DVD Review: Captain America (PG) / Director: Albert Pyun / Screenplay: Stephen Tolkin / Starring: Matt Salinger, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty / Release Date: Out Now

Long before the birth of Marvel studios and Joe Johnston’s expertly crafted take on the star-spangled avenger, there was this cinematic oddity. Released in 1992 (although it was finished some two years previously), Captain America provided Cap’s first screen outing for 13 years (following the ill-fated TV attempts which were less Captain America and more Evel Knievel). No doubt spurred on by the reignition of the big-screen comic book genre thanks to Tim Burton’s Batman, Cyborg director Albert Pyun stepped up to the plate and got ready to hit Marvel’s heroes into the stratosphere. Unfortunately for all involved, the home team appeared to have forgotten to bring their ‘A game’ (or, indeed, anything which even gave them a fighting chance).

Our story begins in WWII Italy (yes, that’s Italy) where a young boy is orphaned thanks to some helpful government soldiers, before being taken to a secret facility and introduced to the Super Soldier program. Flashing forward seven years later, we meet Steve Rodgers (Matt Salinger), a strapping 6’ 4” chisel-jawed Californian who is hopelessly debilitated by a bit of a limp. Seeing their chance (and with the nice Italian Super Soldier doctor on board), the American government recruit Steve in the hope of turning him into… well, a strapping 6’ 4” chisel-jawed Californian without a limp. The high tech experiment (which essentially involves shining a light on the subject) goes well and before you know it, Steve has become Captain America.

Steve’s first mission is a trip behind enemy lines to stop the maniacal Red Skull (Scott Paulin) from launching a big missile at the White House. Dressed in bright blue latex, Cap goes in, launching his mighty shield at all who get in his way and fighting his way to the prize. But all doesn’t go well and Steve is strapped to the missile and sent packing to Washington. Managing to divert the rocket at the last minute (as a slack-jawed kid looks on), Cap winds up crashing into the Arctic wastes.

46 years later, explorers unearth the body and what could have been a passable comic book romp suddenly turns into an almost Capless TV movie as Steve comes to terms with losing his past, falls for his ex girlfriend’s daughter (bleugh) and embarks on a nice little weekend break to Italy, presumably because that’s where the funding was.

The problems with this half-arsed superhero flick are myriad. Eagle-eyed readers will have already spat out their coffee at the sight of words like ‘Italy’ and ‘California’, and issues such as having a giant of a man playing pre-Cap Steve Rodgers are only highlighted by the phenomenal work accomplished in last year’s film. But the biggest issue of all is the plot. What there is of it is so unambitious that it defies belief. While last year’s flick had Cap stopping the world from falling under the tyrannical rule of the Red Skull, this one features a Skull whose biggest sin is profiteering from anti-environmental products.

As for Cap himself, while Salinger does a decent job of playing a dough-eyed Rodgers, his only resemblance to Captain America is a physical one, and even that’s a stretch given his shiny tricolour suit and mask that looks like a shoddy cosplay knockoff.

There are no extras onboard this release (which is a shame given its tumultuous history) and the quality isn’t much better than the VHS it was most probably lifted from. None of this helps what is essentially nothing more than an interesting (and hugely flawed) piece of Marvel’s cinematic history.

DVD Review: The Howling Reborn (15) / Director: Joe Nimziki / Screenplay: Joe Nimziki / Starring: Landon Liboiron, Lindsey Shaw, Ivana Milicevic / Release Date: Out Now

Oh dear. If the previous sequels were not bad enough, The Howling has to put up with this (eighth!) direct to DVD flick.

Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) is just about to graduate, having spent the last 18 years pretty much as a loner, with only a geeky horror film making friend Sachin (Jesse Rath) for company, and a slutty girl who hangs out with the bad boys, Eliana (Lindsay Shaw) for his fantasies. He draws her obsessively from afar.

His mother was killed before he was born, (in the opening sequence) and he was cut from her womb and left, while her body was never found. Quite amazing that he got to be 18 and have his oddly named friends at all then, eh?

Graduation is the least of his worries though as he is soon drawing the attention of the “pack” of bad boys, who seem to have taken a shine to him. Suddenly his life is changed, he no longer needs his glasses to see properly and the girl of his dreams is paying attention to him, especially after he kicks his ass in the bathroom. Although the bully then gets up and pulls a gun and attempts to chase Will down in a completely deserted school corridor. (I think the gun was only added for a convenient reason – watch and you will see)

Things get worse, however when his mother (Ivana Milicevic) turns up on the scene with the “pack” in tow, and reveals to Will his true destiny as a lycanthrope.

