Summary Capsule
When a futuristic VR game goes wacky, wackiness ensues
DnaError's Rating: What if, like man, this rating was just like, in our heads man!?
DnaError's Review: I've said this before. I hate movies that start out promising but then erode into evil little nuggets of crapdom. Movies that get your hopes high before plunging you into the depths of boredom. Existenz is one of those movies. I heard some rumblings about this movie right after The Matrix was released, that is was a calmer, more cognitive movie about the nature of reality. In reality it just thinks its smarter cause nothing explodes. Forget about making sense or being interesting, this is *philosophy* here!
Getting back on track, Existenz begins really good. The low-rent sci-fi world had the feel of a cyberpunk story. It is the *future* but everything is the same...kinda. People still have bad haircuts and old cars, but now they had squishy organic computers they treat like pets, guns that shoot teeth and umbilical cord wires. The world's leading game company is presenting its newest project, Existenz, to a group of enraptured beta testers when an assassin tries to take out their lead designer and wackiness ensues. So far so good. But then the movie begins the hoary sci-fi convention "Is this real or is it.....DUM DAH DUM...THE GAME!!?!?!" Its not that the movie is stupid, stupid can be very fun (See Hackers) but that it is DULL. Powerfully dull. The game world is a mess of weird accents, little surrealist props, heavy handed sexual overtones and a plot so convoluted that it makes MGS2 seem clear by comparison.
(I'm going to take a geek time out here to rant about the Game created in this movie. No one would play this thing. It's some kind of multiplayer RPG/Action thing, but you are forced into a character role and personality and the plot doesn't advance without exact dialogue. Any MMORPG is about character-creaton, and no matter what the game people will bring their own personality to it. RPGs have been pushing nonlinear storylines and multiquests for some time now and it's turned out to be a lot more fun then the kind of limited, linear game world in the movie. Plus, I don't care how realistic it looks, no one is going to play a game that takes place inside fish hatchery.)
The movie takes it own sweet time getting to the ending, which is the kind of "GOT CHA!" you should have seen coming from frame one. The actors aren't interesting enough to warrant comment. I have a pet theory that every movie Jude law does has some strange sexual undertone, see his other movies, (WIlde, Gattaca, A.I, The Talented Mr. Ripley, ) and tell me I'm wrong. Speaking about movies Jude Law is in, go rent "Gattaca". That's the kind of great, intelligent low-budget scidence fiction this movie wants to be.
 1999 Rated R SciFi Mystery Director
Starring
|
In the world of eXistenZ, there is a game called "Hit by a car," which is probably a reference to director David Cronenberg's movie previous, Crash.
In the scene where Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law hole up in a motel room after the failed assassination attempt, the bag their fast food comes in reads "Perky Pat." This is a nod to alternate reality sci-fi master Philip K. Dick, who wrote "In The Days of Perky Pat" (among many other notable sci-fi classics).
The style of Pikul's shirt changes as he switches realities. In the beginning, it has a buttoned collar. But when he steps into the realm of Existenz and assumes his "game identity," the same shirt sports a zip-up collar. Also, Allegra's hair changes from straight to curly.
The Movie Store!
eXistenZ: Movie [VHS]
eXistenZ: Movie [DVD]
eXistenZ: Soundtrack [CD]
Intermission!
Director David Cronenberg is known for his strange, surrealist movies ("Videodrome" , "Naked Lunch" ,"Crash") and he's Canadian. I guess that explains it.
Official and Not-So-Official Websites
The BBC guide to the "plot" of the movie
Groovy Quotes
Allegra: My life is in danger and they send a P.R nerd?!
Pikul: Thats 3 people who have tried to kill you in one night
Allerga: Never been more popular
(About a game character)
Allegra: His dialouge was trite, the charaterization weak..and that accent. Uck.
Ted Pikul: It's worse than that. I'm not sure... I'm not sure here, where we are, is real at all. This feels like a game to me. And you, you're beginning to feel a bit like a game character.
Ted Pikul: I actually think there's an element of psychosis involved here.
Allegra: The only way I can tell if everything is OK is to play eXistenZ with somebody friendly. Are you friendly, or are you not?
Allegra: Oh God!
Ted: What happened?
Allegra: The whole pod just disappeared into your back.
Ted: It disappeared into my back? It's in my spine? It's working its way around my spinal cord?!
Allegra: Don't panic, it's just a game.
DVD Review
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Widescreen and a trailer and thats it. No soup for you.
If you liked this movie, try these:
The Matrix
The Thirteenth Floor
Videodrome
Feedback
