Kill Switch - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Kill Switch

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
End of the world science fiction has been a staple of the genre for as long as I can remember. Movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still where we’re being punished for our “sins”, The Terminator where we create our own destroyers, and then video games have taken it a whole other level. Games like Half-Life painted a disturbing use of technology to bring about our own demise, and Kill Switch piggy backs off of that comparison in more than one way. In a way, Kill Switch is a video game like Half-Life brought to life. The use of first person HUD’s gives off a semblance of playing a first person shooter survival game, while the more traditional flashbacks allow for a more traditional movie watching experience. Hardcore Henry tried to emulate the first person video game style with some rather raw results, but Kill Switch actually FEELS more like a video game than any other movie I’ve ever seen. That has it’s benefits, but also some distinct negative points as well. Mainly having to do with the weak story line and linear unfolding of the basic plot.

As an audience we are thrust directly into the action of Kill Switch without much of a background or understanding to what is going on. All we know is that Will Porter (Dan Stevens) is a savant physicist/astronaught/Air force vet who has moved to Holland to work on a super secret energy project that will revolutionize the world. After that little glimpse of his life, we’re suddenly viewing through Will’s eyes (or at least a Heads UP Display (HUD) that he is using to report back. It seems he’s in something called the “Echo”, and the entire world is in utter chaos. Bit by bit we glean enough information to know what is going on. Will was creating a giant energy source that creates a mirror universe that is supposedly devoid of any life, but is going to be used to harvest energy from for the next millennia. However, things have gone drastically wrong. The wormholes used to siphon energy from the 2nd dead world are destabilizing, and his boss, Abby (Berenice Marlohe), has sent him over into the echo world (for some reason he’s the only person that can make the trip, and that’s never explained) with a small cube that is meant to stabilize the connections to the two world.

The only thing is, the other world is NOT devoid of life. It’s a direct replica of our universe, down to every human and blade of grass. Which means that our world has been siphoning matter from this world and completely wreaking havoc on theirs. The only thing is, we start to find out that it’s been going both ways, and our world seems to be having a problem as well. Peeling back the layers we start to realize that the black box that Will is carrying may hold the answer to the whole situation, and may not be EXACTLY what he though it was.

Kill Switch kind of gives away the exact purpose of Will’s visit to the echo, even though they try to hide with the cryptic name of “Re Divider”. The film is a bit of a strange watch, and brings in elements of a video game so strongly that I was almost looking for a controller to start playing. The echo portions of the film literally have the same motion and camera movements that give first person shooter’s their distinct “feel”. The Heads Up Display, the swaying motion in front, the holding of objects out in front of the face so that the player….err...viewer can get a good look at them. It all feels VERY video game like. That also brings in the bane of most video games in the first person shooter genre. A general lack of answers and huge amounts of loose ends along the way. We get that Will is there to fix the issues, but very little effort seems to have gone on explaining how the physics work, or even HIDING the fact that we know what happened and his purpose for going there. Even though every step of the way something happens that pretty much screams it to the high heavens.

While there is definite problems in the simplicity of the script, the ambiance and the vibe of the whole movie is intoxicating. You actually FEEL like you’re I the middle of a live action cut scene of a video game (something that is quite nostalgic for this reviewer), and the feeling of this is kinda what Half Life the live action movie would look like. The same thing goes for the 1st person and 3rd person filming styles clashing up against each other. It’s rather disjointed in how you view the whole world, but some of the most visceral and exciting parts of the movie come during that 1st person experience. From the gun turret, to the small shootout in the hull of a crashed plane.




Rating:

Rated R for language and some violence




Video:

Once again I’m up against a wall in regards to finding out what film/video sources were used in the capturing process, but it is definitely a nice looking encode from Lionsgate. The movie is split into two separate color grading spectrums, with the 3rd person setting showing distinctly golden overtones with slightly hot white levels. Clarity is generally great, but some of those indoor shots at night show some decent crush in the black levels. The Echo world in first person is given a drab and desaturated look with lots and LOTS of blue/gray color tones. There’s a few splashes of color, such as Abby’s red shirt, but its’ a much more bleak and dull appearance as seen through the “neural” interface in Will’s head. There’s some banding in dark spots (pretty common actually), but overall sharpness and clarity as well within reason and the image looks quite pleasing as a result.




Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that Lionsgate crafted is really REALLY well done. Surround channels have incredible use of the directional shifts, and there are quite a few times where you can actually hear bullets and debris falling around the listening position. LFE is heavy and really punishing, with deep waves of bass that reverberate around the entire room. Dialog is a bit stuffy during the more “shaky” moments of the film due to the neural interface, but otherwise it’s locked back firmly in the front position of the room. The whole surrounding and swirling feel under the neural link makes for a really encompassing feeling, and the whole track benefits from this as a result. Well done Lionsgate.
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Extras:

• "The Visual Effect: Inside the Director's Process" Featurette
• Audio Commentary with Director Tim Smit

Final Score: ​

Kill Switch is a bit of a disjointed film, and the strange juxtaposition of first and third persona narration makes for a unique viewing experience. The sci-fi nature of the film and the video game “tone” is really intriguing, but there is plenty of stupidity and loose ends to really frustrate a veteran sci-fi fan. Lionsgate’s Blu-ray release is actually quite nice, with a very solid video encode as well as a STELLAR audio track. Extras are sadly lacking, but the film itself is definitely entertaining for a rental if the trailer really speaks to you. Fun rental for sure.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Dan Stevens, Tygo Gernandt, Berenice Marlohe
Directed by: Tim Smit
Written by: Charlie Kindinger, Omid Nooshin
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 22nd, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never heard of this movie but it looks interesting. I will add this to my watchlist for lazy days once it is available on amazon prime/netflix.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Hmmm.. gut is saying skip on this one.