The Howling Reborn comes across like a cross between Twilight and Harry Potter, with none of the charm of either. It doesn’t even have the likeable characters of MTV’s Teen Wolf reboot, which while not being perfect, was at least watchable and didn’t skimp on the gore.

The effects, when they finally come are OK in that you don’t really get much of a chance to see the CGI flaws because they are shot so darkly and quick. It’s obvious the makers have gone for the PG-13 (although it has been given a 15 in the UK) audience, rather than the more credible adult route of Ginger Snaps for example.

At the end of the day, it makes you want to go back and re-appraise Howling II as a classic (at least that had Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning pulling her top off again and again over the end credits). This is more like The Howling Stillborn.

DVD Review: Dark Relic (15) / Director: Lorenzo Sena / Screenplay: Andy Briggs / Starring: James Frain, Clemency Burton-Hill, Tom Basden / Release Date: Out Now

Made for the SyFy channel back in 2010, Dark Relic seems to be a film that was made to cash in on the success, or lack thereof of Season of the Witch which stank up cinemas early last year. Funnily enough despite having probably not even the catering budget of that film, this is actually better.

We start in the crusades as Jerusalem has just been conquered and a group of knights, led by Sir Gregory (James Frain) discover a chunk of the cross that Jesus was crucified on and decide to take it back to Rome. After a shipwreck and one of their crew disembowelled in the woods, the group of men start to believe that the relic they carry might be cursed. Birds falling from the sky, swarms of locusts and demonically possessed monks all add to the feeling that something is amiss.

Dark Relic’s fatal flaw is that it lacks scope and sweep. I realise its low budget but at the start a few inserts of sweeping landscapes would have made all the difference. The knights walk along against blatantly false backgrounds and I half expected Terry Gilliam to show up with a couple of coconut shells. There is then a gratuitous flashback to a battle scene which unwisely decides to imitate Zack Snyder’s 300 and the result is just sad. Once the knights get to snowy, bleak Europe things improve somewhat with actual physical locations. From there on in Dark Relic is pure entertainment with all manner of badly rendered nastiness hurled at our heroes.

The effects may not be very convincing but Dark Relic moves like lightning and is never less than entertaining. In fact it’s so fast moving that it’s difficult to keep up with exactly what is going on. The characters and plot are never given time to breathe which is a shame considering that the acting from James Frain on down is actually pretty decent and nearly everyone is equipped with a convincing accent. Clearly this was made for TV with a running time of just over one hour so that the US SyFy channel could pad it out with 40 minutes of commercials. They seem to have some great bad ideas over there (Sharktopus!) but rarely seem to take them seriously, leading to all their output apart from the on-going series’ feeling really rushed.

Dark Relic isn’t a ground breaking piece of straight to DVD entertainment, but it has a certain entertainment value without ever being wholly satisfying. For a similar yet more thorough experience watch Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven and follow it up with Lamberto Bava’s Demons.

Special Features: TBC

Blu-ray Review: The Howling Reborn (15) / Director: Joe Nimziki / Screenplay: Joe Nimziki / Starring: Landon Liboiron, Lindsey Shaw, Ivana Milicevic / Release Date: Out Now

It might just be me but I seem to remember the Howling franchise being a pretty big deal in video shops during the 80s. You might think that Joe Dante’s original film (which is still nasty and cool) would merit something of a fanfare for its inevitable reboot or remake. Seems it was not to be, as The Howling Reborn is every inch a low budget attempt to cash in on the current popularity of confused werewolf teenagers.

We begin with a pregnant woman attacked and seemingly killed by a werewolf but the baby survives. Seventeen years later and the baby has grown up into wet dreaming artistic wimp Will (Landon Liboiron) about to graduate with an unrequited crush on rebel chick Eliana (Lindsey Shaw). Strange new kids have joined the school and their eyebrows join in the middle. Will is attacked at a club one night and starts to experience change, he discovers a dark secret related to his parentage which threatens a safe graduation for everyone.

The Howling Reborn is an incoherent mess of a film that never comes to terms with what it wants to be. The soundtrack and angsty scenes are pure Twilight rip off, the werewolf effects and gore are done on such a low budget that it resembles a spoof and the acting is on another level entirely. To be fair, it seems as though director Joe Nimziki does have a bit of talent. The opening scenes are quite well done and he gets some good performances from his young cast, he also has a talent for matching the visuals with the angsty soundtrack. When your producer is also credited as the co-writer for your film, you can begin to see the problems here.

