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Review

Dante 01 – Movie Review

  • Directed by Marc Caro
  • Starring Lambert Wilson, Linh Dan Pham, Simona Maicanescu, Dominique Pinon, Lotfi Yahya Jedidi, Bruno Lochet and Yann Collette

This feels like a film that defies you to like it, building an interesting premise and characters in the first half, only to fall apart in the latter portion of the film as it races towards the finish line at all costs to pacing or logic.

In the deep reaches of space you find Dante, a hellish world of fire and brimstone, and in orbit of it you’ll find Dante 01, a space station designed to house and treat the criminally insane. The newest arrival to the station is a new doctor named Elisa (Pham), who brings with her a man with no memory of who he is, who a rather unbalanced prisoner named Rasputin (Jedidi) names Saint Georges (Wilson), the Dragonslayer.

The head of the facility, Charon has his pet prisoner Attila (Collette) keep an eye on things with Saint Georges, who is completely out of it and virtually unresponsive to those around him. Saint Georges seems not to look at people, but to see through them, the life force within; it’s an interesting effect and makes you curious what sort of powers he holds. It’s revealed that he was the sole survivor of a ship found drifting in space, he was covered in blood and had no memory of what happened; this is further illustrated as what I can only assume are flashbacks occur, in which all he sees are strange tendrils of light, presumably an alien force of some kind?

Buddha (Lochet) is a murderer who believes that he Ëœdelivers his victims from their pain’, and when he sees Saint Georges in the throes of one of these flashbacks, he tries to kill him, but he is thwarted by César (Pinon) and other prisoners who are tired of Buddha’s shtick.

Elisa suggests that they try treating Buddha with the new series of treatments that she has brought with her, which involves nanotech injected into the offending prisoner, then the hostile portions of the brain being re-written on a DNA level. Perséphone (Maicanescu), the doctor in charge, is against this procedure, but must step aside and allow Elisa to work. Buddha responds violently to the nanotech coursing through his system, and Saint Georges steps in, seeing the offending creature as a large tendril waving light creature moving within the man’s torso; he pulls it from Buddha’s body and consumes it, healing him immediately. Buddha seems perfectly fine afterward, claiming to have been healed of his aggressions, but César isn’t buying it.

Attila hacks his way further into the station’s computer system, tracking down more vague information on Saint Georges, suffice to say that his origins are fuzzy enough to allow for the metaphysical turn that the film later takes. César, sensing that his control of the prison may be slipping away from him decides that Buddha needs to be eliminated for good, nanotech and miraculous healing be damned. He urges a large prisoner named Moloch to kill Buddha, and in the ensuing struggle, Moloch’s own throat is slit and he collapses to the floor, dying.

Watching via their bank of monitors, the station guards pump in the gas to knock everyone out and diffuse the situation, but not before Saint Georges steps in and completely heals the wound on Moloch’s throat, preventing him from dying.

Elisa is defiantly opposed to the idea that these seemingly miraculous healings have any greater meaning and doses César with nanotech as well. César now sees Saint Georges as a threat because of his power and wants him eliminated, and begins making moves to have him eliminated while others on the station begin making self-serving plans of their own.

The film climaxes in a rather odd loop of special effects and hints at a larger metaphysical implication for the characters, but honestly the film’s ending left me feeling like they’d definitely rushed the ending more than a little bit.

I really enjoyed the film’s overall look and the tone Caro creates in the first half, but it really felt like it lost its way towards the end of things, and the powers Saint Georges begins to manifest are never really explained. The Netflix envelope that this came in mentions something about him gaining the powers after an Ëœencounter with an alien race’, but that’s never really mentioned during the course of the film.

I really enjoyed the cast of the film, including Juenet/Caro veteran Pinon, the Merovingian himself from the Matrix films in the lead role of Saint Georges, and Nagy (or whatever his name was), the assistant from Cemetery Man as the Moloch character; it makes for a lot of fun Ëœhey it’s that guy!’ moments.

I really wish I could give this film more of a solid recommendation, but it does fall apart in the latter half of the film for no real reason other than what feels like a rushed ending. I haven’t looked far enough into the history of the production to know if it had issues behind the scenes, but one gets the feeling this might be the case.

Worth a rental for sci-fi fans, but don’t be surprised if it leaves you wanting more.

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About The Author

Kingmob

Kingmob has been spending his time writing online reviews for the better part of two years and has nothing but the ability to speak about himself in the 3rd person to show for it. This review and others like it can be found at Big Suck Loser and you can read about the daily minutiae that drives him slowly mad and informs his useless opinions of pop culture at his blog, Dear Bastards.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Monday, June 8th, 2009
  • Author: Kingmob
  • Filed Under: Film, Review
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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