Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent animated prelude to a great video game, October 28, 2008
Dead Space: Downfall serves its purpose as being a decent animated prelude to EA's great space based survival horror video game, delivering the goods in terms of blood and gore. However, there's little else to be found than that here, and that may be absolutely fine with you. The story revolves around the uncovering of an ancient artifact, and the events that transpire afterwards that involve people going insane and murdering one another. Before you know it, there's mutated zombie beasts running amok, and no one is safe. What Dead Space: Downfall does manage to accomplish is explain some plot points from the video game, as well as set-up what to expect if you haven't played it yet. Other than provide ample amounts of bloody, gorey violence, the animation itself is pretty lackluster. Things aren't really helped much thanks to some atrocious dialogue and a cliche script from the comic book writing tandem of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (whose work has ranged from great to awful) that becomes hard to follow in the midst of all the violence. Still, Dead Space: Downfall has a great music score, some genuinely creppy moments, and decent voice talent that includes Bruce Boxleitner and Kelly Hu. All in all, Dead Space: Downfall serves as being a decent animated prelude to EA's great game, and for fans who have played it already or are looking to, this animated dirge is worth a look.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goretacular!, November 13, 2008
"Dead Space: Downfall" is an animated film that serves as a prequel to the outstanding science-fiction survival horror video game, Dead Space. The story draws heavily upon previous masterpieces of film and game alike which most prominently include Aliens, Resident Evil (the games), 28 Days/Weeks Later and Halo. It makes for an entertaining stand-alone popcorn flick to people unfamiliar with the game and fleshes out the story for fans of the game somewhat by showing the events leading up to the nerve-wracking experience of the game in greater detail.
Whether or not you play video games, if you love animated violence then this is as brutal as it gets. The story involves a mining vessel sent by the fanatical Church of Unitology (Unitarian Scientologists?) to retrieve an artifact on a dead planet. The mining vessels subsist by "cracking" planets and selling the ore. Some say this is detrimental to the harmony of the Universe. I'd say that in this case, that's an understatement. The vessel unwittingly unleashes an alien race -named as "Necromorphs" in the game- that thrive on dead flesh; possessing, reanimating, molding, and mutating it into forms suitable for slaying even more living things to continually spread the race. The result is damn horrific by any standard. To make things worse something is affecting the minds of the crew and driving them mad, making them both eager to die and kill for the aliens. Mix this with an already fanatical religious sect and you've got trouble.
So other than a typical sci-fi alien/zombie invasion romp, some of the usual "organized religion will kill us all" gloom and doom, and a little extra story for gamers what does "Downfall" offer? Violence. Brutal, inhuman, senseless, bloody, evil, unrelenting, unflinching violence. Decapitation, dismemberment, jaws ripped off, folks sawed in half (both horizontally and vertically), eyeball socket abuse, gaping neck wounds, viscera aplenty, and a freakin' mutated dead baby biting a dude in the face. Now that is some hardcore sh!+. The inside of the ship is practically painted in blood, and there's even a bit o' animated full frontal male nudity if that sort of thing piques your interest. So yeah, you may want to send the kids into the next room for this one. The violence in this is awesome. Also be prepared for almost comically excessive profanity.
So with all the attention showered on the putrid piles of dung that are what usually passes for video game adaptations, why has nobody heard of this? The likes of Uwe Boll and Paul Anderson get notoriety and praise (respectively) for ruining unruinable concepts and franchises while a solid flick like this gets shoved to the back of the shelf? Double-you. Tea. Eff. To be fair, "Downfall" isn't exactly all it could have been either. The video game not only looks better visually, but is far more fleshed out storywise. This film does very little to offer insight into the Necromorphs and few varieties even make appearances. I was hoping for a lot more. Practically none of the game's weapons are present either which is odd considering how cool they are and that the game takes place on the exact same ship which has no shortage of said weapons. At least one character does manage to make their way to the video game, which picks up at the last scene of "Downfall".
Gorehounds, adult animation fanatics, sci-fi horror buffs, and video game aficionados are all going to want to see this. It doesn't offer much more than brutal death, but it offers a whole lot of that. I wish it had been done in CG to retain more of the game's amazing look and feel and that the story had encompassed more... well, story but this is definitely an entertaining hour and fifteen minutes. The special features are sparse. Hopefully more video game adaptations will stick to the animated format which has produced solid if not exceptional films like Street Fighter (compare that to the laughable live-action version) and Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. My fingers are crossed for the upcoming CG flick Resident Evil: Degeneration.
3 1/2 stars, rounded up for being BRUTAL!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great film!!! Not!!!!, May 6, 2009
Many fans of the game might be inclined to watch this movie, simply because of their love for it but like Star Wars fans who watched the prequels, many watched more out of curiosity of how the story would develop, opposed to great movie making. The parallel between Star Wars and its prequels would be the same as playing Dead Space and watching this movie...prepare for disappointment.