Every time the film threatens to get good with its werewolf carnage we instead cut away to a scene of Will and Eliana about to engage in animalistic love making only for him to spout something like “I Can’t…Leave Me Alone!!!”. The film constantly threatens to go full exploitation but then bottles it for the easy reference to the Twilight crowd. As a result the film just doesn’t work at all, the werewolf effects are of the men in suit variety and they choose to film the fights shaky-cam style to mask this problem. This just adds to the overall feeling of puzzlement as bizarrely the students attend a graduation ceremony at night during a full moon.

I am sure that The Howling films were not classics the first time around (in fact from what I hear, not even close) but surely the franchise deserves better than this limp effort.

Special Features: Making of, Storyboards.

Review: The Secret World of Alex Mack (15) / Directed by: Various / Written by: Tommy Lynch, Ken Lipman / Starring: Laris Oleynik, Meredith Bishop, Darris Love, Dorian Lapinto, Michael Blakley, Benjamin Kimball Smith, Natanya Ross, Jessica Alba / Release Date: Out Now

The first series of Alex Mack (Larisa Oleynik) follows the formula of many high school shows focusing on issues such as popularity, the opposite sex and coming of age but add in the powers that are bestowed upon Alex by an accidental chemical spillage and the scope for a little more fun than usual makes up an amusing portrayal of awkward adolescence.

Alex is an average student who hangs out with her laidback, saxophone playing best friend Ray and is constantly overshadowed by her scientific whizz of a sister, Annie. On the way home from her first day at junior high school Alex gets covered by a chemical called GC-161 that changes her molecular structure so she can transform into liquid, control electricity and move objects with her mind. Ray and Annie are the only two people who know about Alex’s powers as she must keep it a secret from the malevolent chemical plant that runs the town.

Each episode consists of the plant’s security hatching a plan to find the contaminated teen or Alex getting into a difficult situation that forces her to use her powers. The simple premise works well with the twenty something minute running time; and it is an entertaining kids show that attempts to deliver some important messages about growing up through a fun medium. Adult viewers in want of a nostalgic 90s television trip will probably be bored by the obvious lessons each episode is doling out. It does work on the level of young kids entertainment, though with a 15 certificate given by the BBFC due to a scene where Alex hides in a tumble drier, may put parents off purchasing the DVD. The question of whether a younger audience will relate to the backward cap, oversized plaid shirt wearing 90s charm of Alex Mack is difficult to determine. The growing pains of youth are still the same, but the issues are handled without any real depth. Instead of teen angst the makers of the show have opted for a lighter tone.

The concept of a teenage girl with super powers struggling through high school dealing with the stereotypical bully (played by Jessica Alba… who mysteriously disappears after a few episodes) and daydreaming up ways to get back at her makes for comic viewing. The daydream sequences throughout are the highlight of the show as they reach to the darker humour of the teen psyche. Alex’s powers and the way she uses them are delightfully creative the first few times but watching a pile of goo slide under a door for the tenth time does deliver repetitive viewing.

Alex Mack is suitable viewing for younger kids but it lacks the darkness or the cult edge needed to spark nostalgia in adults.

Review: War of the Worlds – Season One (15) / Directed by: Various / Written by: Various / Starring: Jared Martin, Philip Akin, Lynda Mason Green, Richard Chaves, Rachel Blanchard, Denis Forest, Adrian Paul, Catherine Disher / Release Date: April 30th

The DVD release of War of the Worlds was the first of two series broadcast in the late 1980s. It acts as a follow up to the 1953 George Pal film and is based on the premise that the Martians were not quite destroyed by human bacteria but were placed in a state of hibernation which the US Government used to confine the Martians in a military base.

Like all good invasions, whether it is alien or zombie, a terrorist group successfully infiltrates the military base and unknowingly releases the Martians who kills the terrorist group and use their bodies as cadavers. However, this invasion doesn’t go unnoticed – Dr. Harrison Blackwood (Jared Martin), an astrophysicist, and computer genius Norton (Philip Akin) discover radio-activity on Earth, which is typically found in space in their field of work. With newly recruited microbiologist Suzanne (Lynda Mason Green), they set out to trace the original source of the signal and stumble onto a similar investigation being covered by Lt Col. Paul Ironhorse (Richard Chavez). A chance encounter with the Martians seals the alliance into an alien investigation team backed by the US Government.

