Excellent, intelligent sci-fi

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2003)

I guess if you're looking for STAR WARS full of action and lasers, then you should stay away from this one, because it's filled with tension throughout, with no intentional humor involved. There's also some CGI in the film but it's kept to a minimum. Most of it looks like it was done the old fashioned prosthetics way. Yes !
A group of people are placed are placed inside a large complex filled with thousands of movable cubes, that move around in a Rubik like fashion. If you remember Rubik's Cubes from the late-70s, early 80s then you'll get the idea.
The opening scene where a prisoner is sliced in a grid like fashion by a razor sharp, faster that a speeding bullet grid, is awesome! You can actually see big chunks of body parts and organs falling and hitting the floor, with the slippery sounds of meat going 'thunk, thunk' in the background. Slice it and dice it, baby. Cool scene.
Another excellent gore scene is when we see Rennes the escape artist get it in the face with a stream of squirting acid as he drops down into an adjoining cell. The front half of his face starts to melt off with his front teeth exposed. No CGI. It's one of the best prosthetics effects I've ever seen in a film !!
They all work together in order to break the code in order to get out of there. That is, until Quentin the cop loses it and starts killing off some his fellow prisoners, like Dr, Holloway for one... You see, the authorities (who we never see) put them all in there for a purpose. To see if they can get out by placing not only the cube's mechanical obstacles in the way, but their own personalities and backgrounds as well.
The whole set has a cool techno-industrial look to it, with lots of colored ambience and plot cues that are intelligently written. I fully recommend this to anyone who wants a mature sci-fi plot.
I didn't care for the ending so it knocks it down a point, but it's still something that I would consider keeping in my DVD sci-fi library.
8 out of 10 .