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Johnny K. Wu's: The Rapture
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Today's Review is on The Rapture by Johnny K. Wu, of our very own Cleveland, OH. This is a feature film that is sci-fi action and holds the viewer's attention. While most indie feature films typically have tons of flaws, this one actually holds itself above most. Remember, this is independent film we are talking about, not something that cost $100MM to make. I can see this title at Hollywood Video, in all honesty. Other Cleveland indie films have succeeded, and this is everybit as good.
The Rapture is a mix of science fiction, fantasy, martial arts, family, and evil doers. You have a mysterious scientist woman, Dr. Gutierrez (Annie Kitral), who turns people into cool super-powered experiments for a greater cause, but under the funding of a badguy. She adopts 2 of the experiments and raises them, gives them martial arts training to defend themselves, and hides them from other experiments hell bent on finding her. Mind you, time has passed between the intro and to where the two sons, experiments by the names Midael (George Tutie) and Job (Brian Richeson), are fully grown young adults. The experiments are all to make Chimaera, or rather people who are advanced and don't need to eat food to grow and survive. The side effect is superpowers and metal appendages. Job is emotionally damaged from betrayal and has no problem killing people with his powers and metal scorpionlike tail. Midael has metal wings and tries to stop him. After some altercations with a small military force, Job disappears on a manhunt of sorts and Midael needs a way to track and stop him. The scientist mother convinces the son of her former boss, Jonathan (Kyle Znamenak), to help out and shows him he has another true potential other than what he thought. It's a little more complicated than all this, but I can't just ruin it for you.
The other experiments that are hunting Dr.G. are lead by "E" (E Ray Goodwin Jr.), and Mia Myros (Donna Williams). I won't name all the people acting or in production of this movie within this article, as that's too much and not what this review is about. These experimental Chimaera cause a lot of heartache and leads to a climactic fight scene, which I enjoyed very much. One of my favorite scenes, however, is when Job (renaming himself Abaddon) attacks Mr. Big's yacht while docked. Energy balls throwing people into the water and the scene with Mr. Big was just plain fun. I think that along with all the action, women viewing this film will get a lot out of it too, emotionally, as family is a large part of The Rapture.
Acting wise, I have to say I enjoyed "E" character best during the end fight scene. While at first, E Ray's acting of that character was a little overdramatic for my tastes earlier in the movie, when it came down to that battle scene, it screamed Hollywood martial arts action. "E" was badass in look and acting style and helped make everything cinematic. Another Cleveland actor I am growing more fond of and think has lots of potential is Kyle Znamenak. I've seen a few of his roles now and he reminds me a bit of Rob Schnieder, but more fresh and honing in on some solid acting skills. I wouldn't doubt that he goes on to become something bigger. Finally, Tom Fulton, aka Mr. Big was a lot of fun. It wasn't a big role, but was lightheardedly evil and a fun character. Don't get me wrong, the cast did very well on all their parts, and it couldn't be easy, but these 3 stood out to me the most. All the main characters were far better than many network scifi TV shows have had, so kudos to everyone and Johnny Wu for keeping it together. Let's be honest, have you seen much science fiction programming of lately, with real budgets gone to waste? Kudos again to low-budget feature indie filmmaking.
Productionwise, everyone involved did a good job. Again my favorite scene for production is the final fight scene. Lighting, shooting, even special effectswise.....it looked pretty high-end for an indie film. Despite video camera technicalities, all production elements were pretty solid on the indie front and make for good storytelling. Practical effects were pretty solid, considering indie films are known for tin foil and elmer's glue, but these are modern times. Tom L. does really good practical effects work locally from productions I've seen. While practical wings for Midael didn't seem to be warranted for this film (I peeked at behind the scenes) and they ended up doing digital ones, you can see that if there was a more solid HD workflow and more of a budget/ time to work with, the wings would have been really perfect.....but here's the best part....these were pretty sweet, especially for indie. What production can say they had flapping and folding 3D wings, let alone in combination with wire work on the actor? Yeah, I said it...wire work! People were whipped around on wires, doing stunts! For those who saw A Joker's Card, Johnny's previous short, this movie is nothing like that. The wire work is far more extensive and serve the action well. A lot of people worked hard to maintain quality. Maybe I'm hyping this up more than it deserves, but since Hollywood didn't back this production, the sheer will and determination that made this level of quality has to be commended. Plus, it's enjoyable in and of itself.
Digital effects were around basic network television budget level. Already mentioned, the wings were a step above the norm. With a few exceptions of a few particle-based electricity shots that were slid around to match hand motion the visual effects were powerful, enhanced the story, and were pretty organic to the characters and environments they were designed for. It's good to see a fair amount of vfx within a true indie production. Yay for visual effects!
Martial arts of this film were very well done and obviously took a lot of work. In my debut, Blood Donors, I spoof martial arts with some basic moves from cast who trained, but that is completely opposite of what is done in this movie. Any choreographical look gets overshadowed by the sheer volume of moves and vfx shots that captivate the screen. If you are a fan of martial arts fight scenes, this is a good movie for your collection.
Pacing and flow of the story was very well done. While past discussion about pacing in Asian films has led me to believe this might have been more drawn out for story and emotion through cast, it simply wasn't! It kept a pretty standard flow and scenes went into each other pretty solidly. I was quite impressed! Usually, whenever a flashback or jump to point in time presents itself within most indie films, I get ready to cringe because of potential pitfalls of executing such an artform. No problems here. I was relieved to see that the execution of such scenes was done to where the audience could easily follow it and the storytellers could do what they wanted. Yay, a step forward for indies.
This was overall, a very pleasant sci-fi movie that has more surprises than one would expect. When you pick up the DVD and have read the synopsis, you think it will probably be something it's not, because the synopsis doesn't spoil the true movie for you. It's so much more. This movie was made to be both fun, emotional, and stylized towards quality martial arts, from what I can tell. There are serious moments, funny little gags thrown in, and enough to please different types of viewers. Although a Sony Cinealta or Red One camera could have made this movie jump up a grade even higher, it's the movie itself that makes it well worthwhile.
Below is a few links to Johnny Wu's events and web links. For those who are big into film or are filmmakers, I recommend attending or checking these out. Next, I review his Jean Claude the Gumming Zombie, which is the funniest short I've seen in a while. No, Johnny hasn't paid me, nor have I ever worked with him, for those wondering. Best, Kenny
There's the Ingenuity Festival where Jean Claude the
Gumming Zombie and The Rapture will be played, and then in August, there's
the IndieGathering Film Festival (www.theindiegathering.com) check out their
free lectures http://www.theindiegathering.com/freeLectures.htm
Johnny Wu
Producer/Director/Editor
www.mdifilm.com
www.rapturethemovie.com
www.thegummingzombie.com
President
OCA-Cleveland Chapter
“Embracing the Hopes and Aspirations of Asian Pacific Americans”
www.ocagc.org
Administrator
Cleveland IndieClub
www.indieclub.com
www.clevelandindieclub.com
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