Alone in the Dark (2005)

 

A film that starts with an Opening scroll, then a scene in the past to reenforce it and then a main character voice over seems to be saying there is way too much information needed to understand what is to follow. Followed by a car chase and fist fight to establish our main character Edward Carnby as a bad-ass. He is a Indiana Jones for the supernatural objects  and there are people who want what be has obtained. There is this plot where an ancient Indian tribe, as read in the scroll, once opened a gate to an evil dimension and then closed it when something got through. Now in modern day there are people hoping to get the object necessary to open that gate again.

  Where the flashback scene was about one kid escaping an institute that was doing experiments on them we can probably guess that 22 years later we can assume all the adults we meet of a certain age might be the children from that scene. When the evil is released, they are all activated, but we don't know for what purpose. The two object found by Carnby and the one Professor Hudgens look like they go together, so pretty much we know what is going on. The continued voice over explaining the film as it progresses is just lazy film making and we are only 15 minutes into the film.

 Tara Reid costars in the film as Aline the assistant to Dr. Hudgens who turns out to be quite the evil fuck, and Reid is also the love interest of the lead. She is not my favorite actress coming across a bit canned in her delivery at times but she is game for the action that spews all through this film. She is stuck in a video game film that has a shitload to explain.

  The other supporting actor is Stephen Dourff who plays the angry controlling leader of the secret government agency 713. He is he actually improves the lines he has at first coming across as just another angry idiot competing with the lead as a tough guy. Later we see though he can use an expression to get a subtilty into the role. 

  There is so much video game violence in this film that the stakes of it are lost. Lots of xenomorph dog like creatures and there screamer like sand worm entities leave a lot to be desired. Relentless they a turn of the century relic of a developing CGI that had not yet hit it's prime. The film made in 2005 for an estimated 20 million dollars only made 12 million worldwide and was seen as a failure. Still it did get a sequel in 2008. This is an objectively confusing and bad film. Directed by Uwe Boll who has a reputation for directing duds the film seems to have a hard time being coherent. I am not even sure with all the voice over and exposition that I know what the plot was. Evil Dr Hudgen's wants to bring evil creatures into the world and is stopped by the kid who got away? Something like that with a downer ending that leaves us setup for the sequel.