Review of Renaissance (2006) by The Golden Jackal — 17 Aug 2010

A colossal disappointment given my expectations...

The Good:

The concept for the film deserves praise. The style of the film was definitely original and for a good amount of the movie it was cool to look at.

The story is entertaining and has a lot that sci-fi fans will like. From corrupt corporations to Scientists meddling with the laws of nature, the story had a lot of potential!

The voice acting by Daniel Craig, Ian Holm, Jonathan Pryce and all the others was on point and really added to the film.

The Bad:

Essentially the film being shot in black in white was nothing more then a gimmick. This becomes clear after about the first 30 minutes when the movie REALLY starts to drag. I am very open minded to all types of animation and always try to look for something to like, but this one was a big disappointment! It wasn't enough that the movie was in black and white, the director decided to make it so shadowy that after a while it's hard to keep your eyes on the movie. Everything looks exactly the same and if you don't force yourself to pay attention I guarantee you will loose focus. There were many times where I wished that there was color. I have seen many black and white films that are executed properly and not once have I felt I wanted to see color, however, in the world of Renaissance I felt deprived! Such a wonderful, intriguing, and interesting world, but one could not truly appreciated because it was absurdly dark!

The story was interesting but it was stretched out way too long. For a good 25-30 minutes in the middle of the movie I was literally bored out of my mind. It does pick up but then lets up and then again gets good at the end. The movie should have had a run time of 90 minutes or less. To think they could pull off a nearly two hour long film like this was in the least pretentious. To really bring the point home, it seems it would have made for a better short film then a feature length film.

On top of everything, the characters were very one dimensional and poorly developed. Which just goes to show where the directors intentions were. He cared more about making sure his gimmick wouldn't be seen as a gimmick, then giving the audience a good story with interesting characters.

Overall:

The concept and style for the film deserve recognition but the overall execution was disappointing. The run time could have been cut by at least 20 minutes, and the story and characters lack substance and development.