I honestly thought that this series would be dire; however, there are some wonderful aspects to it. The series goes beyond being just a follow-up to the 1953 film in more ways than one. The episode Eye For An Eye is set in Grover’s Mill; the famous alien landing-spot for Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio drama. In the episode, a real invasion took place in 1938 and was defeated by a group of men who help the team to take down an invasion in Grover’s Mill for a second time. Meanwhile, in A Multitude of Idols, Blackwood seeks the help of Sylvia Van Buren (a character from the original 1953 film, played by the original actress Ann Robinson). Meanwhile, the series’ use of the Cold War (which was still happening at the time) dates the series in a good way. The episode Epiphany (which guests The Avengers actor Patrick Macnee) deals with the Martians looking to exploit the hatred and tensions between humans (which were ripe during the Cold War) in order to invade. This resonates with HG Wells’ original novel and how he integrated the hot topics of the Victorian Era (largely colonialism) into this work.

However, War of the Worlds attempts to evolve the story and fails massively. In the series, it turns out that the “Martians” are actually the Mor-Taxans from the another planet light years away; Doctor Who has made this mistake before of taking a monster which has passed into folklore and making it into something else, it just spoils the enjoyment of the familiar and is really unnecessary. Also, when their cadavers begin to rot as a result of radiation, they inhabit shapeless suits which look like discarded Doctor Who monsters. Meanwhile, through no fault of its own (it was made in the 80s), the random interjections of gore, such as aliens bursting out of cadaver’s stomach (hmm… has that not been done before?) and bodies melting, were special effects typical of the 80s but they get a tad boring and predictable after you’ve gone through the first six episodes.

War of the Worlds has something special to it, which I think is what granted it a second series in its original run; it attempts to streamline the ideas across all adaptations of the original into one story which (for its time) works really well against a Cold War backdrop. However, the gory effects are repetitive and the bastardisation of some of the original material spoils the series after a while. In addition, the only special features with this DVD are the episode synopses, which I still don’t quite understand the use of.

Special Features: Episode Synopses

Review: Carnival of Fear / Director: Jay Woelfel / Screenplay: Jay Woelfel / Starring: Aimee Brooks, Damian Maffei, Joe Unger / Release Date: Out Now

Carnivals have provided the setting for some great horror films: Freaks (1932), Carnival of Souls (1962) and The Funhouse (1981) to name but a few. Alas, Carnival of Fear (AKA Closed for the Season) is not one of them.

Set in the (real life) abandoned Chippewa Lake Amusement Park in Ohio, Carnival of Fear tells the story of Kristy (Aimee Brooks), a lost tourist who wakes up in the dilapidated carnival with no memory of how she got there. Searching for a way out, she encounters James (Damian Maffei), whose parents are the caretakers of the park. Together they try to escape the mysterious Carney (Joe Unger) who appears to have the power to raise the phantoms of the carnival’s past to stalk and terrorise them. Trapped in a netherworld between the past and present, Kristy and James realise they have no choice except to relive the legends of the carnival and to ride the rides one last time. But is the Carney guiding them towards salvation or eternal damnation?

Despite a promising scenario, Carnival of Fear quickly descends into a morass of inept storytelling, clumsy direction and even weaker CGI. In the opening scene a young boy rides a rollercoaster for what turns out to be the last time. He is tossed out by a strange drifter who appears as if by magic, and tumbles to the ground to be impaled on a tree stump through his middle. Despite this he seems unhurt. “That’s the damnedest thing I ever saw”, marvels the Carney. Confused? You will be.

Carnival of Fear continues in this vein throughout, attempting to weave a line between the real and the imagined, between hallucination and apparition, past and present, but fails badly: it is unconvincing and – at times – downright confusing.

Aimee Brooks and Damian Maffei are game as the befuddled tourists attempting (like the viewer) to distinguish reality and fantasy, but the lame script gives them little to work with. Joe Unger, a familiar face from TV and film (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, 1990) brings some weight to the Carney role, although fails to deliver the kind of chills that, say, Tim Curry provided as Pennywise the Clown in IT (1991).

With minimal characterisation, little suspense and a lot of repetition, Carnival of Fear runs out of steam by the half-way mark.  Director Jay Woelfel might at least have managed to create some atmosphere from the real-life abandoned amusement park in which Carnival of Fear is set – but no. Although Woelfel is a veteran of straight-to-video horror movies (Like Evil, 2009, Trancers 6, 2002) Carnival of Fear rarely rises above the level of a student short.

This ride is not worth the price of admission. Avoid.

