Interceptor [Blu-ray]

If you enjoyed Matrix then this movie will ring a lot of the same bells: a potential saviour doesn't know his own potential and has to break through his disbelief in order to wipe out the bad guys who possess normal folks.
There's a lot of wire-work martial-style hand fighting and some nifty bullet dodging, plus a surreal fantasy city where the good guys earnestly debate how they're going to save the world while only working through their soldiers -- and the hero is one of those, known as Interceptors. He has to intercept the aliens, who are represented by gruesome manga-esque organic spikes and strands which pierce limbs and brains, skewering their puppets into submission. On top of all that there's a plot to unleash devasting weaponry upon an unsuspecting planet. And it's all very Russian.
We struggled to quite grasp all the details; from the opening sequences where the intro rushes by too fast to read, the plot is somewhat confused and garbled. After watching and chatting, I'm not convinced it holds up... but the experience was enjoyable enough and a very entertaining alternative to by-the-numbers American action movies. Some interesting visuals and effects, plus a very good stunt or two with the cars. Creative, even if not particularly coherant. (I'm sure it made more sense in Russian...)
Not a film I'd ever bother to watch again, so I'm glad we rented.
7/10

A front runner for the most incomprehensible film of the 21st century, Russian scifi actioner The Interceptor is a confused cross between Night Watch and The Matrix that never bothers to properly explain its premise, introduce the characters or come up with a remotely coherent plot in its hurry to get to the next stylised but disjointed action scene filled with slo-mo explosions. Even the opening introductory captions fade in and out before you can read them (it's even a problem on freeze frame), but it roughly boils down to the forces of light and darkness fighting a battle on Earth between an oligarch-cum-psychotropic arms dealer (who has a tendency to go into spasms as otherwise invisible roots penetrate his body to communicate with him) and his ex-partner who survives falling from an exploding plane and looks a little bit like a young Yul Brynner with a marine buzz cut. Throw in some vigilantes, a plot to destabilise Russia to allow a strong man to take over, the odd ex-girlfriend, some cod philosophy and a fallen angel figure, all shot in lovingly over-exposed and desaturated colour, and the result is the kind of confused mess that you'd get if a teenage videogame fan was given a lot of money to make a well wicked movie. A lot of noise, a lot of explosions but not much sense and not much entertainment value either. A decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with English subtitles, but the only extra is a trailer.

(Possible spoilers, but only in explaining the basics)

Some loquacious statements fill the screen as The Interceptor begins, but they generally amount to the fact that Earth is about to be invaded by aliens.

A man who's been shot - Matvey (Igor Petrenko, right) - detonates the plane he's just been on and jumps out at the last minute, landing in a forest. He's a good guy and the powers that be need him to go after Kurylo (Alexander Baluev), his ex-partner, now a bigwig who's running for government. It's a typical case of "Only one man can stop him!"

The world looks very futuristic and clinical, even though it is only 2013, and set in Moscow, so there's not a chance of it looking like that by then! We learn that the plane contained a psychotropic prototype weapon and that there's a weird force, like spidery strands of blood, appearing and sticking through people (below). Also, there was a Russian incident where what looked like a huge laser zapped through an area and killed loads of people with snazzy CGI, which turned out to be a more advanced version of this prototype weapon.

Matvey, his partner, Ivakin (Andrey Chyubchenko) and a meathead called Gorshin (Valdimir Vdovichenkov) are the ones who end up having to go after a syndicate called "Stop Crime", radical group executing heads of state, so they certainly aren't stopping any crime. Matvey also hangs out with redheaded lesbian photographer, Polina (Liusov Tokalina), who reminds him of someone in his past, while she's on the trail of Kurylo. And since she's a lesbian, what's the betting he has sex with her to make her straight, hmm?

The film has futuristic backdrops, but in an opening shot, it's clearly a painted one rather than CGI and looks... well, rather odd. In fact, not much of this film makes any sense. It's a case of "nice effects, shame about the plot and writing". It feels like it's trying to be the Russian equivalent of The Transporter with its slomo special FX, flash Audi cars, plus car chase and fight scenes. Hence, this film's hero has a similarly monikered title of The Interceptor.

There's some neat direction on occasion, such as when he has a gun put to his head while in his car, at one point, but such moments are few and far between.

By the end, you've stopped caring about much of what's going on and when he starts fighting all this spidery stuff, it looks like a trailer from the '80s about fighting against plaque, or something else health-based.

Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, the picture is flawless throughout which really does perfect justice to the often-stunning visuals and crisp futuristic appearance. If you did enjoy this film, somehow, then you can be safe in the knowledge this transfer couldn't be any better. For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.

As for the sound, this this in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio, or DTS 5.1 for those, like me, without the full technical dohickey. Like the picture, this is spot-on too. Whether it's gunfire, explosions or lots of fighting, it's got it sorted. The rest of the time, the ambience flows nicely too.

As for the extras, well, there's one - a trailer (2:08), in anamorphic 2.35:1.

The menu mixes clips from the film with a plot device, for a short time. There are English subtitles but the Chaptering is, again for Optimum, appalling with just 12 over the 94-minute running time.

Film: 4/10
Picture: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Extras: 1/10

Overall: 6/10