Top of Sidebar
Mission Statement
Do It Yourself Tips and Tricks
Books, Equipment, Software, and Training Reviews
Film Critiques
Community Section
Savings and Links
Editorials
Archives
Bottom of Sidebar
Back to the Home Page
   Rough Cut Critique: 
   The Ethereal Plane

   Director:
Clarke M. Smith
   Expected Rating: PG-13 due to profanity
   Distribution: No Exclusive Distribution
   Budget: $7,000
   Genre: Sci-Fi

   Running Time: 81 minutes

   Release Dates: February 2002 (Director's
                            View Film Festival)
   Website: Time Axis Media
   Trailer: Click Here
   Review Date: March 15, 2005
   Reviewed By: Jeremy Hanke
Final Score:
7.0

The plot of The Ethereal Plane revolves around a mysterious device that was discovered near Area 51 in New Mexico. A remnant of an alien species, the device allows time to be paused or reversed at will. Because this is such a dangerous technology in the hands of an already secret portion of the government, one man escapes with the device, intending to use it to correct what other shadow organizations are doing with similar devices. As such, he sneaks into its storage hanger and pauses time. With time safely on pause, he escapes the confines of the base.

Eventually, when things get too hot, the AWOL agent passes the device to his nephew, Harrison, who in turn hands it over to a college friend named Kayla to hold on to. When Harrison is beaten up and stabbed by rival agents who try and get the device's location out of him, he manages to temporarily get free and hide himself behind a dumpster. It is here that white-collar software salesman, Damon Taylor, stumbles upon Harrison on his way to get lunch. Harrison urgently gives Damon the phone number and password for Kayla, telling him to figure out the device so that he can come back and save him. Moments later, the agents find Harrison and Damon and open fire. While Damon is able to get away, Harrison is shot and killed. When Damon finally gets his hands on the device, he slowly learns how he can use the device to return to the past with his memories intact and combat the secret government agency.

While the story premise does sound a bit like a cross between a typical 'Stargate SG-1' episode and The Matrix, the actual writing was pretty good and interesting. There's even a rather clever trick ending that works well with the storyline and was really well implemented. With this film, Clarke M. Smith is striving to show us that sci-fi action films don't always need to be in the realm of big budgets. He has attempted some amazingly complex effects, from green screen compositing to time warping to a semi-bullet time.

Is he successful? Yes and no. There are some really cool things that Mr. Smith does right, and there are some problems that need to be corrected for this to be a film that can really stand on its own. As this is a rough cut, there is definitely potential for a lot of problems to be repaired by the final cut. With that said, let's delve into what works and what still needs work.

When sales drone, Damon Taylor,
leaves to go grab some lunch...
...he ends up finding himself on
the run from these guys!

Content
The chief problem that The Ethereal Plane ran into was in trying to show too much on too limited a budget. There's nothing wrong with implying things if showing them is going to be problematic. However, since this relates to the visual look of the film, we'll specifically look at these issues in that section.

From a general content regard, the editing could stand to be tightened, especially in the dialogue situations in the beginning. In order to keep an audience interested, camera cuts need to streamline conversations rather than showing them exactly as they actually occurred. There were a number of situations where a cut would go from one character to another, and the second character would pause for a second or fumble before saying his or her line. This causes flaws in acting and drama to become very noticeable, whereas a faster editing style prevents people from paying attention to things you'd rather them ignore.

The characters of Damon Taylor and Harrison are quite believable for the majority of the film, even when they act alongside some of the less compelling characters in the film. Harrison especially manages to bring a nice touch of comic relief and manages to deliver his speech on the origin of life on this planet in pretty believable manner, which is impressive due to the length and depth of the speech.

On the other hand, Kayla's character is a bit problematic. It's difficult to believe in who she is because the character stays strangely bewildered for most of the movie. It's hard to believe that she is a friend Harrison would have entrusted the machine to, as she doesn't seem to be connecting with the danger she's in or with the gravity of the situation.

Finally, after the film concludes, bloopers from the film start playing while the credits are rolling. While these blooper reels looked professional and would have been appropriate in a slapstick Jackie Chan film, they are very out of place on a film that is designed to be a sci-fi/action adventure film; it ends up having the viewer take the film less seriously because it wraps up on a comedic note.

[Note to the Director: I would strongly encourage you to, instead, put bloopers in the extra features of the DVD and not as part of the credits, unless your film was intended to be a sci-fi parody. If that's the case, then some editing changes and alternate audio effects need to be implemented in the rest of the film to show this.]

Mission | Tips & Tricks | Equipment & Software Reviews | Film Critiques
Groups & Community | Links & Savings
| Home


Contact Us Search Submit Films for Critique