"DarkWeb" is the sort of pointless,convoluted, nihilistic mess that makes you wonder if maybe the invention of film as a story telling medium was a bad idea.
OK, it's not that bad. But it misses that mark by not very much.
My reaction to this film is the same as Roger Ebert's when he had to review movies like "Chaos" before he passed away from this mortal coil: Why was this film made? What was the point of rubbing our noses in all this grim heartlessness and sadism? Were the film makers trying remind us that there are human monsters out there? We KNEW that.
Add some pretty amateurish acting and dubbing here and there; massive overuse of a few digital CGI techniques that are apparently supposed to remind us that, hey, all the participants are on camera, and we are the voyeurs; individual character actions and decisions that make no sense in context; and a gratuitously mean stinger ending that both robs audience of any sense of release AND goes on two minutes too long...and you've got a turd of a screenplay that you don't need to see.
Oh, yeah, Danny Glover is in this. But he's a talking head appearing on a TV screen. And even as a talking head, he's not very good (I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, as I doubt any actor could have done well under the circumstances.) And Oliver Grunier is also in this; he's OK, given that 90% of his role is glowering and looking grim and swearing revenge.(Again, I think he did what he could with his part and the role).
I gave this three stars in spite of my reaction to it, because: the movie begins with a burst of energy as a para-military convoy rolls across deserted countryside accompanied by urgent orchestra music on the soundtrack; because I like Oliver Grunier and wish he could have been given more to do; because the young blonde woman who is the object of the hunt is quite statuesque and striking and the camera loves her; and because I think the film makers made the film they wanted to make, and even if I hate it, I recognize that a lot of work went into it.
But don't waste your time with this one unless it's late at night and you're fairly drunk and in a really weird, hate-the-world mood.
OK, it's not that bad. But it misses that mark by not very much.
My reaction to this film is the same as Roger Ebert's when he had to review movies like "Chaos" before he passed away from this mortal coil: Why was this film made? What was the point of rubbing our noses in all this grim heartlessness and sadism? Were the film makers trying remind us that there are human monsters out there? We KNEW that.
Add some pretty amateurish acting and dubbing here and there; massive overuse of a few digital CGI techniques that are apparently supposed to remind us that, hey, all the participants are on camera, and we are the voyeurs; individual character actions and decisions that make no sense in context; and a gratuitously mean stinger ending that both robs audience of any sense of release AND goes on two minutes too long...and you've got a turd of a screenplay that you don't need to see.
Oh, yeah, Danny Glover is in this. But he's a talking head appearing on a TV screen. And even as a talking head, he's not very good (I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, as I doubt any actor could have done well under the circumstances.) And Oliver Grunier is also in this; he's OK, given that 90% of his role is glowering and looking grim and swearing revenge.(Again, I think he did what he could with his part and the role).
I gave this three stars in spite of my reaction to it, because: the movie begins with a burst of energy as a para-military convoy rolls across deserted countryside accompanied by urgent orchestra music on the soundtrack; because I like Oliver Grunier and wish he could have been given more to do; because the young blonde woman who is the object of the hunt is quite statuesque and striking and the camera loves her; and because I think the film makers made the film they wanted to make, and even if I hate it, I recognize that a lot of work went into it.
But don't waste your time with this one unless it's late at night and you're fairly drunk and in a really weird, hate-the-world mood.