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As her financial and telekinetic powers increase Jenny Blake
is slowly loosing her mind, paranoia and the pursuit of power
take their toll, driving her further and further into madness.
At stake are the lives of four young women, whose only hope
of salvation lay in the hands of Rosalind Goodway, an ex CIA
agent Campell Lee and Derek Stanton, a retired parapsychologist...
Explode: Power Struggle is the third in a series of films
from Fantomfilms. One of the major problems I had with the
disc was its playability. The fifty minute feature is provided
as a DVD-R, which, whilst it should have had good compatibility
would only play on my computers. All of the stand alone DVD
players really struggled to play the disc with most of them
just refusing.
Shot
for shot, the cinematography isn't half bad, with the composition
often making you forget that this isn't a made for television
show. The soundscape isn't so good though, one would presume
that the makers were restricted to hand held microphones and
a bit of overdubbing, unfortunately this leads to tinny and
somewhat indistinct vocals in large open areas, but is more
acceptable in enclosed spaces.
The
special effects are not extensive, but what there is looks
pretty convincing. The show has an audio track which sounds
very much like The Dave Matthews Band, which is no
bad thing.
As
for the acting, well at times during arguments and other emotionally
charged scenes this works well. The problem is that all the
actors emote, nearly all the time, leading to a lack of overall
texture in the piece, there are few quiet or still moments.
The actors seem to be in constant movement and although I
know little about these fine people I would suspect that they
are more used to theatre acting, where everything has to be
so much bigger.
I
wouldn't suggest that if you are interested in this series
that you don't start with this DVD, not that there is anything
wrong with the narrative, but it seems to rely on the audiences
knowledge of the previous two stories - meaning that, as a
stand alone product, it can be somewhat confusing as to what
is going on.
It sounds like I had a real downer on this story and nothing
could be further from the truth. Sure the production has its
problems but it had the good foundation of a solid script.
The direction was professional, with only a few shots jarring
you out of the story. It was certainly intriguing enough to
pique my interest in seeing the first two in the series.
The
disc has a number of extras for fans of the show including
outtakes, a short, audio and an interview with Ian Fairbairn
(who guest stars in the show) about his early years trying
to break into acting - at a little over ten minutes it ends
just as your getting into it. Included on the disc is a feature
length commentary by the director and one of the cast.
So not a bad effort, very reminiscent of a lot of the shows
that were made following the last cancellation of Doctor
Who. It seems that effort and enthusiasm never died and
I look forward to seeing the crew and cast grow as independent
film makers.
Charles
Packer
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