 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Call Up • Year: 2016 • Country: UK • Director: Charles Barker • Main cast: Morfydd Clark, Max Deacon, Chris Obi • Runtime: 90 minutes • Production company: Red & Black Films, Stigma Films • TRAILER |
Are we living a new golden age of science fiction films? Because in the last years there is a big amount of new filmmakers who have managed to bring their fresh ideas on the table with a big handful of titles. Some of them are new jewels of the genre, like south african District 9 (2009), Inception (2010) or Ex Machina (2015), but there is an infinity of titles who at least can bring something new to the panorama. So while the big studios stay with their un-original remakes and superhero junk, independent studios join forces with new creators with the power of flesh blood with the aim in entertain us instead of bore us with the same old stories. And the incredible advances of technology and CGI are one of their best allies, if you know how to use them right.
This is the case of The Call Up, the first movie by writer director Charles Barker whose previous experience in film was a tiny short movie more than 10 years ago. The plot is quite simple, and could remind you of things one could have already seen: a group of unrelated people accept the offer to experiment with a new virtual reality game. But the game is more real than it could seem at first point and the characters must fight for their lifes. It is like a sort of mix between a mind fucker film like Das Experiment (2001), a marines war zone installment and the videogame world of TRON (1982).
All these things mentioned before sound pretty interesting, I know that. But then, what is the problem with this film? Why is this not in the list of new small jewels of science fiction? Well, although it’s impossible to know from the outside and I am nothing but a mere spectator, I think the problem here was the same as one of the virtues I am highlighting: director Charles Barker was too much of a first timer. Because although the story is very very interesting and visually the movie is excelent, the depiction of the characters, their backgrounds and everything regarding their actions and speeches are very poor. Also, the direction of the actors is very chaotic, and at moments one have the feeling the people on the screen don’t even know what they are doing. And the film suffers too much because of this factor. At moments, trying to create unnecessary tension or drama, the footage becomes unreal, ridiculous and childish. And the actors themselves, besides some interesting performances, are too newbies to be able to save the whole thing.
And this is a real pity, because when I started watching the film I totally got glued to the chair, I was absolutely fascinated by the story. But the attraction didn’t last much and at the end I understood why The Call Up got so low impact and bad reviews. Still, I am glad I watched it. It’s a good story and if he follows this way and gets together with the right people who could advice him well, I expect writer director Charles Barker to deliver sooner or later one of those films that us the science fiction lovers could remember for a long time. This guy has potential, but it’s not well calibrated yet.
RATE: 5,5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3923388
