It’s a bloody fight for survival when Jacob (Zorba Dravillas) finds himself trapped in an enemy stronghold belonging to the people his world left behind after an apocalypse.
You know, after all this time it still amazes me how the wrong camera angle can fracture a scene. It makes you feel like the story has moved on to something and somewhere else entirely. In actual fact you’re still exactly where you were before and a case of bad technique has just fucked with your concentration. This is but one of the many problems with this post-apocalyptic romp.
Due to its excessive faux violence the constant use of bad CGI gunshot wounds quickly becomes infuriating. In a time when the demand for a greater degree of authenticity from audiences only continues to grow, cheap as chips special effects just aren’t cutting it. They never did. They just don’t work and they only serve to break whatever spell a film of this low calibre is lucky enough to cast on its viewers.
Naturally the quality of acting is pretty fucking terrible. Zorba, however, commits to the role, which is more than the project deserves as he seems to be the only one out of the entire cast, crew and production team putting 110% into his performance. My only note for him would be to watch out for that shocking lighting job. At times it’s so damn harsh that it appears to age his youthful features by 20 to 30 years. It’s not exactly ideal for that demo reel.
LAST WORDS:
It has become an endless puzzle to me just how some of these movies get funded, made and distributed. In the case of 5 Years After The Fall I get it. The concept is excellent. Unfortunately, thanks to a forest of wooden acting, a few failures in technique and a sea of painfully bad CGI special effects, the execution is anything but. Hopefully Zorba will go on to bigger and better things. And hopefully everyone else will opt for a change in career.