Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight guys, I'm taking a look at a Sci-Fi movie from 2007. That movie is "The Gene Generation".
I'm gonna tell you, guys, I literally know almost nothing about this movie. I hadn't even heard of it until I stumbled upon it at a video store in Colorado and decided to pick it up, thinking that it would make for a decent episode for Reaction & Review.Now the plot, from what I read on the back, is about an assassin whose trying to save her brother from a group of DNA hackers in an underground world. Which sounds like something I would expect from a Sci-Fi movie.
Speaking of DNA hackers, according to the front cover of the DVD, this movie inspired a comic book series known as "The DNA Hacker Chronicles". Which, like this movie, I have never even heard of that comic book series. However, the special features for this movie include a digital copy of the 1st volume of "The DNA Hacker Chronicles". So if I wind up enjoying the movie, I may take a look at the comic.
But I'm not here to discuss the comic. I'm here to cover this movie. I really wish I could tell you more about this movie, but I can't. I haven't seen a trailer, or any clips of the movie, so I'm going into this one completely blind. I am hoping for it to be good, but the only way I will know if this movie will be any good or not, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Gene Generation".
4 minutes later
All right, guys, the movie's just started, and I can tell you, at least so far, that the CG looks almost as if it came from a PlayStation 1 cutscene. It looks...really noticeable. I certainly hope that the story will make up for the questionable CG that I've seen so far.
18 minutes later
You know, guys, it's weird. This movie just had an action scene that was suppose to be cool, and it ended up being kinda dull. I'm certainly hoping for this movie to get better as the film goes along. But, so far, I kinda have my doubts.
4 minutes later
Well, guys, this movie teaches you a very valuable lesson. If you don't want to pay for a scumbag's medical bills, you just shoot them in the head. That is a lesson to fucking learn, guys.
12 minutes later
You know what? I'm kinda happy this guy left Jackie. Because Jackie has been incredibly unlikable since he first appeared on-screen, and I seriously hope he gets what's coming to him by the time this movie is done.
3 minutes later
So, hold on a minute here. So Jackie has Randall on his knees after getting the device back that Randall stole. Instead of just walking back slowly with the device, he just kicks him and...oh NOW they start shooting at him! My god. I was going to start questioning the intelligence of Randall's henchmen, but no, at least they have some sort of a functioning brain.
17 minutes later
You know, guys, I'd be willing to be care about anything that's been going on right now, but I can't. I can't care about the lifeless romantic relationship our two characters are sharing, or Jackie getting his shit kicked in, because this movie has been really boring. I kinda hope the last half hour or so will get better, but right now, my doubts are already caving in, guys.
10 minutes later
I swear to god, guys, the CG, every time I see these panning shots of Olympia, looks awful. And the sooner that this movie gets closer to the end, the less I will have to see the terrible CG in this movie.
11 minutes later
Well, guys, I finally called it. Jackie is now dead. And I couldn't be fucking happier. Unfortunately, there is still about 20 minutes of movie left, but hey, at least one of my predictions came true, so I have to give myself props there.
The Review
Thank god it's over. Well, guys, that was "The Gene Generation". I'm gonna shut that crap off...OK. My god. Where the hell to even start? Well, I guess I should say that, going into this movie, I wasn't sure if I would be, at all, interested in checking out "The DNA Hacker Chronicles" comic book series. And after watching this, I kinda dread even thinking about going anywhere near those books. This movie was just awful. Well, why don't we cover the writing first.
The story had some level of promise. It really did. Buried beneath this...thing, the story, in the hands of a competent writer, could've been amazing. Speaking of writer, I was checking to see who wrote this movie, and I found out that there were two people who wrote the script for this movie. Those names are Zhang Ping Li and Keith Collea, who also produced this movie. I am convinced that one, or either both of them, don't know how to write decent characters. Which leads to my biggest problem, at least in terms of writing, is that we have characters who have almost no personality to speak of. Why don't I go over the more notable characters that stuck out at me.
We have our leading character, Michelle, who is an assassin that targets DNA hackers. She does this so that she can get herself and her brother, Jackie, out of Olympia, so that they can start a new life together. She really has no personality to speak of because her character is basically a boring assassin who is constantly trying to warn her brother to stop gambling away their life savings, and she later has a romantic relationship with Christian. The problem is that, like Michelle, Christian has all the personality of dried wood. I'll get to him in just a moment.
