First thing I should say is it's clear that this is a low budget movie and should be viewed as such. It's unfair to compare a low budgeted short film to something that had major studios backing it. Judging it on those terms though, it still falls short compared to many other short films I've seen on an even lower budget. The first half is very uneven due to some poor, student film sound quality, purely amateur sound effects, a laughable gunshot effect and uneven directing that ruin what was meant to be an emotional scene. The main actor, Jeff Freeman, is also very over the top in his line delivery at the beginning of the film.
Surprisingly, the last half was quite effective. Jeff Freeman delivered a more convincing, heart felt performance during the last half of the film and as a result, the film had more emotional resonance at this point, which was lacking in the first half.
On the plus side of this movie, Long Nguyen delivers a good performance in his short time on screen. The cinematography, while not perfect, did make great use of cranes, dollies and car mounts which added some very smooth and professional looking images to the movie.
A majority of the flaws in the movie come from the editing. Images such as the cartoonishly sped up car speed at one point as well as the crackling sound in others are partly results of the editing. The opening and closing graphics of the Earth were straight out of a High School production and gave the movie a more amateur feeling when it was clearly aiming for something more. This isn't the only movie I've seen with poor graphics, but regardless that is something that more filmmakers should find a substitution for.
Despite the flaws that ruin the first half of the movie and keep it from fully reaching its goals, it is clear that a lot of heart and soul was put into it which keeps the film from truly failing at it's intentions. The last half is, for the most part, free from the flaws of the beginning and succeeds at what the film aimed to achieve. Overall it's an uneven mixed bag, but because it is heart felt it succeeds on some level.
Surprisingly, the last half was quite effective. Jeff Freeman delivered a more convincing, heart felt performance during the last half of the film and as a result, the film had more emotional resonance at this point, which was lacking in the first half.
On the plus side of this movie, Long Nguyen delivers a good performance in his short time on screen. The cinematography, while not perfect, did make great use of cranes, dollies and car mounts which added some very smooth and professional looking images to the movie.
A majority of the flaws in the movie come from the editing. Images such as the cartoonishly sped up car speed at one point as well as the crackling sound in others are partly results of the editing. The opening and closing graphics of the Earth were straight out of a High School production and gave the movie a more amateur feeling when it was clearly aiming for something more. This isn't the only movie I've seen with poor graphics, but regardless that is something that more filmmakers should find a substitution for.
Despite the flaws that ruin the first half of the movie and keep it from fully reaching its goals, it is clear that a lot of heart and soul was put into it which keeps the film from truly failing at it's intentions. The last half is, for the most part, free from the flaws of the beginning and succeeds at what the film aimed to achieve. Overall it's an uneven mixed bag, but because it is heart felt it succeeds on some level.