miss Mary Jane - Definitely check it out, and I'd love to hear what you think once you see it!
Thanks very much for reminding me -- I meant to remember to see this movie, but forgot about it. Despite your reservations, I'm certainly going to see it. (I loved Waking Life, and Keanu doesn't bother me as much as he does most people.)
I am totally not going to see it thanks to your review. That's two crappy movies and 20 bucks you saved me from spending!
i actually couldn't watch all of 'waking life', because the colouring didn't stay in the lines, and was driving me nuts, so i left the movie on while doing something else and just listened to the diatribe^H^H^H^H^Hlogue.
looks like they got a bit sharper on the technique with scanner darkly, so i'm looking forward to checking it out. philip k rules enough to offset keanu's suckage, which actually wasn't half-bad in 'thumbsucker'.
yeah i actually heard that his performance was really impressive in Thumbsucker, I should check that out. They used a more precise program to do the animation in this movie, so it is a little less intense than Waking Life. Hope you enjoi it!
saw it a second time and admittedly it was better than the first
I saw it yesterday and thought it was excellent. Keanu does okay in bewildered roles, Philip K. Dick was very evident, and I like the Waking Life / Scanner Darkly semi-animated style. It seemed like there were some things they did with the animation that would have fallen flat if they were photorealistic special effects, but worked (for me, at least) in this medium.
I saw it opening night last week and I think it was decent, not great, not bad. I loved Waking Life (my blog is even named after it) and I am trying not to compare the two movies. I feel like this movie needed a bit more character and plot development. It had a lot of promise...
I'd give it a 7 or 8 out of 10.