Soulless

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2003)

The plot of this film, where the machines take over the world and seek to destroy humanity, can sort of be applied to the state of filmmaking. Special effects are crowding out human emotion. Now that "bullet time" can be seen in even straight-to-video films, do we really need to see it over and over again? And do people really get off on hand-to-hand fighting? This film, despite it's excellent editing and special effects, is ponderous and pretentious, with leaden acting (the dialogue is spoken as if it's italicized). We're led to believe that Neo makes his choices based on love, but that's only implied, not shown, as little emotion flickers across the face of any of the characters. Will the success of these types of films mean the end of movies that are actually about character and emotion?