5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A new twist on a n old story - stylish work!, April 12, 2003
I recently bought this DVD and was especially amazed about the nice effects and very stylish camerawork. Good slow-motion, nice angles and good play with light, shadows and water. The editor and cameraman are really topnotch tryng to envision the the idea of the director with a wealth of innovative work.
The story itself is a rather old one: good vs evil in an epic battle over the unsuspecting little planet known as earth. Combining mythical- and science fiction-elements we are told the story of Os - Billy Zane - a former member of the Shadowmen, dark entities stalking the universe and destroying whole planets. Exiled on earth there is only one way out: Finding the vortex to destroy earth and shattering the grounds of space.
But Os is turned good by an entity of pure love. And so his quest to destroy the shadowmen along with their leader has begun. By gathering four special protectors, unique hyper-humans, each representing an element he is willing to save earth from his former allies.
Very cool fighting-sequences occur. One of the best is delivered in the beginning of the movie, when we are told about the clash between Os and the White Lady who's turning him into a protector force of earth. Sparks fly, energies explodes and we see Zane running on walls, weilding his sword like he's done this since he was baby. Very good choreography indeed. The real good CGI-effects are doing their best to convince us of the existence of superpowered warriors fighting over earth. And they surprisingly succeed.
In the middle of the movie there are some slow moments, but those are filmed in a nice way, bringing the story and the charácters further than simply letting them fight every thirty seconds. We learn more about the mystical ways of Os and how he mentally trains his fighters preparing them for the really impressive, wireworked and effect-ladden showdown!
There are similiraties betweenn the movie and some videogames. take Mortal Kombat or Tao feng for example.
If you like cool action with a twist, modern filmmaking with the use of good postproduction you will like this one a lot. Innovative action sleeper hit.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Billy Zane gave a good performance, April 17, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Invincible [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A film with a decent story line but the acting wsn't that good. The only one that stood out for me were Os (Billy Zane) who added charm and interest to the speech and altogether stole the show.
The fight scenes were well choreographed and decently performed, though the slow motion became rather too much after a while.
There wasn't enough action in this film, or if there was there was way too much sitting and talking inbetween. The part where Os is telling the elements how Slate will try to trick them and that they musn't hate him for this lingered on a little too long leaving me quite bored at the end of it.
The characters Os and Slate where well introduced at the beginning making it pretty simple to go along with though the elements weren't actually properly introduced although it was quite easy to see who they were anyway.
Altogether I think this film could have done with a little less talking and had more action in. Billy Zane gave a good performance which added more interest to the film and made me want to keep watching. If the other actors had given as good as performance as him, then the film would have been of much higher standard.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Great but Good enough, January 19, 2004
By A Customer
The only reason I'm writing this is for the BAD reviews. The story is not hard to follow, If you pay attention to the philosophy. The action is good with chinese martial arts variations. The Shadowmen (like dark angel type beings) are trying to go home. To do that They must use the tablet to open a portal which will destroy earth. O's (Zane) is a shadowman who was shown good and wants to preserve the earth. Good philosophy, nice form, and some background humor. Aside from the "captain planet" similarities of the heroes, I think this was a good movie. Not flashy, not hard to follow, not profound or phenomenal, just good.
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