After the Dark

I admit this wasn't exactly as exciting and fast paced as the trailer suggested but I still really enjoyed it. While everyone seems to be slating the film for its explanation of philosophy I think they are missing the point. Personally I believe the film is more about human nature and how in essence we are emotional creatures. Here is a tutor arguing about logical choices and not allowing emotion to guide you when in the end it is revealed the whole exercise was created as his emotional reaction to something. I cant say much more without spoiling it for those who haven't seen it. I would definitely recommend this to others. I would call this a Sunday afternoon film, it does all the thinking for you but you can still enjoy the ride.

I liked the first half hour a lot actally. I wish it was just a short film becouse it would have been way better that way. That is all I have to say. It should have ended after they played out the first scene. (By the first scene I mean the first time they died in the bunker. Becouse everything after that was just complete BS. It was like they decided that they didn't actually want the story and the plot to make any sense and they flashed it down the toilet. And than there is the actual ending. It wasn't even worth watching becouse it had no relation to the story. It was about as bad as when the author decides they don't know how to finish a story and just says that it was all a dream.

The beginning is interesting, I would say until the second half. Nothing wildly exciting, has some nice little twist in there but very minimal. It is shot in a dreamy kind of atmosphere. For some completely non-constructive and no where plot related reason the class is in Jakarta (pronounced Yanky style Djakardda) and you can tell this by the teak hardwood furniture and the crickets in the back (duh). The second half is hopeless. All the close ups of clearasil clean pouts, island shots and fuzzy broken sunlight (a lot if it) can't disguise the mouth-breathy throaty delivered "philosophy" to be no more than pretentious romanticism. The ending is a joke. Or maybe it is 'so deep' we all didn't get it. I give it a 5 for the first half.

As other people have detailed more completely than I care to, this movie is mediocre at best if you're looking for a movie about philosophy. If you try to watch the movie from this point of view it's downright infuriating and deserves the single star that so many reviewers gave.

Watching the movie as a drama, it's passable. The teacher claims that they're doing a thought experiment but in actuality I would say they were playing a bad role playing game (think Dungeons and Dragons). Imagine a really nasty DM (the teacher) empowered to force others to play his game by use of his position of authority. He does most of the things that a bad DM does and for reasons consistent with most common role playing game drama. This doesn't really pull together to make a fantastic movie but it's decent.

Evolution has always favored self-interest. Collectivism only works when the self-interest of the majority is satisfied. That is all you have to know to survive the end of times, I mean, if you even want to survive the end of times...because, let's face it, it is pointless... just like this movie.

As I watched the movie it came to me that the guys who wrote, directed and produced this film were in a bar one night when they decided that this was a worthwhile film. You would have to be fall- down drunk to think this film had any depth or even answered the most shallow philosophical questions of existence.

The acting was bland, the lead actress was a desert of emotions. The other actors just stood there without expression. I don't suppose that the director or the films cutter had sobered up from their night of drinking yet and I do believe that the music was written for some other movie...maybe a cartoon.

Please do not watch this film or you might hurt your artistic soul...there, I have warned you.