Review: Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society (15) / Director: Kenji Kamiyama / Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama / Starring: Atsuko Tanaka, Osamu Saka, Akio Ohtsuka,  / Release Date: May 21^st

Depending on your knowledge of the Ghost in the Shell universe, this may not be the best place to jump in. To clarify; first was Masamune Shirow’s original manga, director Mamoru Oshii then made two movies which took Shirow’s technology dominated universe as an inspiration but were very much their own thing. Anime house Production IG then brought the universe to TV with the Stand Alone Complex two season 26 episode arcs in the middle of the last decade. This was closer to the manga and ignored Oshii’s movies. Ghost in The Shell – Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society (henceforth known as GITS-SAC:SSS) is set two years after the end of the TV series. Everybody got that? Good, let’s get into it…

GITS-SAC:SSS finds Section 9 hunting a master hacker by the name of ‘The Puppeteer’ who is hacking into cybernetically enhanced brains belonging to government officials and making them kill themselves. The Puppeteer seems to have political connections and a wide knowledge of the personnel who work for Section 9. Toganusa is now the boss, having recently had cybernetic upgrades with Batou remaining on the sidelines and Major Kusanagi having quit section 9 and now spending her days conducting her own investigations for anything that tickles her philosophical fancy on the net. The more Section 9 investigates, the more the Major comes under suspicion.

I’m not a genius but I’m not exactly a dunce either, though admittedly I had problems keeping up with the fast moving and complex plot in this. It took me a couple of viewings to fully absorb Mamoru Oshii’s first two GITS films as stunning as they are. GITS-SAC: SSS plays out like much of the Stand Alone Complex did, it’s what studios would come up with if they had to make 24 thirty years in the future. I understood the film whilst I was watching it but if you had to ask me what happened now a day or so later I would have a job telling you. There are many characters within Section 9 but also many supporting players whose allegiances are not always clear. The lines between human and cyborg blur constantly and the action scenes are never less than thrilling with hardware on display that would make James Cameron envious. For all the invention and the thrills this has going for it, it’s a shame that the plot ultimately boils down to a re-tread of the first Oshii film. I know they are set in alternate timelines or what have you but come on; it’s been said and done. The net is vast and infinite indeed…

Although it isn’t quite as beautiful as Mamoru Oshii’s cinematic films, GITS-SAC:SSS is wonderful to look at and the Blu-ray transfer is really quite amazing. Sadly there is no sign of the 3D version which came out in Japan last year but never mind. The good thing about the SAC series and this film is that it breaks recent anime tradition and never succumbs to ‘fan service’. So there are no gratuitous shower scenes or any unnecessary wide eyed jiggling, this is a franchise whose primary concern is thrilling you as well as making you think.

For long-time fans of this universe, this is a mostly brilliant and worthy conclusion to one of the best anime series of recent years. For anyone else not familiar with it, knock an additional point off the score out of ten.

Special features: Design features, making of, trailers, Interviews.

Review: Puss in Boots (U) / Director: Chris Miller / Screenplay: Tom Wheeler / Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis / Release Date: Out Now

It’s fairly obvious that DreamWorks animation have turned a corner in terms of the quality of its output. Bringing in Guillermo Del Toro as a creative consultant was a smart move and one that seems to be paying off. Since Kung Fu Panda things have gotten better with each film they release and the fact that this summer their big release is another in the awful Madagascar franchise is a let-down. Puss in Boots shouldn’t work, seeing as it’s a spin off from the tired Shrek franchise but, against all odds, this is one of the most entertaining animated films for a while. Puss in Boots manages to balance the absurd with a sense of excitement and adventure that hasn’t been seen in a while.

The plot charts the back story of Puss before he hooked up with Shrek and Donkey in a land far, far away. Puss is something of a folk hero in the small Spanish town where he grows up, foiling crime and being donated his boots by the townspeople that love him so much. All is going well until his no good half-brother Humpty Dumpty ends up in hot water with the wrong people and Puss is framed for a major robbery. Puss is shunned from the town and we catch up with him when he is a wandering hero/lady killer who comes into contact with the thief Soft Paws. After an extended and hilarious dance fight sequence, Puss follows Soft Paws into a plot concocted by Humpty Dumpty to steal some magic beans from Jack and Jill (here reimagined as a white trash couple with some edgy incestuous overtones) to climb the mythical beanstalk to a kingdom in the sky and steal a golden egg laying goose.

