Review of After (2012) by Robie S — 29 Jul 2015

Hello, I have finally just finished watching After (2012) Directed and Written by Ryan Smith, now I am warning they will be spoilers involved.

Here is a brief plot of the story: We start by with our two main characters Ana and Freddy, they are both on a bus heading back home. The bus ends up crashing. Freddy and Ana both wake up to their home town disappearing with the mysterious black clouds heading their way and a ugly looking creature raiding the town both Ana and Freddy has to figure out what had happened to them, how they both connect and how to get out of there.

Now that?s just a little brief what it is about now lets get starting in what I thought about it.

Story line: I loved the story line, I thought it was interesting and it was the biggest thing that I enjoyed with the film, *spoilers* I like the concept of being in a coma and the character waking up unknowingly that they where in a coma now some films do have that kind of story and there is a indie game that had that kind of story too however this one brought connections to both of the characters. I enjoyed the memories scenes where you get to see both of them as children and how they bump into each other as kids. It wasn?t the greatest of story lines but it was interesting.

Characters: Now both of the actors who played Freddy (Steven Strait) and Ana (Karolina Wydra) where pretty decent actors however I felt Freddy character was pretty good the way he tried to help and coming up with ideas he seemed to work things out pretty quickly and stayed calm most of the time. Now Ana started out as a good character however halfway through she was moaning and complaining half the time though her character did get better again near the end of the film which I enjoyed. Not the greatest of characters but where pretty decent and I think Ana could of been written better.

Effects: The film was on a low budget of $650,000, the effects was not the greatest it seemed most has gone into the creature, the creature design was pretty cool and unique but the animations seemed a little off along side our main characters. When the characters enters the clouds / mist they used torches they had a lens flare on top of a torch light personally I did not like it, it seemed odd to me also there was a lot of wind now Freddy?s jacket stayed still for the entirety of it (jacket was lose it should of been blowing with the wind). Overall the effects could of been better but to be fair on them they where on a low budget and I think most of the budget did went on the creature.

Overall: The main thing I loved about this film is the story line, Freddy?s character and the design of the creature which was pretty cool as you meet the creature nearer to the end of the film. Didn?t like the effects I thought it was pretty poor and Ana character could of been written better.

Final thoughts: Doesn?t need a sequel, for being on a low budget I think the film did well however like I said the effects where pretty poor in my eyes. Story line was fantastic, characters was pretty good. If I had to rate it out of 10 I give it a 5.