If Tron leaves you wanting something a little darker, sexier and more twisted from from the newbie-trapped-in-a-video-game genre, it looks like the French went ahead and took care of that. The Black Heaven trailer centers around a game called Black Hole which involves an often-undressed femme fatale, long jumps off of buildings and crappy graphics. And like all of the best video games, this one can possibly kill the player in real life.
I don't want to write totally this film off since it's garnered some good reviews and played in the midnight program at Cannes, but this trailer is a bit underwhelming. It's another one where it's hard to tell what exactly is going on and then also hard to care, thanks to haphazard editing and a muddled visual style. Clearly it has something to do with Melvil Poupaud getting lured into a dangerous video game by the tattooed girl, but the the stakes are pretty vague. And visually, the trailer doesn't have much going for it besides, I suppose, Louise Bourgoin in various states of undress.
Probably the most problematic aspect here is the video game footage, which looks close to Playstation 1 quality graphics. Early reviews are suggesting that Tron may be lacking in the character and emotion departments, but even if the script for this one is killer, it's hard to imagine getting totally immersed in an alternate reality that looks so shoddy. In any case, if you're curious, IFC will release this one on demand and in select theaters this January.
Verdict: For now it looks like Brainscan still somehow reigns supreme.
[Via Twitch]