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Dante 01 (2008)
Prior to it’s release on DVD I had never heard of “Dante 01" and wasn’t sure what I was getting into other than the fact that it was a modern Sci-Fi film. The only thing that rang a bell with me was the fact that it was directed by Marc Caro who was the co-director of “The City of Lost Children” which is a pretty well received fantasy film from 1995. Considering I’ve never seen “The City of Lost Children” either I was really curious to see what “Dante 01" was all about.
“Dante 01" take place in the future in deep space in which a new prisoner was just brought into the facility and more specifically the unit titled the same as the film. The Dante 01 unit is known for it’s study of the human psyche as well as it’s human experiments. The prisoner is known as Saint Georges and has some very strange powers. He can perform what is seemingly miracle after miracle after a violent outbreak in the facility leads to prisoner death. As the inmates start to die during the violence, he manages to have some sort of power that brings them back to life. As the scientists notice this they honestly have no idea what to think, other than they need to figure out what he’s doing and how they can use that for their benefit. But little do they realize that regardless of their level of scientific expertise that they are no match for the powers of Saint Georges.
The film manages to be a rather complex and complicated little film, but it’s unique and interesting story manage to add another dimension to the film. First off there are tons of computer generated images in the film, something that typically doesn’t annoy me in Sci-Fi films. But in “Dante 01" these images are much more impressive than in your usual Sci-Fi fare. They are almost to the point of being psychedelic and make the movie somewhat like an artists painting sprawled all over a movie screen. This is extremely cool and it makes me think that this is a Sci-Fi film we might see popping up all over the world at Midnight screenings.
The story of “Dante 01" is interesting to a point, but unfortunately gets jumbled along throughout the film’s running time. The imagery is strong and will definitely capture the attention of the viewer, which is a good thing because the story drags a bit too much to keep your attention all on it’s own. The movie itself only has a running time of 82 minutes, which is good because if it were any more it would have been quite taxing to get through. The thing that strikes me as very odd though is after watching the movie, it seems a lot longer than it is and not by a little bit either.
The acting in the film is alright, with nothing really notable to speak of as there is more emphasis on the visuals in the movie than long drawn out emotional scenes. Most of the people here are generally emotionless, outside of one scientist working at Dante 01, which isn’t used much outside of a plot device with a new scientist on the ship. I thought they could have used this much better in the film but like I said, it’s more about the visuals here than a great plot.
Overall I would say that “Dante 01" has some great computer effects and attempts to be a movie all on it’s own without relying on other films that have been made. That’s probably the best compliment I can give the movie considering it’s still nothing extremely great. It’s an unusual film that will certainly find an audience on DVD, but it’s not reinventing the wheel and it won’t change the way Sci-Fi films are made from this point forward. It’s something a little different than what most film fans are used to seeing, so you might want to check it out on that alone.
Rating - **1/2
-Ed Demko
