Scott Sonoma (TheSonomaDude)
Being part native American, human transformations have always been something I've been intrigued by. Almost every native American folk tale (from my tribe, at least) ends in a transformation of some sort; man to animal, man to object, or even man to woman. The ladder was usually the coolest story.It seems like no films on Earth involve this idea, but it appears I have found one, Eric Dapkewicz's Paradox Alice. However, Paradox Alice is a generic independent film with nearly no redeemable qualities at all.With better writing, this film could have been worth it, but as it is, the only thing this script is good for is testing to see if your new paper shredder works. The concept of sequential hermaphroditism being a plausible way for a species to survive is compelling enough for me to suspend my disbelief, but the film gets lost in this pretzel a tangled "love" triangle. The two other males, one being a nerdy Christian mama's boy and the other being a rigid old captain, both fall for their friend who has just become a woman in an unsettling and sporadically amount of time. If my best friend turned into a woman overnight, it would be extremely hard for me to forget he was once a dude, thus, it would take years for me to actually fall for him/her, if I even ever did. But these guys forget it instantly and pursue her after just a few days. The captain character is begging for a kiss after what seems like 45 minutes.The acting is abysmal. Andrew Hernon as the captain character gives such wooden delivery in every scene of the film and he makes me want to throw my remote at the TV screen; every scene he's in is just completely torn to pieces by this guys lack of acting skill. Stewart Calhoun as the nerdy Christian somehow manages to be even worse, but it doesn't help that his character is written unbelievably poorly. The only credible actor in this film is Jeneta St Clair, who actually does a pretty good job and she deserves better work than this.The overall look of the film is very cheap. The lighting is atrocious; the film takes place in a futuristic space ship, not a damn cave. The ship computer/robot thing looks like a Sony camera with a tin can taped to the side, and I swear the film was shot in a garage. There are wooden bookshelves in the control room and the characters use futuristic visual trans-space communicating devices that look identical to iPads (gee, I wonder why?) But I will partially dismiss this because the budget was, what, $1000? If even?Most people seem to bring up the rape scene. Honestly, I did not find it that disturbing for two reasons. One: it is extremely brief...I mean, it lasts like three seconds before the male climaxes. The only thing I was thinking was "Wow, this guy finishes really fast." Two: the acting is so horrendous that it made it obvious that the rape was not real, therefore, I was not disturbed by what I was watching.The most baffling and confusing part in the film is the very ending. As the film begins to wrap up, we see the Xenomorphs (the creatures from the Alien films) aboard the ship while the ship computer spouts gibberish. This is obviously a twist ending...but what the bloody hell was the twist? Was the computer working in cahoots with the aliens the entire time? Was the gender transformation all because of the computer? Were xenomorphs on board the ship the entire film? (How else did they get on the ship at the end, besides just spontaneously appearing on board?) Most importantly, why the hell were there Xenomorphs in this film at all? Was Eric Dapkewicz trying to imply that this film is in the same universe as the Alien franchise?I've checked out the other works of Eric Dapkewicz, or "MakoDap" as he goes by on YouTube. He is the editor for several major Dreamworks films such as Flushed Away or and Puss In Boots, and those are some of the best edited animations I've ever seen. In the past, I also listened to and reviewed two albums by his band, Imaginarious, and both reviews were pretty positive. However, I have also checked out some of his stuff on YouTube. This man is very into transformations, man-to-woman specifically. He has created online comics depicting male-to-female transformations in graphic detail, most of which are sexual and contain some form of eroticism. Also on his YouTube account are the films he has directed, The Kiss and The Last Piece Standing, with Eleven being uploaded this summer. All three of these films have male-to-female transformations as the main theme. Another reoccurring plot point among nearly all of Dapkewicz's YouTube work is that after a man transforms into a woman, he/she becomes very horny and has sex with another man, usually willingly and very happy to do so. The ladder theme is very peculiar and disturbing, and it seems like this is just a masturbation fantasy for Eric Dapkewicz to get out of his system. That said, most of his YouTube work is actually crafted very well and he has a natural talent for storyboarding, but I don't recommend any of it.Overall, biggest problem with this film is that its just forgettable. The script is awful, but not so awful to the point of where its memorable. The acting terrible, but none of the actors are among the worsts (except maybe the captain). The effects are just mediocre, the sets are mediocre, the editing is mediocre, everything just blends in. Its the solid definition of a 3/10 - 4/10 film. I honestly don't recommend it even in the slightest, but I do think Eric Dapkewicz can make something good given some money, a good script and actual actors.
silent_bren77
I'll try and limit and/or be vague in the details to not spoil too much. What looked to be a decent premise for a Sci-Fi film at the start quickly turned bizarre and disturbing. The disturbing thing wasn't the "transformation" one of the crew underwent, but the reaction of the 2 other crew members. One gets a messiah complex while the other drifts in & out of madness, both of them almost instantly fall in love, in their own warped ways, with their transformed crew member. This is what basically carries the entire movie as mankind looks to be all but extinct (which would've been a far more interesting part of the story to follow). The only reason I gave it a 2nd star was the only redeeming quality of the movie...the last 30 seconds where we finally realize the on board Computer AI's, Red, part in the whole story aside from being a homicide threatening asshole. Still, aside from getting the gist of what happened in the end, there is absolutely NO foreshadowing that this crazy twist is coming. Furthermore, the ending "X-factor," if you will would've made a FAR better movie had it been woven into the story at some point instead of the "Oooooooo...CREDITS." The acting was OK from the female lead, but the other 2 could've been replaced by horrible soap actors, but that's probably because the writing was absolutely terrible. The rape was certainly hard to stomach. The only redeeming quality was plausible scientific reason a transformation could have occurred based on other animal life. I just go back to my original statement. The launching premise was a great idea and had tons of potential for something original. However, terrible writing and mediocre acting drove this piece of $h*t straight down the toilet. However, I'd like the writer to give me the agents number who sold this script. Because I want to know exactly who I have to sleep with to get 100 pages of fecal matter green-lit for production.
brendan-821-654855
Um yeah, where to start...Terrible actingHorrific script ("the guy's got an ego the size of a pork sausage" - whoever wrote that line does realize that pork sausages are quite small, right?!) CGI that looks like it came from an early 90's kids TV show Clichéd concepts stolen from every other sci-fi film you've ever seenA spaceship on an important earth-saving mission that has less crew than a domestic airline flight (4 in total!) A comically bad set - there's wooden shelves in the cockpit! A soundtrack that won't be selling a single track on iTunesMy advice: avoid this B grade mess at all costs, or alternately, get a couple of friends together for a few drinks and then laugh your way through this cringe-worthy debacle.
