Chrysalis

This had received very little press in the US distribution market so I was intrigued to see how a French scifi/near future film might fare. And by the time the end credits rolled (to some nice rock/classical themes), I was impressed and surprised this had not reached a larger market.

A futuristic tale of US and Euro security groups working together to confiscate a memory manipulation device before it falls into the wrong hands. The story is told through two undetermined groups of people that have mysterious backgrounds and unknown motives, one in the Paris law enforcement and the other in an unnamed medical facility (reminiscent of a THX1138 kind of color scheme and feel). There is plenty of suspense, competent gun play, well choreographed hand-to-hand fighting, slo-mo camera work, good music, awesome 3D holographic imaging, intrigue as to what is really happening, plot twists and memory loss to go around.

I thought the cast acted quite well, and for the amount of material covered in this piece, played adequately against what could have been a much longer film (and I would not have complained as there are several aspects that could have used more screen time). You will recognize some faces from other more known films like Babylon AD, Irreversible and Carnivale, but I felt the ensemble here was well put together.

The quality of the DVD came across nicely (from a BD to a large plasma) and the sound was mixed best when the music would play in the slo-mo sequences. The DVD docu is 25 minutes long, competently put together and covers all aspects of the production with this relatively unknown director.

Overall, a great film on a solid DVD with good special effects and futuristic visions. Wish this could have gotten a larger release.

A sleek and sophisticated Science Fiction film with a wonderful mix of style, brains, and action-adventure.

This is a French film with subtitles but will appeal to any American fan of intelligent Science Fiction or action movies.

In a near-future Paris, a film-noir-style detective looks for vengance on the man who killed his partner and ends up finding something much more interesting. To reveal more would be to ruin the fun, but I will say that fans of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse TV show may guess part of what is coming.

The story is as intelligent as the best Cinema Science Fiction and engages the mind as well as the nerve endings.

The special effects are classy and stylish and original.

But the coolest thing about this movie are the scenes of hand-to-hand combat. It is bone-crunchingly powerful. Most kung-fu action scenes are as much a dance as anything, with two (or more) smallish guys doing creative moves. This movie shows real, strong, adult, MEN, pounding on one another, trying to kill each other with martial arts. AWESOME!

If you enjoy being the first on your block to see great cinema, or
If you enjoy intelligent Sci-Fi, or
If you love good action films.

SEE THIS MOVIE. THE PRICE ON AMAZON IS VERY INEXPENSIVE COMPARED TO MANY FAR WORSE FILMS.

(1.) I actually was hoping this would be a memorable sci-fi movie based on the cover and the name and trusting the competence of one or two unknown viewers. But as indicated by the following thoughts - I was duped.
(2.) The idea of erasing a person's memory and transferring someone else's memories by flashing images through the eyes has been used several times as a far back as 50's sci-fi. An idea from a sci-fi preliterate period now known to have zero scientific basis and credibility.
(3.) The extent of the sci-fi element in this movie is holding a person still in a chair while a cheap plastic halo flashes images into the subject's eyes. That's it! they never really even show you the process except on a tiny little monitor showing a couple of fuzzy images. That's all the futuristic sci-fi there is. Well, there were some cheap plastic freezer curtains - like you walk through when you're walking into a grocery store cooler. Oh, and they put some plastic fenders on a car to make it look more futuristic.
(4.) The action parts of the film are a couple of fakey martial arts that would leave Asian film producers hilariously rolling on the floor. Most culminated, for some reason, with a few shots from a plain old pistol.
(5.) Worst of all, for all you non-French speaking viewers (and I speak French), is that the English subtitles and audio English language translations do not match each other nor do they match the original French dialogue (and French is an easy language to translate into English). Even the people chosen for voiceovers were disturbingly out of character.