"Found footage" has long become a misbegotten gimmick, so abused and ill-considered as to virtually guarantee that it will vitiate and bleed dry any project that relies on the technique...
Particularly when, as here, its main purpose is to pad meager scripts with numbingly endless variations of "Is this thing on? Is it filming? Are you filming me? Can you see me? Am I on film? Are you sure it's on? How do you know it's on? Is it still on? What about now? Is it still filming? Okay, turn it off. Did you turn it off? Is it off? You're not filming now, are you?", followed by the camera breaking, going dark, and magically fixing itself for a few more minutes of "Is this thing working again? Is it on? Are you sure it's on? Okay, turn it off. Is it off?"
FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY is sadly true to form, and nearly sunk by the cheap trickery.
A pity since, given tighter editing and writing, the movie could have become an over-the-top cult classic. As it is, brilliantly executed steampunk monsters, a wealth of fantasy gore details, and a loopy performance by Karel Roden's mad scientist enliven the premise of an utterly undisciplined WWII Soviet recon unit lured into a bunker brimming with cyborg Nazistein monsters, and make the film's final half- hour obsessive and funny enough to rescue it from being a complete debacle.
Particularly when, as here, its main purpose is to pad meager scripts with numbingly endless variations of "Is this thing on? Is it filming? Are you filming me? Can you see me? Am I on film? Are you sure it's on? How do you know it's on? Is it still on? What about now? Is it still filming? Okay, turn it off. Did you turn it off? Is it off? You're not filming now, are you?", followed by the camera breaking, going dark, and magically fixing itself for a few more minutes of "Is this thing working again? Is it on? Are you sure it's on? Okay, turn it off. Is it off?"
FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY is sadly true to form, and nearly sunk by the cheap trickery.
A pity since, given tighter editing and writing, the movie could have become an over-the-top cult classic. As it is, brilliantly executed steampunk monsters, a wealth of fantasy gore details, and a loopy performance by Karel Roden's mad scientist enliven the premise of an utterly undisciplined WWII Soviet recon unit lured into a bunker brimming with cyborg Nazistein monsters, and make the film's final half- hour obsessive and funny enough to rescue it from being a complete debacle.