Alone in the Dark Movie Review:


Movie trailers have become such a popular way to decide whether or not to go to a movie. Why read about a film or even care about what the movie poster says or shows, when all you have to do is watch a three minute summary of what you will get in the dark theater. The problem is that most movie
trailers show too much, or don’t show the right things, and we end up watching a movie that isn’t what we expected. It may have been impossible to
show how campy Alone in the Dark truly is in just a three minute trailer, and somehow I don’t think they would have wanted to. The fact is that few people will be able to appreciate how cheesy this film truly is, and had they allowed audiences to know ahead of time, they might not have made any money at all.

Christian Slater comes out of the dark to play Edward Carnby, a paranormal investigator, but we really only see him investigate one thing, and it never really develops far before he is in a number of digitalized battle sequences with zombie-like men and alien-like creatures. There is a basic xplanation for all of this, involving a race of people from the past, an orphanage, and a door that must stay closed, but none of that really matters. The film is entertaining at times, especially the high charged fight at the beginning of the film, which takes place in a fish market. That one sequence, integrating ice-blocks into the action in a way that is reminiscent of a Bruce Lee fight, shows that Uwe Boll has a distinct style for action that can get adrenaline rushing. Sadly it is the only sequence that does this in the entire film, and much of the action becomes slow and forced.

From the very opening of the film, which is a scrolling back-story, complete with voice-over, it is made very clear that the film remains true to the video game. The only problem is that much of the cinematic elements are about the quality of a video game. Nearly every supporting player in the film has such an atrocious ability to deliver dialogue in the worst possible way, you would think that they were attempting bad acting. Christian Slater, as awful as it was for him to choose this film to come back, holds his own in delivering campy lines. Tara Reid, however, is not convincing in one word she speaks, or one step of movement in the action.

However well intentioned it may seem to make a film out of a video game, there needs more attention given to the details of the film. Basically, if they keep getting made and are as bad as this then audiences will soon get wise to the conceit that a movie based on a video game is going to be any good at all.

Laughing at a film is okay, but not when it seems like you are supposed to be taking the film seriously, unfortunately that is exactly what happens with Alone in the Dark.



Ryan Izay

 

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