The Interceptor (2009)

Writer-director Konstantin Maksimov had a unique story to tell with a unique vision. Unfortunately he wasn't capable of conveying the message very clearly. The visuals are striking, but not much of the film or characters are explained, leaving the viewer dangling wondering what to make of it all. There are some nice action sequences, but they're few and far between and the accompanying music is very bland. Although the actors are trying their best, the plot is just too confusing for it to make sense.

This is a truly awful film, that has to be said, but somehow they've put so much energy into the special effects that it becomes sort of compelling, in the sense you want to see how bad it can get. The plot is a very basic, juvenile fantasy of good and evil. In this case evil in corrupt politicians who are run by evil forces from another dimension opposed by the good guys, a joint effort of a rebellious vigilante group, a lone wolf special ops agent and som white magic types that look like they may have escaped from a Canadian spin-off of Lord of the Rings together with the cheesy green screen backgrounds. The overall effect is rather as if you would start off with a Turkish soap opera, add some Transporter, a dash of The Matrix, some snatches from Counterstrike. It has a certain entertainment value if you don't have to pay for it.

Originally known as Smersh XXI but retitled Zapreshchennaya Realnost (Forbidden Reality) and then released internationally as THE INTERCEPTOR (2009), Konstantin Maximov's film has drawn comparisons with the likes of THE MATRIX trilogy (1999, 2003, 2003) and the BOURNE trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007) and it's entirely fair. It also reminded me a little of DISPLACED (2006). A simple action movie with a convoluted plot involving layers of reality and supernatural fighting skills, it's another example of Russia's attempts to emulate Hollywood blockbusters in their own unique way. Less unique than either NIGHT WATCH (2004) or DAYWATCH (2006), INTERCEPTOR is almost incomprehensible, it's only because elements are so familiar that you're able to follow it. While it has its flaws, it's under 90 minutes (is there a longer cut?) and there's plenty of action (although I feel the intensity of these sequences would have been improved with some better sound design) and I feel inclined to watch it again to try and figure out what the hell is going on.

While I have enjoyed some of Russian movies made in latter years, and grew to very much like some of Russian actors and actresses, I could not possibly say the same about this movie. This movie originally had quite a good potential - some pretty nice sci-fi hero storyline to begin with (and don't tell me that books are better, much better - I already know that and that is true in almost every case), a quite strong young Russian actor for a lead (Petrenko), but the result is more than lousy. Kind of the movie was about nothing. Did anyone get what it was about or what it was meant to be about? I did not. And all the time during viewing it felt as if I was wasting my time, which was quite true at the end. Here I must agree with the other comment on this movie that the visual greyness throughout the movie was tiresome and rather annoying. If that was part of FXs introduced to create some special atmosphere, then it totally and ultimately failed. Actually this movie IMHO failed in every possible aspect as it haven't delivered a story nor a likable characters (I doubt if even the very true fans of actors' could possible have found anything at all to enjoy this time).For a conclusion, I would like to say here that I doubt no more in Russians' abilities to make a good FXs, but respectively they also could realize that strong FXs and nothing to support 'em cannot make a trick of a good movie no more. We've seen that in Daywatch and Nightwatch, but to watch so many movies with FXs and non-existent story lines is getting just too much. Move on, please.