Flatland the Film
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Movie Reviews of Flatland the Film
Movie Review: Great story - well done
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, if you're tired of all the talking animal CGI junk Hollywood pumps out each year, this is a great alternative. Keep in mind this is an indie flick so the CGI is not cutting edge but it is never a distraction from the story. Most of the story takes place looking down at a 2D plane, kinda like an old Atari game, which was very retro. I found the voice acting to be top notch for an indie film and I swear the main character 'A' Square sounds exactly like Owen Wilson at times. The music was also very well done. I have not read the book so I can not say how much the film deviates but I guarantee you've never seen a movie like this before. Honestly, the only thing I can really complain about is the ending. The meaning of the last scene is kinda vague, but hey, so is life. Maybe that's the point. Bottom line, if you like unique films, add this to your collection.Movie Review: Extraordinary!
Summary: 4 Stars
This brings the Abbot's _Flatland_ to life. While not in 1:1 correspondence with the book, it does a reasonably good job of driving home the tendency to seek certainty in dogma and to exclude evidence to the contrary. It's interesting to note that Abbot imagined this intolerance as the root of war. Recent years have demonstrated a similar connection in the United States.
Some of the movie seems a little forced, a tad awkward. But it's well worth owning, well worth watching, and definitely worth learning from.
Movie Review: Solid
Summary: 3 Stars
This version of the tale tries the most to update the film to a modern audience, and that is its chief failing. The original tale was called a Romance, and this updating removes that very concept from the story. While it follows much of the novella's narrative- in describing the way Flatland works (although the original's King is replaced by a President- who oddly still wears a crown), it departs severely from the original at its most crucial moment, once A Square is visited by A Sphere from Spaceland. In this version, instead of a mystical guide, along the line of the Three Ghosts Of Christmas from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, A Sphere is CEO of Messiah, Inc. Ok....if the mere mention of that plot point has you rolling your eyes, you are not alone. And the attempts at satire only go downhill from there.
Instead of Sphere's lifting up of Square into Spaceland being a religious experience, in this film it merely serves as a `wow' moment used to lead into some cheap gags, jokes, and a display of Ehlinger's animative chops. The story dissolves. Then there is some cheap and rather predictable satire of consumerism and the current Iraq War, which will severely date the film in coming years, as well as a not so funny portrayal of a Spaceland Senator Cube who sounds very much like Ted Kennedy. In the novella, the satire, while based in Victoriana, dealt more specifically with human foibles grafted onto the polygons of Flatland. Here, the polygons of Flatland and the solids of Spaceland are almost total caricatures- such as the gay sounding Flatland Senator who leads the dissenting Chromatist movement, and is assassinated by President Circle's henchmen.
The film is best when sticking to the book's original points.... The DVD comes with an autographed thank you from Ehlinger, but the disk itself has only the film and a brief trailer. Even though the film is low budget, couldn't Ehlinger have included a commentary by himself and others? It would have at least made the DVD, if not the film, worth a bit more, on a level of interest. In this day and age, not doing so is a bit of a ripoff- small budget or not. On a real world note, the slim case DVD package the DVD comes in also has a bad holder for the disk. The disk is far too small and the disk cannot stay in its holder. While a worthwhile effort, Flatland: The Film takes on too much, misses where the book succeeds, and its ending is just bad. But, Ehlinger does show a flair and unique style. If he continues in animation, here's hoping his next film is about the same quantum leap up from this one that Spaceland is from Flatland. If it is, then we'll have a film truly worth all the praise this one has gotten.
Movie Review: Go with the book
Summary: 3 Stars
I remember reading Flatland as a kid and I thought it was cool to think about all the different dimensions. I was excited to see that someone undertook to film it. Granted Mr. Ehlinger did this as a one-man show and I give him a lot of credit. I liked the imagery and the colorful world he created and he captured the story well. I wish the women's "peace cries" weren't as annoying as the book portrayed them and there weren't as much bloodshed and the story stalled at times, but if he had a larger budget he'd have accomplished much more. So "A" for effort, "C" for delivery.Movie Review: Well...
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is not bad, but not great, i did buy it thinking it would be a 3d movie, But most of the movie is cartoon with about 15 min at the end is 3d. People who know nothing about flatland will probably not like it and have no clue what the rest of us are watching and think we are retarded. The 3d graphics are okay, but i think they spin too much. Once in the 3d world the camera almost never stops revolving around the characters. If you could i would suggest to rent it but you can only buy it. I wish it was better because i know how long they put into making this.