It seems that the people who were inspired to make this movie saw a good money making opportunity but did so with as little amount of money as possible. I'm always captivated by new fresh ideas and genuine creativity and so I had much hope for this film. Even if a movie is poorly done, if it is a novel piece, I'll like it to some degree. Unfortunately, this movie wasn't as unique as you might think. Much of the movie parallels Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) and to a lesser degree John Carpenter's The Thing (Collector's Edition).
Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) wasn't a great film but compared to Dead Space: Downfall, Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) deserves an Oscar. The 4 trailers you see prior to your arrival to the main menu pretty much sets the tone for what you are about to see, a b movie but all drawn. A saving grace would have been high quality art work, along the lines of Ghost in the Shell and incorporating the techniques used in Family Guy - Blue Harvest Special Edition (w/ limited-edition collectibles) episode. Sadly though, it ranked up there with many of the Saturday morning cartoons, with the addition of gore. Its use of cgi didn't help, mainly because of the poor art work; the cgi didn't blend well where it complimented the movie.
When it comes to fear factor...there wasn't any. Maybe because it's a cartoon. I have yet to see a cartoon horror movie that is actually scary. Live action horror movies use lighting and mood, which can't be reproduced in a cartoon. At least not well. Despite the use of props, when you see a live action horror movie, you close your eyes because it looks real. It's the cheap, low budget movies where you can tell it's all props, which you want to either laugh or make fun of it. Going live action would have made this movie a little scarier.
Anyone concerned with nudity or looking for it, there isn't any other the scene in the showers, where people are being attacked. In that segment, you're only going to see nude men, one in particular where you see a guy's "equipment." There are no nude women scenes or sex scenes, which is common with the anime genera.
One pathetic aspect of the movie is that the person putting the story together and/or the director, took ideas from different movies and tries to make it work in this piece. Many times when a writer or director puts details here and there, it makes a symmetrical arch later in the movie. With Dead Space, you can see small elements from other horror movies but doesn't make those small elements work because they don't fully use the components to its full extent.
Take for example the end of the movie. Before it goes to credits, you hear a child's limerick. The child's limerick doesn't fit any where because you don't have any earlier segments where they utilize aspects of the child's limerick. You don't see any of the character's childhood where the song is sung, or even anyone communicating with a parent where it makes some sense to include that in this movie. Furthermore, having the limerick doesn't do anything to enhance fear.
There are portions of the movie where you see what's going on from the monster's point of view. That worked well for Predator (Widescreen Collector's Edition). The reason it did, you didn't know what was stalking the people. You had little glimpses here and there but it took a while before you really got a look. Doing so kept the suspense and mystery up. Try to have the same effect after you know what's coming after the characters, doesn't work because at that point, you already know. That's why Predator 2 (Two-Disc Special Edition) wasn't as hot as the first movie. In Dead Space, you only see things from the monster's point of view, long after you know what's attacking people.
Other aspects of the movie, you really don't connect with any of the characters so you really couldn't wrap yourself around what's going on and hope that the characters make it. The dialogue was also weak. It would have been interesting to see more about the historic background of the Dead Space universe. Granted fans of the game probably have read it already but for a movie, it would have been nice to have included it. Having scenes of life on Earth would have also been interesting.
In one part of the movie, the second in command has to step up to the plate. He actually reminds me of one of the characters on King of the Hill - Seasons 1 - 6. The similarity isn't just in the way he's drawn but at points, you hear the same voice as this particular character from King of the Hill. I wonder if it's the same actor.
As far as the DVD itself, in the special features section, you can hear a soundtrack. Now if you're thinking a song being sung, you'd be wrong. It's the background orchestra music that's played in the movie. I'd only recommend listening to it if you enjoy what you hear in the movie. When the music is played, your screen goes blank so there's nothing going on other then music. The DVD also has deleted scenes, which for a cartoon; it's not that interesting to watch since all you're seeing is sketches, with actors reading their lines. You also have the movie trailer for Dead Space: Downfall.
Surprisingly, the best part of the DVD is the art of Dead Space segment. A majority of the artwork is from the game and it is beautifully done. There are only about 4 pieces of work for the movie that is shown and that's set toward the end of the gallery. Another aspect of Dead Space, that happens to be good, is the trailer for the game. These two parts of the DVD are the only thing that's of any redeeming value. Everything else, from the trailers to soundtrack is worthless.
There's actually one trailer that looks to be a funny movie, Brutal Massacre: A Comedy. It's a spoof on the making of a horror movie but like many comedy movies, the best parts are probably shown in the trailers and the rest is snoresville.
This movie had so much potential of really good story telling but drops the ball. Unlike many movies that have either gone from books to movies or video games to movies, many of them are bombs but at least they try to make the movie work. When it comes to Dead Space, I think this movie is an insult to fans. A company produces a product that generates interest and obviously enough interest to make this film but instead of giving its fans something to talk about, they instead produce a cheap, hopefully money generating bone. I wouldn't recommend buying this product. First off, it isn't worthy the price they are selling it for. If you want to know how this story line goes, you are better off renting it. When you see this movie, you would understand why you wouldn't want to keep it in the house because all it will do is create dead space.
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