First of all; Nooooooooo, not another found footage flick! But secondly; OK, it was not all that bad!
I admit that the main reason why I'm truly getting fed up with the found footage genre is simply because I get to see far more found footage flicks than, lets say, the average person. But then again, there is only so much you can do with the concept, so it continues to surprises me that there are still so film-makers out there who deliberately pick a found footage approach, despite its many limitations and the fact that it's hard to stand out within the genre, nowadays.
Thing with this movie however is that it never really feels or looks like a found footage movie. Not really sure yet if that's a positive or negative thing to say about this movie. On the one hand it's a positive thing, since a very shaky and grainy, shot with an 1940's camera, found footage movie, would have been a very hard thing to watch of course. But on the other hand, what the point of using a found footage approach, if you're not willing to go all out on it. It's somewhat distracting that this, at all times, remains a perfectly clear looking movie, with perfectly framed shots, which doesn't exactly adds to the movie its credibility.
But then again, how serious should you take a WW II movie involving zombots in the first place? Yes, zombots. Super-soldiers stitched together from body parts and 'household appliances'. Seems that someone has played a few too many Wolfenstein games! It's a bit ridicules all, I mean, a soldier with a plane engine for a head? Doesn't seem all that practical to me but at least it's all fun and cool to look at. The creature design is definitely the best aspect about the movie, which the movie itself also seems to realize, all too well. It thrives on its creatures and also soon starts to abandon any form of story. once the characters enter the secret Nazi lab.But really, as far as WW II movies involving science-fiction and horror type of aspects go, this actually is one of the better and more enjoyable ones. It's a big grievance of mine that, despite sounding perfectly awesome and fun, there still isn't a very good WW II movie out there that uses creatures in it. "Hellboy" came close, "Død snø" came close and this movie comes close as well. Guess it's hard to find the right balance between entertainment and horror. Most genre movies go either too far, in terms of its silliness, or they take themselves too seriously. This movie, for most part, feels pretty well balanced, though it still definitely goes a bit too far at times with some of its situations and designs.
One of the other things that's keeping the movie down is its acting. Bad acting can always ruin a lot but especially for a found footage movie of course. Actors can make certain situations work out, no matter how unlikely or ridicules. That's clearly never the case with this movie though. The characters in this movie never freak out in a convincing way and there is never any sense of panic or despair, which is a total killer for this movie its tension. The characters more often deliberately walk into danger, rather than trying to make it out alive and in one piece. Definitely weird and annoying and it also makes it hard to ever feel involved with any of the events or characters of the movie.
Oh well, at least I still had fun watching this movie. Of course it's not a perfect or brilliant one and it even is a far from great movie (too amateurish as well for that in parts) but what else did you expect from a movie featuring a concept such as this one? As long as you don't pay too much attention to detail and don't take this movie too seriously or have too high expectations for it, you'll most likely still have a good and fun time watching it.
6/10
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