Scintilla (2014)

I grabbed this off Netflix as a random, but was pleasantly surprised.This is a film split into two halves. The first half is quite a tense and gritty war flick. A bunch of mercenaries have to infiltrate the stronghold of a eastern European warlord. The characters are quickly defined and interesting.The second half of the film has a definite Scifi tilt. The objective of the mercenaries is a creepy underground laboratory where the guy from the DVD cover is lurking.The action is hard hitting and the setting is atmospheric and interesting. The makers have stayed within the budget for the special effects and haven't been lured in by cheap, distracting cgi. I can't quite decide how I feel about the ending, but that in itself is probably a good thing.I found this to be an enjoyable, gritty romp. I wouldn't have paid to see this at the cinema but as a Netflix movie this is way above the average on offer.

This is one of those films that values telling a story above effects. These are all too few and far between these days.The negative. With the notable exception of the hybrids eyes the rest of the effects are both pretty thin on the ground and pretty poor. This is of fairly low importance to be honest though. I watch a film for the story. The effects are just icing. Too few films provide any cake to put the icing on, believing the icing alone will carry the day. The Hybrid provides plenty of cake but the budget didn't allow for that bit of icing that'd have made it great.The good. Crackingly told story which is more impressive as it takes quite some time before you actually know what the story is. The mercenaries are not supermen or Rambo. They are not even particularly good looking. They are very believable though. The Hybrids are weird with an utterly unfathomable perspective. The screenwriter and the director have put in a great deal of both effort and ability into this film and it's paid off. The sets are perfect for the atmosphere too. Like a previous reviewer I too found the mercenary leader's sandwich eating to be odd at first then a tension release valve. A great little insertion in the proceedings.All in a good film with an unusual and well told story. I just wish they'd had that slightly bigger budget to buy some icing for that excellent cake they produced.

Watching this film, brings back memories of movies like The Wild Geese (1978), Alien (1979), Scanners (1981), all of them building up slowly, and precise to get to the point of the story, diversifying without giving more than the necessary, leaving behind characters, to bring them up later, when absolutely necessary, twisting the plot to the convenience of the viewer.And all of this to my satisfaction: to shut the mouth of a a dumb guy who posted on youtube "Leave movie making to America, please." I just watched "The Hybrid" and even when it falls a little short on what it could be your expectations, its worth of your time, its in part, like those old 70's flicks, with the real craving for the popcorn, while you lean towards the screen for the next twist of the story, and as "The Terminator" (1984) became an "original" concept, I wouldn't discard "The Hybrid" for a sequel or a Hollywood remake, because it has the proper elements for it.And is worth to mention of the detail, the producers managed in some of the scenes, I won't spoiled much for anyone, just be observant for heads on plastic bags and skull mask. Definitively, I will recommend this to those who can make a difference between "Transformers" and a good, "Low budget" science fiction movie!

A group of mercenaries are sent on a mission to get something important from an underground research facility in Eastern Europe.Scintilla is a film that shares some common ground with last year's Frankenstein's Army. After all, it is about a group of soldiers infiltrating a grungy underground bunker and discovering strange experiments therein. But it lacks the sheer imagination of that film unfortunately. It has some interesting ideas though, but most of the best threads are never developed very much, such as the skeleton faced biker or the bubble headed underground defenders of the laboratory or even the man with the mutating arm. All of these ideas show great promise but not much is made of them. Not only that but when we do discover the nature of the Scintilla project it is a little underwhelming. So there are areas where this movie fell a little short and others where it didn't build on its own good ideas. Having said all that, it's not really a bad film either. 'Corridors underground' sci-fi/horror films are notorious for being awfully tedious, on account of the limited sets and action. Scintilla at least tries to make its limited set-up a little interesting and it never really gets boring. It doesn't really add up to anything particularly great but it's entertaining enough and does have some memorable moments, even if it ultimately doesn't make the most of its potential.