Puss in Boots continues the new traditional DreamWorks strategy of great action, great characterisation and just the right amount of darkness. Gone are the days of endless pop culture references that will date badly and in its place we get simply brilliantly told tales of high adventure with a nice message that the kids can get behind but the adults will appreciate too. Antonio Banderas continues to impress as Puss with his sultry Latin tones really selling the Zorro-esque hero at the heart of the story. Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis play Soft Paws and Humpty Dumpty and are likewise great choices for their roles. It’s strange how in animation you always know when the right actor has been picked for the voice of the character as the animation starts to look more and more like its physical counterpart.

The humour is very clever and comes not just from the physical mannerisms of the characters but also from the fairy-tale tropes that the film introduces and then shatters into hilarious pieces. There are an endless supply of jokes about Humpty Dumpty being an egg and also Puss’ actual boots but somehow they never get tired and keep the laughs going right until the end. Even if you aren’t in it just for the yuks, Puss in Boots has some great action scenes. A chase through the canyons with Jack and Jill is a highlight as is the whole sequence of escape when they actually get to the castle in the sky. These scenes are brilliant because they manage to be exciting as well as maintaining the child like sense of wonder that is present in the best interpretations of fairy tales.

Puss in Boots is a great addition to DreamWorks’ ever increasingly appealing animation catalogue. It’s a film designed to appeal to both adults and kids and everybody in between and thus comes highly recommended.

Special features: Puss In Boots: The Three Diablos, How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular

Blu-ray Exclusives: A DreamWorks Fairytale, Puss’ Paw Pouncing Challenge, The Animators’ Corner, Trivia Track, Purr-fect Pairing: The Voices Behind the Legend, Deleted Scenes, Kitten to Cat, Glitter Box Dance Off!, Klepto Kitty, Kitty Keyboard, Fairytale Pop Up Book, Kitty Strikes Again ,Previews: Madagascar 3, Puss In Boots THQ Game Trailer, The World Of Dreamworks: Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Megamind.

Review: Another Earth / Director: Mike Cahill / Screenplay: Brit Marling, Mike Cahill / Starring: Brit Marling, William Mapother / Release Date: Out Now

Science Fiction concepts have and can be used to tell some very human stories. Recently Lars Von Trier used an end of the world scenario in his portrayal of depression in Melancholia. Inception is very much a film about grieving and moving on and Contact is about self-discovery. I think Another Earth is about accepting responsibility but it’s hard to say, the film seems too in love with its own sense of self importance and its unique idea that any message gets lost in the pretentiousness.

The film begins with promising MIT student Rhoda (Brit Marling) getting wasted one night and whilst drink driving, spotting the emergence of a new Earth-like planet in the night sky. This distraction leads to her wiping out the family of John (William Mapother) and leaving him in a coma. Four years later, Rhoda is released from jail and gets a janitor job in the local school. After the energetic opening this is where Another Earth slows right down. The planet is still there in the sky, and it’s learned that it is an exact copy of our planet, and is even populated by the same people living here. We hear about this through radio and television broadcasts. This is all just white noise however as Rhoda has started to pose as a contracted cleaner for John who mopes about in his run down shack in the countryside. Ill-advisedly Rhoda and John get close, John not knowing that this is the lady responsible for the death of his family. Around the same time a competition opens up to take part in the first manned mission to ‘Earth 2’ and Rhoda enters. You don’t need a bachelor’s degree in storytelling to see where this is headed.

There is nothing wrong with the central idea at the core of Another Earth; it’s a fascinating idea to think of another exact copy of our planet down to the last detail suddenly appearing in the galaxy. It’s an idea full of possibilities which sadly are not explored to their fullest. Director Mike Cahill is much more concerned with getting in as many slow motion shots of Brit Marling moping around in a hoodie as possible. There really isn’t much to this story, where you should be fascinated and gripped by the possibilities and where it goes, instead much of Another Earth is predictable and forced.

The film is well acted though and has some good performances that are well judged despite the floaty camera work. Cahill is good at framing a shot of one of his miserable protagonists against the background of the new planet in the sky and this seems to be his main passion. Despite lack of focus William Mapother proves again he is much more than just the cousin of the world’s biggest star and Brit Marling is fully justified in her label as the new indie ‘it girl’.

I feel like this film should have justified a 1000 word long discussion on the themes and meaning inherent in the wonderful imagery that Mike Cahill gives us. Sadly Another Earth doesn’t justify this level of discussion; it barely registers and is mostly harmless. Director Mike Cahill shows promise but must work with a better script if he is ever going to become more than just another mediocre indie director.

Extras: None