DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL - Blu-ray review

"Dead Space: Downfall" is the animated prequel to Electronic Art's new "Dead Space" video game, available for PC, XBox 360, and PS3. While its video game counterpart is being touted as one of the best games of the year, this attempt at a straight-to-DVD tie-in fails to capture the same magic. "Downfall" simply rehashes information given in the video game, and it fails to stand on its own as a solo film. Even with its short, seventy-four-minute run time, the film feels too long and will likely bore any audience member with little interest in the game itself. "Dead Space" is one of the scariest things I've ever experienced, video game or otherwise, and "Downfall" feels like a cheap imitation of the story that it's attempting to flesh out.

Set five hundred years in the future, the video game "Dead Space" has you playing as Isaac, a crew member of a ship sent to inspect the derelict spaceship the USG Ishimura. Once aboard the seemingly abandoned ship, Isaac comes to find out that its inhabitants have been taken over by Necromorphs, which are essentially space-zombie demons. "Dead Space: Downfall" tells the story of how the crew of the Ishimura came to be hulking sacks of flesh hellbent on killing everything in their path.

During a mining mission in the most remote area of deep space, workers uncover an ancient religious relic that may prove the existence of God. The naïve crew brings the artifact onboard and immediately a wave of murders and suicides rip through the ship. Believing the incidents are completely unrelated, the captain who is aligned with the religion searching for the artifact keeps the item onboard his ship, which ultimately leads the crew to their death.

The fact that most of the Ishimura's crew die horribly painful deaths shouldn't be a shock to anyone familiar with the title. After all, the entire "Dead Space" video game revolves around the fact that you're aboard the Ishimura after the humans have been torn apart or changed into Necromorphs. I wouldn't recommend anyone interested in giving the video game a spin watch "Dead Space: Downfall" until they're at least halfway through the game, as it kind of takes the shock out of your first few encounters with the creatures. Actually, to be fair, I wouldn't recommend "Downfall" to anyone. This isn't a film worthy of a solo release; it should have just been included as an unlockable bonus feature in the game itself. I'm currently a little more than halfway through "Dead Space" myself, and I wish I had used the time I wasted watching this movie playing the game. Honestly, if I wasn't reviewing the film and just checking it out as a rental, I probably would have stuck it back in the mail after the twenty-minute mark and gone back to enjoying the game. And just to be clear, "Dead Space" is in fact one of the best game's I've played this year and possibly the scariest tension creator I've ever experienced. It makes the "Resident Evil" series look like "Spyro the Dragon."

Even with a few recognizable movie stars in the cast like Bruce Boxleitner ("Tron") and Kelly Hu ("The Scorpion King" and "X2"), the voice acting is just a few steps below mediocre. After all, how does one squander the efforts of Jim Cummings one of the greatest working voice actors in the business? If you don't know who Jim Cummings is, type his name into IMDB and be prepared to find out he's been in pretty much every animated TV show or movie since the late eighties. The animation, while uninspired and severely influenced by Peter Chung's "Aeon Flux," looks crystal clear on this Blu-ray disc. It's fairly gory with some brutal scenes involving the Necromorphs, but it's ultimately just a few steps away from the anime-drenched look of today's Saturday morning cartoons. I suspect that the art style is less forgiving when viewed on a standard-definition disc.

Video:
"Dead Space: Downfall" is presented in widescreen with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and looks far better than one would think. The film's art style brings nothing new to the table but the high-definition transfer on this Blu-ray disc does an effective job making a mundane film much more attractive than it deserves to be.

Audio:
The "Dead Space" game has managed to unnerve me with even the most subtle of sound cues; "Downfall's" sound, on the other hand, barely managed to help keep me awake. The TrueHD 5.1 audio track is competent but fails to bring any dramatic effect to the film.

Extras:
In addition to a trailer for both the movie and the video game, "Dead Space: Downfall" features a photo gallery, an isolated soundtrack, and a hidden cheat code for use in the video game. All of which I appreciated, but they all fail to seem "special" and definitely shouldn't be classified as "features." There is one, lone, non-animated deleted scene clocking in at four-and-half minutes. Sure, it has the voices intact, but who wants to watch the sloppy storyboards for a boring film? Apparently, Anchor Bay thinks a lot of people will since they offer several more accessible via download using BD-Live.

Film Value:
If you're going to pick up any of the multiple forms of cross promotion EA is using for "Dead Space," I would have to recommend the recently released hardcover collection of the six issue comic book mini series. It features art by Ben Templesmith, one of this generation's most prolific artists and best know as one of the creators of "30 Days of Night." "Dead Space: Downfall" attempts to be an adult animated film, but with its emotionless gore and constant, adolescent use of the "F word," it feels more like a kid dressed up in daddy's clothes. I'm sure the people behind the film were attempting to create a delicate mix of Ridley Scott's "Alien" and John Carpenter's "The Thing." Instead of offering us up a mash up of those two cinematic classics, however, what we end up with is a rushed combo platter featuring the worst parts of "Event Horizon" and the best parts of "Titan A.E." Wait a second… did that movie even have any good parts? Anyone interested in this property should just play the game itself and check out the comic books if they really need more back story on the Necromorphs or the crew of the Ishimura.