Jackie is, honestly, the only character who has some kind of character. Besides being Michelle's brother, he is out drinking and getting himself into trouble because he gambled away their savings so that they can have more money. Thus he turns to a gang of loan sharks so that he can borrow the money he just gambled away from them. And so, he, and a friend who is with him, has to pay back the money within 3 days or bad shit will happen to him. And the movie tries, in vain, to make you care about his struggles, but it fails in doing so, because Jackie is unlikable from the start, and after the shit he does to get the money back, you really don't care about what happens to him. And, as a slight spoiler, he dies. And you might've noticed during the movie that I was hoping that he would end up getting what was coming to him, and, what do you know, I called it. Because Jackie was an irritating piece of shit.
And then we have Christian, who, outside of having no personality, is responsible for creating a device known as the transcoder, which is the device that Jackie tries to steal so that he could sell it for some money. The closest thing that we had to any background for Christian's character was that he had a girlfriend or a wife, the movie isn't really clear on that, when he was looking at a photo of it near the beginning of the movie. And as for the romantic relationship with Michelle, well, it comes the fuck out of nowhere. OK, so it starts out when Michelle drags her brother home after he got into some trouble. She realizes that she and her brother are being followed, and thus kicks Christian in the head, and says that he would be unconscious for 36 hours. I'm not totally sure how she came to that conclusion, but that really doesn't matter. Anyway, after sometime, the two start having a romantic relationship, and it doesn't work, because these two have no connection with each other and it comes off as if one, or both, of the writers wanted to add in some half-assed relationship between our two characters because fuck you, that's why.
Now, all of this could've been avoided had we gotten more of a background on our characters. With Jackie, at least they sorta tried with him. They failed, but bless them, at least they tried. But both Michelle and Christian have, not only some of the worst chemistry I've seen in a movie in a long time, but their personalities are almost non-existent. Well, in the case, of Christian, his is completely non-existent. So, the writing here could've been done better, had our characters some level of personality to speak of.
What about the acting? Well, the acting here is okay. None of it is going to win any awards, but most of the cast was able to turn in some halfway decent showings. There is one, though, that I do have to mention. And that is Daniel Zacapa, who plays the head of these loan sharks. He's the only one in this movie who turns in a bad showing, especially when he has to yell some of his lines. Because when he is doing so, it comes across as if he's trying to ham up his lines. But you see, it only works if he didn't pause for, like, a second to yell his lines. Because then he's trying to force it to be funny, and it fails there, because the script he was given was just awful. I will give him credit for trying outshine the rest of the cast, but unfortunately, it didn't really work, thus he is the one actor in this movie who turns in the worst showing.
But now let's get to the biggest problem with this movie. And that is the special effects...oh boy. First of all, I want to touch upon one of the minor ones, which is the use of digital blood. I've already talked, in the past, about how digital blood mostly looks like shit. And it's no exception here. Because whenever Michelle has to fire her gun, you will see blood splatters that will splash onto the camera, and then you'll have a shot of one of the dead targets from Michelle. As she's leaving the scene, the dead guy's squirting a ton of blood from his body, and it looks like shit, because all of it is digital blood. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Digital blood, 90 percent of the time, almost never looks good. And I wish filmmakers would just use practical blood instead, because it honestly can't cost that much to use practical blood. Now beyond the use of digital blood, we have a ton of establishing shots of Olympia. And I'm going to tell you right now, damn near all of it is CG, and that wouldn't be so bad, except the CG looks like it came out of a PlayStation 1 cutscene. Actually, no, to compare the CG in this movie to a PlayStation 1 cutscene is a terrible insult to the PlayStation 1. No, this shit looks like it came out of a SEGA CD cutscene. Process that for just a moment! This movie came out in 2007. By that time, we had all three of the Star Wars prequels. And as horrible as those movies were, they were able to show you how to do CG right. This shit would've looked terrible if this movie came out in 1997. It's just, my god, how do you make CG that looks this horrible and thought it looked good by 2007 standards?
Now I could be here for hours talking about the horrible CG, but I need to move on to the technical stuff. Camerawork here is pretty good, the lighting is well lit, the music...eh, the music is completely forgettable, as is the score, but at least the score is serviceable for what it is. The sound-mix, at times, is kinda off. Because we some characters who give out this oddball voice filter. I don't know if that was just because the sound editor added them in to make it look as though it was a futuristic movie, or if that's how they were written. But anyway, the sound-mix beyond that is mixed well enough.
