as a screen writer i am able to enjoy movies for multiple reasons, apart from the entertainment aspect alone. i admire great ideas, so i am able to overlook major flaws, just as long as the script is halfway tight and the idea to flaw ratio does not get out of hand.
MAJOR spoilers ahead!
my motivation to see this movie was ignited by the basic idea of the killer that forces you to "chose", which seems like a brilliant basic idea to start a script. actually even further i was convinced that it would be almost impossible to mess this up. oh, how wrong i was... for the second time even.
the very last time i got tricked by a great basic idea was the movie "die (2010)" (as in dice, not as in death), which has a similarity interesting "chose someones destiny" theme and interestingly falls apart just as early into it's runtime, as this movie.
"choose" manages to put off it's audience within the very first 2 minutes into the runtime, which is incredible. it is almost an achievement of some kind, as i rarely lose my interest so quickly. very few movies have managed to do that before. even the ridiculously euro- trashy "das komabrutale duell" kept me interested (laughing) for the first 30 minutes.
the problem with this movie as well as with "die" is, that the writers completely ignored all human factor AT ALL. since both movies kind of come off as cheap "saw" knockoffs i am kinda curious if they even saw (no pun intended) the original "saw" movie.
OK, long talk short: dear fellow screenwriters, if you feel the need to include into your story that one or more person is/are forced into choosing their own or someone else's fate, then for Christ's sake, write it in a way that the person you are writing about is forced into some kind of machine or chair or whatever force/tool that leaves them no inch of other movements than the ones that are needed to make said choice. even worse, don't write that the killer reaches them a deadly weapon. no, it does not matter if you write a gun or whatever into the killers hand. it does not matter, because every living person will discard the killers game and take his chance instantly.
this is why the "saw" movies worked for the most part and the named movies did not.
die/choose scenario: killer holds gun to characters head, hands over weapon, tells other character to hurt third character. all three people are in close range of each other. that does not work, people. e.g. in this movie they really expect someone to rather kill her father, while her mother watches with a knife, instead of attacking the killer? seriously? that does not make the script stupid, it also makes the killer an insanely stupid character.
saw scenario: voice of "killer" (who is not even in the room) coming from a tape tells character to hurt second character, who is immobile, to free third character, that is shown on a TV (person is also not in the room). additionally the room is sealed for the time of the game. this works, because there is nothing left to chance.
the second big mistake they made with this particular movie is, that they would not stick to their guns, which would be that the killers game is solely a choice of letting someone chose one or the other loved ones death, which is a very good basic idea, as i already pointed out, but they could not even do THAT. it switches to "chose your eye sight or your fame/career", which was the moment where i lost all remaining hope in this flick. it is double jeopardy since that also destroys any plausibility. serial killers don't change their ways such significantly from hit to hit. the unabomber did not suddenly switched to knife stabbing out of a sudden. know what i mean?
.... and it gets worse.
anyway, i really liked the cinematography, soundtrack, cuts, lighting and the acting was OK as well. nevertheless, the script killed it for me.
MAJOR spoilers ahead!
my motivation to see this movie was ignited by the basic idea of the killer that forces you to "chose", which seems like a brilliant basic idea to start a script. actually even further i was convinced that it would be almost impossible to mess this up. oh, how wrong i was... for the second time even.
the very last time i got tricked by a great basic idea was the movie "die (2010)" (as in dice, not as in death), which has a similarity interesting "chose someones destiny" theme and interestingly falls apart just as early into it's runtime, as this movie.
"choose" manages to put off it's audience within the very first 2 minutes into the runtime, which is incredible. it is almost an achievement of some kind, as i rarely lose my interest so quickly. very few movies have managed to do that before. even the ridiculously euro- trashy "das komabrutale duell" kept me interested (laughing) for the first 30 minutes.
the problem with this movie as well as with "die" is, that the writers completely ignored all human factor AT ALL. since both movies kind of come off as cheap "saw" knockoffs i am kinda curious if they even saw (no pun intended) the original "saw" movie.
OK, long talk short: dear fellow screenwriters, if you feel the need to include into your story that one or more person is/are forced into choosing their own or someone else's fate, then for Christ's sake, write it in a way that the person you are writing about is forced into some kind of machine or chair or whatever force/tool that leaves them no inch of other movements than the ones that are needed to make said choice. even worse, don't write that the killer reaches them a deadly weapon. no, it does not matter if you write a gun or whatever into the killers hand. it does not matter, because every living person will discard the killers game and take his chance instantly.
this is why the "saw" movies worked for the most part and the named movies did not.
die/choose scenario: killer holds gun to characters head, hands over weapon, tells other character to hurt third character. all three people are in close range of each other. that does not work, people. e.g. in this movie they really expect someone to rather kill her father, while her mother watches with a knife, instead of attacking the killer? seriously? that does not make the script stupid, it also makes the killer an insanely stupid character.
saw scenario: voice of "killer" (who is not even in the room) coming from a tape tells character to hurt second character, who is immobile, to free third character, that is shown on a TV (person is also not in the room). additionally the room is sealed for the time of the game. this works, because there is nothing left to chance.
the second big mistake they made with this particular movie is, that they would not stick to their guns, which would be that the killers game is solely a choice of letting someone chose one or the other loved ones death, which is a very good basic idea, as i already pointed out, but they could not even do THAT. it switches to "chose your eye sight or your fame/career", which was the moment where i lost all remaining hope in this flick. it is double jeopardy since that also destroys any plausibility. serial killers don't change their ways such significantly from hit to hit. the unabomber did not suddenly switched to knife stabbing out of a sudden. know what i mean?
.... and it gets worse.
anyway, i really liked the cinematography, soundtrack, cuts, lighting and the acting was OK as well. nevertheless, the script killed it for me.