So, really guys, the two things that brings this movie down is our characters and our lackluster story. And because of those two things, I cannot recommend "The Gene Generation". Because, beyond the characters, the movie is also boring as shit, thus giving me no reason to care about what went on in the movie. If you want a better Sci-Fi movie, I would totally recommend something such as "Starship Troopers", because not only did it have better writing, and better characters, it also had better special effects. And do you know what the kicker is? "Starship Troopers" came out in 1997. And when a movie from 10 years before this movie is able to outdo you in special effects, then you have failed somewhere in life. Now, I think I'm going to go get some rest, because this movie was just that dull.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
Now, all of this could've been avoided had we gotten more of a background on our characters. With Jackie, at least they sorta tried with him. They failed, but bless them, at least they tried. But both Michelle and Christian have, not only some of the worst chemistry I've seen in a movie in a long time, but their personalities are almost non-existent. Well, in the case, of Christian, his is completely non-existent. So, the writing here could've been done better, had our characters some level of personality to speak of.
What about the acting? Well, the acting here is okay. None of it is going to win any awards, but most of the cast was able to turn in some halfway decent showings. There is one, though, that I do have to mention. And that is Daniel Zacapa, who plays the head of these loan sharks. He's the only one in this movie who turns in a bad showing, especially when he has to yell some of his lines. Because when he is doing so, it comes across as if he's trying to ham up his lines. But you see, it only works if he didn't pause for, like, a second to yell his lines. Because then he's trying to force it to be funny, and it fails there, because the script he was given was just awful. I will give him credit for trying outshine the rest of the cast, but unfortunately, it didn't really work, thus he is the one actor in this movie who turns in the worst showing.
But now let's get to the biggest problem with this movie. And that is the special effects...oh boy. First of all, I want to touch upon one of the minor ones, which is the use of digital blood. I've already talked, in the past, about how digital blood mostly looks like shit. And it's no exception here. Because whenever Michelle has to fire her gun, you will see blood splatters that will splash onto the camera, and then you'll have a shot of one of the dead targets from Michelle. As she's leaving the scene, the dead guy's squirting a ton of blood from his body, and it looks like shit, because all of it is digital blood. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Digital blood, 90 percent of the time, almost never looks good. And I wish filmmakers would just use practical blood instead, because it honestly can't cost that much to use practical blood. Now beyond the use of digital blood, we have a ton of establishing shots of Olympia. And I'm going to tell you right now, damn near all of it is CG, and that wouldn't be so bad, except the CG looks like it came out of a PlayStation 1 cutscene. Actually, no, to compare the CG in this movie to a PlayStation 1 cutscene is a terrible insult to the PlayStation 1. No, this shit looks like it came out of a SEGA CD cutscene. Process that for just a moment! This movie came out in 2007. By that time, we had all three of the Star Wars prequels. And as horrible as those movies were, they were able to show you how to do CG right. This shit would've looked terrible if this movie came out in 1997. It's just, my god, how do you make CG that looks this horrible and thought it looked good by 2007 standards?
Now I could be here for hours talking about the horrible CG, but I need to move on to the technical stuff. Camerawork here is pretty good, the lighting is well lit, the music...eh, the music is completely forgettable, as is the score, but at least the score is serviceable for what it is. The sound-mix, at times, is kinda off. Because we some characters who give out this oddball voice filter. I don't know if that was just because the sound editor added them in to make it look as though it was a futuristic movie, or if that's how they were written. But anyway, the sound-mix beyond that is mixed well enough.
So, really guys, the two things that brings this movie down is our characters and our lackluster story. And because of those two things, I cannot recommend "The Gene Generation". Because, beyond the characters, the movie is also boring as shit, thus giving me no reason to care about what went on in the movie. If you want a better Sci-Fi movie, I would totally recommend something such as "Starship Troopers", because not only did it have better writing, and better characters, it also had better special effects. And do you know what the kicker is? "Starship Troopers" came out in 1997. And when a movie from 10 years before this movie is able to outdo you in special effects, then you have failed somewhere in life. Now, I think I'm going to go get some rest, because this movie was just that dull.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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